Shrinky Dinks Jewelry Feb. 11, 2014

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Kids packed the Story Room at Central Library last Wednesday to make their own jewelry by drawing it on shrink plastic. They made bracelets, earrings, necklaces and keychains. The bracelets were a surprisingly popular option, particularly for boys, and I think I’ll need to buy some bracelet chains next time […]

Birds – eStorytime

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We celebrated things that fly and chirp in today’s eStorytime all about birds! Apps We Shared Before revealing the theme of today’s eStorytime with the audience, we played a guessing game with our first app.  I played an animal sound using Animal Sounds – Fun Toddler Game by Innovative Mobile […]

Lucha Libros: going strong, and growing bigger!

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Lucha Libros welcomed three new participants last night, and all of them did a great job competing alongside kids who have been doing this all year long! The book which was the subject of our questions last night was The Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, and the […]

LittleBits Workshop

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What are littleBits? littleBits is an open source library of discrete electronic components pre-assembled in tiny circuit boards. All logic and circuitry is pre-engineered in the bits. This pushes up the design process.  Basically, a person who has little knowledge of electronics can now design something using electronics. The purpose […]

Celebrating the 1890s—Part Two: Who Was Claude Debussy?

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Today we had a special program in the library’s auditorium, celebrating the life and music of French composer Claude Debussy. We examined his childhood, his musical influences, his friendships with impressionist and symbolist painters and composers, and the explosion of beauty and artistic expression that was the Belle Epoque in […]

Celebrating the 1890s—Part One: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

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Our Mother Daughter Book Club met last week and discussed the book The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly. It’s a beautiful book about a girl who is growing up in the late 1890s in a small town in Texas, where the education available to her is very backward […]

Kids’ Writing Workshop: Unlocking Your Great Vision

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Today’s Kids’ Writing Workshop was all about discovering and unlocking our visions for the great work that we want to write. First, we talked about some famous writers who gave the world a consistent vision. Charles Dickens wrote about poverty and greed in Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol. Roald […]

Lucha Libros January 7, 2015

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On January 7th, 2nd and 3rd graders came back for the third time to do battle in our reading competition, Lucha Libros! They did better than ever, scoring really high scores, and everyone got the bonus question right! That meant lots of fun at the prize tables. We discussed The […]

Celebrating El Deafo part 2 — Sign language and clues

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continued from El Deafo Part 1   Sign Scavenger Hunt The program was geared toward kids ages 8-12, but all ages were invited to attend.  We started out in the Story Room where our Sign Language professional on staff, Tiffany Duenas, spoke a little about deaf culture and taught basic sign language. […]

Celebrating El Deafo part 1 — Jeopardy & capes

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In the spirit of One City, One Story, the Pasadena Public Library and Vroman’s Bookstore hosted programs centered around the Young Readers League (YRL) selection, El Deafo by Cece Bell. YRL is designed as a community-wide reading celebration by championing and geeking out over a single book. El Deafo is a hilarious and charming graphic novel memoir about a young hearing impaired girl […]