A Recap of Recaps

Submitted by Lindsey Allison 

Here is a sampling of recaps from April 28 through May 4, 2023: 

Ready, Set, Preschool at HP
24 children, 21 adults
“Since it was the last Ready, Set, Preschool for a while, I decided to use a really successful topic that Jane Elizabeth had done while she was at Hampton: WORMS! I began by giving a few worm facts. (Did you know that worms do not have lungs, eyes, or ears?) Then Chase and I brought out the stretchy bands and we wiggled and stretched along to a worm rhyme and Heave Ho! by Jose Lucio.” – Kayla Bolton

El día de los niños at CU 
110 children, 35 adults
“This was a fun program to create! Dia De Los Ninos is a holiday celebrated around the world and is interpreted as day of the children or sometimes it is referred to as the children's book day. So of course I wanted to create something for the children that celebrated books. I came up with the idea of creating a Latin folktale and then asked our young patrons to design a book cover based around the tale.” – Sariah Homan

Conversational English at PR
8 adults
“Last night four patrons returned to Conversational English, including two whom we hadn't seen since March (they had told us they would be gone during Ramadan), and four new patrons joined us. Countries represented were Albania (2 new), Pakistan (2 returning), Brazil (1 returning), India (2 new), and US (1 returning with our Brazilian patron). I took a page from the SF playbook last week and waited on introductions until we had done a warm-up activity and tongue twisters. I had written a question on the board as an ice breaker, ‘What did you eat for lunch today?’ and we went around the room answering.” – Trina Schlecht

Preschool PlayLab at SF
30 children, 20 adults
“We had lots of fun flying high with kites at Sharon Forks today! We had a nice size group, considering some of the very large and, at times, overwhelming groups we’ve had lately. Everyone got to enjoy each station comfortably and some multiple times. I had to do a little participation coaxing during the story time portion, but all our caregivers were attentive and engaged during stations. To introduce the day’s theme I like to include a joke at the beginning:  Why shouldn’t Elsa hold your kite? Because she’ll LET IT GO! LET IT GO!” – Shanna Bottongino

Lobby Stop with Outreach 
35 adults
“We went to Celebration Village for our monthly lobby stop. It was a crazy busy stop with patrons lined up, but so much fun! What a blessing it is to share with the patrons there. Ms. Bonita, who is on a walker and recovering from a broken hip, said that our library visits are the best part of living at Celebration Village. What a huge compliment, since Celebration is a fancy place with all the bells and whistles! She tells everyone about us and brags on how well the "library girls" take care of her! She told me about how grateful she is that we always bring the books she asks for, and how kind it is of us to bring her books that we think she would like, even if she didn't ask for any books at all for that visit! She was so sweet that it brought tears to my eyes. She uses our library visits as a selling point to get people to come live at Celebration. Her friends are so impressed that we bring books and fill special requests for our patrons. They have no idea what a joy it is!” – Lorraine Lane 

Photo of the Week:

Lobby Stop, Celebration Village (Photo/Outreach Team)

Fun Fact: You will notice a bunch of paper bags in the photo…another service Outreach provides for lobby stop patrons includes bringing any hold requests and choosing books they enjoy based on their reading history. Celebration Village is one of their largest lobby stops. They delivered 31 bags with a total of 80 books on top of checking out 38 books on-site.