What’s coming up?

If you follow this blog, you’ve probably been wondering why we haven’t had many posts lately.  I was away on holidays, but now I’m back and ready to throw myself into lots of fun things to get ready for summer at the library.

As you can see, our new bulletin board in the children’s area has a clue to what’s coming this summer……will it be a fish theme?…a reading theme?…a school theme???  You’ll have to wait a little longer to find out!

I found a fun way to use up an old discarded book. I made sure to find one with thicker pages (and you’ll want to check for content on the pages beforehand, if you do this craft.) I drew outlines of fun little fish and then cut them out of each page. I decided to use watercolour paints so that the words would still show through and the fish would look sort of multicolour.

It was easy and the permanent marker didn’t run when I applied the watercolour paints. You could make these into a pretty summery wreath (try butterflies or dragonflies to make this really fun) by attaching them to a paper circle and stapling them on.

Summer is fast approaching and there will be plenty of fun things for the kids to do.  Keep watching for the summer calendar, which will be out sometime in June.  Until then….stop by and see what’s going on at the library!  There’s always something great going on!

Christmas Craft Night

The latest winter bulletin board

It’s Christmas Craft Night at the library once again and fifteen eager crafters aged 6 – 10 will join us for a fun evening.  We’ll be making Santa ornaments, Christmas tree pop-up cards and crazy gift tags.  As usual, we’ll play a few games, eat lots of holiday candy and get sparkles everywhere.  So if you’re in the library tonight, don’t be surprised if you hear laughter in the back room.

Our Christmas tree pop up card

Our fun gift tags

A Santa ornament

Flock to the library!

We have a little flock of birds on our bulletin board in the Carleton Place Public Library children’s area.  Some are sparkly, most are a little kooky but all of them will put a smile on your face when you drop by for a book.

TD Summer Reading Program 2009

We’ll be starting the TD Summer Reading Program 2009 later this month, but I started with a teaser this morning to get our kids excited about what’s coming.  The theme this year is “Agent 009 : Detectives”  so my new bulletin board announces us as the Secret Agent Headquarters.

This reading program is open to children from 2- 12 and there is no special time or date that they need to be at the library.  It is an ongoing summer program that they can participate in and keep up their reading skills while having fun.

There will be prizes, stickers, posters, activities and lots more so keep your eyes open at the library for more information about registering for the program.  It’s going to be a fun summer!

What’s on your bulletin board?

One of the most creative things that I get to do as the children’s librarian is to create the bulletin boards for each new season in the children’s area of the library. I always have fun preparing  something new to put up and although sometimes they get the better of me, I usually learn something about design in the process.

These are just a few of the ideas that I’ve created in the past year or so.  Right now, we have the Clifford/Scaredy Squirrel/Grumpy Bird board up trying to bring in Spring (although Judi says I am jinxing us into a longer winter that way).  I always try to use color and shape or texture to draw in our readers, and most of the time, there is a 3D element involved.

What would you put on a bulletin board to get a child’s attention?