Reach for the Stars Book Fair

Wow!  What a great response we had to the Reach for the Stars Book Fair!  With almost $600 in collected pledges and well over 5000 minutes read by the kids over the course of only two weeks, I'd say the program was a success!  Top readers winning prizes were: Violet Morgan for the Youngest category with 930 minutes being read to her, Brandon Morgan for the Elementary category with 930 minutes read as well, and Brianne Cooper for the Teen category with an amazing 1,483 minutes read.
Thanks to our community sponsors- the Mountain Echo and Cole's Funeral Home-, as well as First State Community Bank, who provided goody bags for participants.  We also appreciate all the families and friends who pledged support to readers throughout June and Connie Fain, our local Usborne Books & More representative, who put in a lot of time getting great books into the hands of deserving kids.  Check out the pictures below!

Setting up our refreshments table.

Every kid who attended got a free balloon.

While families were waiting in line for books, they got to make a paper Mr. and Ms. Potato Head craft and fill out thank you cards to their sponsors.

The Ms. Potato Head sample waiting for the Fair to start.

At the start of the Book Fair, we announced our top readers for each age category and then celebrated by blowing noisemakers and setting off confetti poppers.

Our local Usborne rep, Connie Fain, handing out prizes to top readers.

Brandon Morgan, top reader for the Elementary category.

Brianne Cooper, top reader for the Teen category.

Violet Morgan, child with most minutes read to her in the Youngest category.

Digging into the refreshments: popcorn, lemonade, fresh fruit, and lollipops!

There were lots of great Usborne books and other materials on display.

 

Doling out balloons as the party ends!

Keep reading!

Shaen

Reach for the Stars Book Fair TODAY!!!

Come on out, and join all the fun!  Our Reach for the Stars Book Fair will be starting at 1 pm TODAY at the Ironton Library.  We'll have FREE freshly-popped popcorn, lemonade, crafts, lollipops and balloons for the kids, and of course, an expansive collection of Usborne books for sale!  The event is open to the public; you don't have to have participated in the Reach for the Stars Reading Club in order to attend the Book Fair.  We'll also be announcing our prize-winning top readers shortly after 1.

Keep reading!

Shaen

Mad Science

Check out all the photos from the awesome Mad Science program with Dr. Goo!

Talking about science.

Experimenting with chemical reactions.

Experimenting with sound.

More sound experiments.

We had lots of great science books to check out after the program, as well as free balloons and ice cream sandwiches donated by a story time mom!  Thanks to her if she's reading :)

Keep reading!

Shaen

Mommy and Me Lapsit Story Time

Mommy and Me featured stories, songs, a craft, refreshments, and plenty of books to check out and material to take home.

Each participant received a tote bag chock full of goodies, including a free board book!

Keep reading!

Shaen

Tween Event (Wild Weather Scientists)

Check out all the photos from our summer tween event, where the kids learned about weather phenomena and conducted hands-on experiments related to tornadoes, thunder storms, and blizzards!

At the first station, we learned about the factors that form a tornado- and then created our own!

Miss Pat explaining about tornadoes.

 

We cut out paper snowflakes at station two, and then taped them to a circulating box fan to simulate a blizzard.

 

At station three, we learned how a balloon and static electricity can light up a light bulb!  We also learned about the mechanics of thunder and lightning.

Keep reading!

Shaen

Reminder: Mad Science and Reach for the Stars Book Fair

Don't forget to mark your calendar!  Next week, the Ironton Library will be hosting two special events: Mad Science (where a professional scientist out of St. Louis will be conducting fun, interactive experiments with the kids) on Thursday, June 26th at 3 pm, and the Reach for the Stars Book Fair (with an expansive selection of colorful Usborne books for sale, plus free balloons and freshly popped popcorn!) on Friday, June 27th at 1 pm.  

Keep reading!

Shaen

Patron Book Recommendations

Looking for a great summer read?  One of our young patrons, River, has a couple of recommendations for you: Elise Broach's Masterpiece (with wonderful illustrations by Kelly Murphy), or any action-packed titles by Rick Riordan.  See book summaries, abbreviated from Goodreads, below.

Masterpiece by Elise Broach and Kelly Murphy- Marvin lives with his family under the kitchen sink in the Pompadays’ apartment. He is very much a beetle. James Pompaday lives with his family in New York City. He is very much an eleven-year-old boy.After James gets a pen-and-ink set for his birthday, Marvin surprises him by creating an elaborate miniature drawing. James gets all the credit for the picture and before these unlikely friends know it they are caught up in a staged art heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that could help recover a famous drawing by Albrecht Dürer. But James can’t go through with the plan without Marvin’s help. And that’s where things get really complicated (and interesting!). This fast-paced mystery will have young readers on the edge of their seats as they root for boy and beetle.

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1) by Rick Riordan- Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus' master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1) by Rick Riordan- Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly?
 
Keep reading!

Shaen

Monday's Tween Event at Ste. Genevieve Library

The Ste. Genevieve Library is getting ready for their Go Live!/Automation Open House event and will be closed this coming Monday, June 16th in preparation.  Please pass along the word to your family and friends that even though the library is closed, the Youth Department will still be hosting our Tween Event: Wild Weather Scientists at 10 am in the Ste. Genevieve Community Center's Conference Room #1.  We'll have lots of fun trying weather-based experiments related to blizzards, thunderstorms, and tornadoes.  Hope to see you then!

Keep reading!

Shaen

Story Time #1- The Science of Music

This week, we held the first of three weeks of summer story time and made a lot of noise figuring out the science of music!  Check out the pictures below!  Also, don't forget that if you are participating in Ironton's special Reach for the Stars Reading Club that your pledge money and completed reading logs are due this coming Monday, June 16th.  You may turn in your materials at the front desk of the Ironton Library any time between 8 am and 5 pm on the 16th; then, be sure to visit us again to pick out your prize books at our giant Book Fair/Reading Celebration on Friday, June 27th at 1 pm.  We'll have lemonade and freshly popped popcorn, free balloons, and lots of great books to choose from!

For our activity, we honed our percussive skills by box drumming different rhythms.

We also tried floor drumming.

Then we used plastic drinking straws to make pan pipes.

This was a detail-oriented craft that utilized scissor and ruler skills.

But all our hard work paid off...

And we finished making our musical instruments!

Trying to play our pan pipes.

The vibration of air through the different-sized straws creates sound- our pan pipes have a one-octave range.

Musicians in the making!

Keep reading!

Shaen

Playing Catch-Up (AKA Most Rambling Blog Post Ever)

Summer has just started, and already, things are busy, busy, busy at the library!  Pat and I have both been out on the road with programming this week, so we're just now getting a chance to download some photos from the last week's events.  We'll just call this post a three-in-one special :)

Reach for the Stars Kickoff
Our first event for the summer, the Reach for the Stars Kickoff, happened on Monday and was a success with seventeen participants attending.  Usborne Books & More rep, Connie Fain, explained how the pledge-based reading club was going to work, and Pat Lewis handed out reading logs and program information to those who were interested.  The Reach for the Stars Reading Club will be open to readers from now until Monday, June 16, when reading logs and pledge sheets are due, and the Club will culminate in a gigantic Book Fair at the Ironton Library on Friday, June 27, where kids can choose prize books and help the Library pick out new books for our Youth collection.  You don't have to be from Iron County to participate; anyone with questions about the program can contact the Ironton Library for more information.

Reach for the Stars Reading Logs.  Thanks to The Mountain Echo and Cole's Funeral Home for being sponsoring businesses this summer!

The Library set up thematic book displays so the kids could check out and get reading right away!

Local Usborne rep, Connie Fain, explaining the details of the RFTS Reading Club for our patrons.

Opening Party (Look Like a Mad Scientist)
Our Opening Party took place at four branches (Steelville, Bourbon, Ironton, and Fredericktown) on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the kids made "mad scientist" costume kits to get ready for our science-based Summer Reading Program.  We had three stations set up: an Einstein wig table, a lab goggles table, and a lab coat table.  You can see the evidence of their creative crafting below!

Attendees of the Opening Party rotated between three different craft stations: Make a Lab Coat, Make Lab Goggles, and Make Einstein Hair.

Cutting out lab coats from plastic bags.

Decorating lab coats with stickers (it might not be the most scientific thing, but we had fun!).

A few patrons got creative: meet the double threat- a scientist athlete!

We also made cotton ball wigs and cardstock safety goggles.

We got a little creative with the wigs, too!

Almost finished!

We had great crowds at Crawford County...

And Fredericktown, too.

Some super scientists.

More mad scientists!

What a group!

Grow a Reader
This morning, despite a few raindrops, we held our second annual Grow a Reader story time at the Iron County Community Garden.  Linda Lane of the Community Garden gave an intro and reminded everyone about the upcoming Garden Tour, Pat and I read garden-themed stories and helped the kids make paper Mr. or Ms. Potato Heads, and Debra Henk of the University of Missouri Extension Council showed the kids how to plant potatoes in the Garden and send each child home with their own purple bush bean plant.  Much thanks also goes to Rev. Catherine (Kitty) Hillquist, who graciously invited us to use the parish porch for our crafting session, as well as provided refreshments for all the families in attendance.

A nice crowd showed up, despite the threat of rain!

Reading garden-themed stories: Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie DePaola and this one, White is for Blueberry by George Shannon and Laura Dronzek.

We played "Hot Potato" for our game.

The group gets whittled down during our game.

Down to two players!  Who will win...?

And we have a new "Hot Potato" champion!

We moved onto the covered parish porch to color and cut our Mr. and Ms. Potato Heads.

Lots of coloring and cutting for this craft!

Then we enjoyed light refreshments and headed out to the Garden to get a tour of the planting beds and to plant some potatoes of our own, to be harvested later for the local Food Bank.

The kids (and parents) hard at work in the Garden.

Also, on a sidenote, if you'd like to see a few photos from the Last Tuesday Creative Writing Event, head on over to the Ironton Facebook page.  There's talk of putting together a teen and/or adult workshopping group in the near future, so if you're interested in joining either group, please send us a message through our Facebook page with your name, age group (teen or adult), and if possible, the best weeknight evening, Monday through Friday, that you would find it most convenient to attend classes.  With enough interest, we'll be putting together a schedule soon!

Keep reading!

Shaen