Get a Clue Science!

On Wednesday, July 9, Marilyn Taylor and Mrs. C led a group of children in a science project.

First, we read the book, Mirette On the High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully.

Because the book is about a young girl, Mirette, and how she learns to walk on a tightrope, we talked about how important ears are for balance. To tie in science, we made a battery using pennies, salt water, paper towels, and aluminum foil and tested it by scraping the wire along a headphone plug. If they could hear the static, their battery worked!

Steps in making the battery.
Supplies needed: copper wire, pennies, paper towels, salt water, and aluminum foil.

Step one: Make a sandwich of penny, paper towel soaked in salt water in the middle, and then a small piece of aluminum foil.
Step two: Attach one copper wire to the penny and wrap the other end around the plug of a pair of headphones.
Step three: Take the other wire and have one end touching the foil and with the other end, rub it on the headphone plug.

Can you hear static? If so, your battery works!

If you need a visual, go here. Keep in mind this is a project meant for a classroom. You do not need to use that many pennies.

This Wednesday, July 16, at 3:30 pm Annegret Baier will host a workshop on African Drumming. Pre-registration is required. Call 883-4723 opt. 3 to sign up!

Garden to Table by Katherine Hengel

What did you plant in your garden this year? Peas? Tomatoes? Carrots? Basil? Having such a bounty of fresh vegetables at your fingertips makes preparing supper fun.

In Garden to Table: a kid's guide to planting, growing, and preparing food author Katherine Hengel offers helpful tips for how to grow certain veggies and then includes some yummy recipes. For example, got lettuce or baby spinach? Try the 'Rock-On Raisin Salad. It's guaranteed to please! Or how about Sassy Citrus Zest Green Beans. Hengel claims that "this startling bean dish is almost a dessert!"

We have other books with recipes suggestions to help you find a yummy way to eat what you grow. Stop in and we will help you find a few.

Happy eating!

Maker Day

Coming up for all ages on Wednesday, June 25 at 3:00 PM-5:00 PM is our Maker Day! Our other Maker Day Events have been met with such great enthusiasm that we are offering a condensed version to start off our Wednesday afternoon programs. We will have "centers" set up in our Meeting Room where you can try something that will interest all levels of interest. Just what are we doing? You'll have to stop in to find out.

See you then!

Summer Reading Kick-Off with Norman Ng!

Don't miss our Kick-Off to Summer Reading at 6PM on Wednesday, June 18 with illusionist and magician, Norman Ng. The show is an exciting fusion of mind blowing magic, hilarious comedy, and tons of audience participation.

We hope to see you there!

New Books!

To help tempt your children into reading over the summer, the Library continues to have new books.

For those who love to read books in a series, we have the fourth book in Dan Gutman's Genius Files. From Texas with Love has the McDonald twins  dodging nefarious villains while visiting weird by true landmarks in the American Southwest.

Kelly Armstrong's, The Blackwell Pages. In this sequel to Loki's Wolves, Matt Thorsen and his friends are back in another adventure. Here, they must journey to the underworld to save a human descendant of the gods to help defeat Ragnarok, the apocalypse.

Origami Yoda is back!!! In Princess Label Maker to the Rescue! by Tom Angleberger, the Origami Rebel Alliance finds powerful allies in unexpected places as they attempt to fight the FunTime test preparation program. Will Principal Rabbski pledge her allegiance?

Fantasy lovers will be captivated by the rich plot and detailed worldbuilding in Tone Almhjell's debut novel, The TwistRose Key. Sylver is a frozen realm that is home to every dead pet that ever loved a

child. When eleven-year-old Lin Rosenquist received a mysterious key arrives that unlocks the gate to the world of Sylver, she is reunited with Rufus, the pet she buried under the rosebush. Will Lin and Rufus be able to locate the missing Winter Prince in order to save Sylver from destruction?

See you at the Library!

Fizz! Boom! Read! Summer reading at SPL

On Monday, we started signing children up for summer reading even though the program doesn't actually begin until June 18. On the 18, at 6:00pm will be our Kick-Off with Illusionist Norman Ng. No registration required. In an effort to have the reading program exciting and easy enough to finish, yet challenging for those who love to step things up, our program has several parts. Let me explain how it all works.

ALL CHILDREN WHO TURN IN THEIR READING LOGS WILL GET A FREE BOOK!

Our summer reading program encourages children to read for pleasure. We do not require they read a certain number of books, pages, or record time. All they must do in order to receive a FREE BOOK is to turn in their Reading Logs by Saturday, August 9.

THE BASICS: Write down the titles of books children read themselves or have read to them. Children who read aloud books to younger children can record those, too. If a child is reading a long book, one that takes them several days or weeks to get through, they can write down the page numbers or chapters on the lines inside the Reading Log. Turn in the Reading Log by Saturday, August 9 to be invited to the Summer Reading Grand Finale to be held on Wednesday, August 13. Can't come to the party? Stop in any time after the 13 to pick up your Reading Logs, certificate, and select a FREE BOOK. That's it!


TO STEP IT UP: To help children investigate other types of books, both fiction & nonfiction, we created a Game Board which is inside the Reading Log. Complete 24 squares, and it doesn't matter the order you choose them, and we will make you a refrigerator magnet with your picture taken in front of the Wall of Fame.

ANOTHER OPTION: Answer the ten Library Trivia Questions correctly AND complete the 24 squares on the Game Board and we will place your child's name on a bookplate that will be placed in a brand new library book.

Just remember that Reading Logs MUST be returned to get a certificate and a FREE BOOK.

Marilyn Taylor and I have spent the past month visiting all classes Grades K-7. Kids are really enthusiastic about summer reading. They want to be sure to STOP the SUMMER SLIDE.

Summer Reading Program

Students are counting the days until school is out. As of today, they tell me there are twelve and a half days left. Before you get to busy with summer activities, be sure to stop in to the Library and the Youth Services room and sign your children up for the 2014 Summer Reading Program. Sign ups begin the week of June 9, but the program officially begins the minute school is out on June 17!
This year our theme is 

 

The Kick-Off for Pre-School thru Grade 5 begins on Wednesday, June 18 at 6:00 PM with 

The Norman Magic Experience feature Norman Ng.

There is no show like it touring today!

This event is free. No preregistration is required.

For more information, please call the Youth Services Department at 883-4723, option 3!