On Thursday, August 25th, while the rest of the library was closed early, kids and their parents were hanging out here in the children’s Story Room learning about paleontology and center of gravity, and building their own dinosaurs! I showed a slide show about how scientists’ concepts of dinosaurs has […]
Project Designation: Graphic Design for Tweens and Teens
Published on :For three weeks in June, a group of extremely smart and motivated teen girls came to Pasadena Public Library to teach kids between the ages of 10 and 14 how to do graphic design using free websites like Pixlr and using art media like pens, pencils, markers, scissors and more. […]
Animals with Attitude!
Published on :Yesterday in our Creative Writing for Beginning Readers class, we explored the characters of Beatrix Potter and the concept of personification. We talked about what personification is and came up with some examples: Beatrix Potter was a scientist who kept a lot of animals and drew inspiration for her stories […]
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 […]
Creative Writing for Beginning Readers: Flipping Out Over Alliteration
Published on :In today’s Creative Writing for Beginning Readers workshop, we created funny flip books with very random, strange characters whose traits were based on silly alliterations. We learned that alliteration means that all of the words in a sentence or phrase begin with the same letter sound. So we had animals like […]
Summer Reading Kickoff: Read to the Rhythm!
Published on :We had forty participants at our Kickoff program to our Summer Reading Challenge! Families came to our Studio On 4th to dance, make musical instruments and rock out! Here’s a video of some of the highlights of the program: We had a Wii set up for dancing: We made […]
Family Makerspace
Published on :Families spent an afternoon at the library tinkering and creating. We set up several drop in stations with LittleBits, 3D printing pens, Rainbow Looms, and Legos. The 3D printing pens extrude heated plastic filament that cools almost instantly into a solid, stable structure. You can draw up into the […]
Freedom by Nicole Kwan
Published on :One City, One Story 2015 “My Family Story” Art Contest Category: Middle School (Grade 4-8) 2nd place Nicole Kwan, grade 5 “Freedom” Paint, glitter This piece is striking in color. The juxtaposition of the shackles against the flag with the glittery waters of earth represent both a dark and magical […]
Hands Across America by Kaylee Gunnoe
Published on :One City, One Story 2015 “My Family Story” Art Contest Category: Middle School (Grade 4-8) 3rd place Kaylee Gunnoe, grade 4 “Hands Across America” Water color This piece depicts the ideal American dream in lovely colors–soft and positive. It’s what America could be: a safe haven, land of opportunities and […]
Happy Birthday, Salina Yoon!
Published on :March 14, 2015 was not only Pi Day, but also the birthday of one of our favorite authors and illustrators, Salina Yoon! To commemorate this very special occasion, Salina shared a couple of her newest books FOUND and STORMY NIGHT (and even made it rain!). We gave away party hats, little […]