A Recap of Recaps

Submitted by Lindsey Allison

Here is a sampling of recaps from June 9 through June 15: 

Lobby Stop with Outreach 
18 adults
“I went to Towne Club this morning with Kandy. Miss Rosalinda kept taking my hands in her hands and thanking me for being there. She had the biggest smile! She is just so grateful for the library! It is touching how much the library means to our patrons.” – Jeanine Thompson 

Regency Crafts with Jane Austen at CU
10 children, 31 adults
“Brianna and I began the program with a 30-minute presentation, "Preparing for the Past," which relayed information about the Regency era and Jane Austen's life and works. We interspersed the presentation with fun trivia questions and handed out Jane Austen buttons to those who ventured a guess. (For example: Most duels were fought between men, but two ladies faced off in a confrontation known as the Petticoat Duel of 1792. What did they fight over?*) We ended our presentation with the Mr. Darcy Challenge, where we had everyone vote on the best Mr. Darcy portrayed on the screen. It was a close call between Colin Firth (BBC, 1995) and Matthew Macfadyen (2005), but Colin Firth walked away as the best Mr. Darcy. For the craft, we had a simple felt cameo ornament planned. Answer to the trivia question: The ladies dueled after Lady Almeria Braddock inaccurately estimated Mrs. Elphinstone's age. They shot at each other, then fought with swords until Mrs. Elphinstone was nicked. Then they were friends again.” – Melissa Gunter

Father’s Day Gift Crafting at PR
Session 1: 40 children, 19 adults
Session 2: 39 children, 19 adults
“It was a huge hit! Jenn talked briefly about letter writing and explained how she worked with a local Montessori school on letter writing. Some of the children even set up playdates by writing letters! That seemed to get parents excited. We had a long table where kids could make, decorate, and write cards for fathers and grandfathers. We made adorable Father's Day Shrinky Dink Keychains, and also a cute badge with an encouraging "Best Dad Ever" slogan. The kids really seemed to enjoy the activities.” – Amy Szvetecz

STEAMWork Dreamwork at HP 
41 children, 15 adults 
“Today was our first Steamwork Dreamwork program for our 3-5 graders and we had such a great group of innovative and creative kids. I showed several video examples of Rube Goldberg machines and challenged the kids to build a machine that included at least 3 simple machines and 1-2 chain reactions. I loved how each team was different in how they approached their task which was to build a machine that would ring a bell. They were great at working together, being creative and sharing supplies. Some teams endured more trial runs than others but the final result ended in success for each team! At the beginning, I encouraged the parents to wait in the library during the program and to come in 5 minutes before the end to see the incredible inventions and I think they enjoyed watching the final results and successes as much as the kids did. I had numerous parents come up to thank me for hosting such a fun program and I encouraged everyone to come back for more fun this summer and to keep reading all summer long.” – LeAnne Craig

Together We Garden at SF
59 children, 35 adults 
“I really loved this activity, and I think the children were very pleased to leave with their assembled houses. I was able to receive positive feedback from one father and heard through Page that another mother also had great things to say afterwards. I was so excited that Lola from our IS staff was able to join the program today and lead us through the growth of a tree through yoga poses! We brought the rain, sun, the tree, and moved our limbs “All Together Now.” In addition to the activities listed in the program description, children were able to connect with our read aloud Harlem Grown. I recreated a city block from the story and provided several images. Some images showed the trash and litter described in the story, and some images showed parts of a beautiful, new community garden. Children were able to interact with the pieces, taking away the trash from the abandoned lot and creating their own community garden scene.” – Shanna Bottongino

Photo of the Week: 

Together We Garden, Sharon Forks Library
(Photo/Amy Billings)