On 6/2/16, families came to Pasadena Library and played with a range of different toys that extend the learning potential of the iPad beyond the two-dimensional screen, and into a three-dimensional world of play. Kids played tangrams, word games, an engineering/physics game, programmed a robot, and played robot soccer! Here’s […]
Creative Writing for Beginning Readers: Stories inspired by Pamela Zagarenski
Published on :Yesterday in our Creative Writing for Beginning Readers workshop we wrote stories based on the beautiful illustrations in Pamela Zagarenski’s book The Whisper. This picture book is about a magic book whose words have all flown away and it is up to one intelligent little girl to create new words […]
Kids’ Writing Workshop with Author Rachel Searles
Published on :Rachel Searles, author of MG science fiction novels The Lost Planet and its new sequel Stolen Moon, got the kids thinking creatively and having fun making the weirdest, scariest, funniest, most colorful alien character they could! First she shared her writing process with us. I love it when a successful […]
Kids’ Writing Workshop: Spies and Secret Codes
Published on :On Friday, February 11, kids between 8 and 12 came to Central Library to write stories about spies and encoded messages. First we read excerpts from a couple great stories involving codes: Ruby Redfort Take Your Last Breath by Lauren Child, and The Spotted Dog Last Seen by Jessica Scott. […]
Creative Writing For Beginning Readers: Escaped Fairytale Characters
Published on :Last week on February 9th, kids ages 5-8 came to the library to do some fun creative writing. First we learned about the difference between “First Person” point of view, with lots of I, Me, My, We, Our, Us words, and Third Person point of view, with lots of He, She, […]
Preschool Storytime: Space!
Published on :We read books about space in today’s preschool storytime. First we did a song to learn everyone’s names: Zoom Zoom Astronaut Can you say your name or not? What’s your name? _____________ Let’s all say it together! (from Jbrary) We started with Sheep Blast Off by Nancy Shaw and illustrated […]
Lucha Libros: Big Nate in a Class By Himself
Published on :Tonight, kids came to Central Library to answer questions about the book Big Nate: In a Class By Himself by Lincoln Peirce. Before we started our battle, our very own “Big Nate” showed what makes him “surpass all others”–his MAD RUBIX CUBE SKILLZ!! Teen volunteer Nathan demonstrated he can solve a […]
Songwriting for Ages 8-12 with Emily Arrow
Published on :On January 15, 2016 Pasadena Library’s monthly Kids’ Writing Workshop had a very special guest instructor to teach songwriting: Emily Arrow! Emily (www.emilyarrow.com) tours all over the country performing her songs about children’s literature, and has a CD coming out in February. She presented a wonderful workshop sharing books and […]
Songwriting for Ages 5-8 with Emily Arrow
Published on :On January 12, 2016 Pasadena Library’s monthly Creative Writing for Beginning Readers workshop (ages 5-8) had a very special guest instructor to teach songwriting: Emily Arrow! Emily (www.emilyarrow.com) tours all over the country performing her songs about children’s literature, and has a CD coming out in February. She presented a […]
Kids’ Writing Workshop with author Elana Arnold
Published on :Sometimes I like to make a video mashup of clips from these workshops, especially now that we have a digital camera that will take both photo and video. So before I go into how amazing and fun and rewarding last week’s creative writing workshop with Elana K. Arnold was, why […]