Summer Reading Carnival

Thanks to the YALSA and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, we were able to hold a carnival near the end of the Summer Reading Program.  We didn't have big attendance because it was so hot outside, but we did have some awesome activities to do.  The staff sure enjoyed it!  Circus Kaput from St. Louis provided a caricaturist and a face painter/balloon artist.  We also had sand art, magic scratcher ornaments, K'nex kits, Minute to Win It games, ring toss, and a bean bag toss.  The door prize winner also got to throw a pie in my face!! I definitely think that was her favorite part! Check out the pictures below!

Popcorn and cotton candy!

Caricatures!

Unicorn!

Mrs. Michelle with her face paint snake tattoo

Isn't that the cutest balloon hat?

Face paint by Circus Kaput

Making sand art!

She won the hat as a prize!

Doesn't she look excited?!

Pie in the face!

Congratulations to our door prize winner!

Egg Drop Challenge!

I think this may have been my favorite teen program of the summer and according to a lot of the kids, it was their favorite too.  The teens were provided with materials and had to create a container that would protect an egg from being dropped at 3 ft, 6 ft, and 8 ft.  Many of the teens were successful, but we also had a lot of broken eggs.  It was so hot on some of the days that the teens thought the eggs might be able to actually cook on the ground!

Building structures at Ironton

Did it break?

Dropping from 9 feet

Can they protect the egg?

Getting creative at Annapolis

Success in Steelville

Egg Drop in Bourbon

Balloons were popular in Bourbon

A lot of success in Cuba with the Egg Drop

Make Your Own Film Festival!

Michelle Swane generously offered to put this program together for me since I was not able to with all of the other programming going on.  The groups were given a theme that their video had to revolve around and they were given time to go out into the community and library to film, time to edit, and then it was time to view the films.  The winning group was awarded a $25 gift certificate to itunes, courtesy of YALSA and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

Build a Better Meal Challenge

The teens of Ozark Regional Library had the opportunity to compete in the Build a Better Meal Challenge.  This program consisted of three tasks: to create a Three-Ingredient Appetizer, a Main Dish, and a Healthy Dessert that contained a vegetable.  Our fearless competitors took the challenge and made some delicious and some not-so-delicious dishes.  They were provided ingredients and had to come up with a dish, name it, and plate it.  They were scored on Taste, Originality, and Presentation.  I loved hearing the names that the teens came up with for their dishes.  Some names were: Pickle-roni Pizza, Pig Inside Out, and the Bugs Bunny Special.  Prizes were given away after each round and the all-around winner from each branch also received a prize.  Check out some of the pictures below:

Turkey, salsa, green pepper, and cheese wrap with carrots, grapes, applesauce, and graham cracker plate from Steelville

Some of our Cuba Chefs! 

Cuba Chef!

Appetizer: Peach slice with chocolate chips

Our Summer Assistant, Michelle

Michelle S. and John J. were our Ironton Judges

Ironton Competitors

Smiley Grahams at Ironton

Planning for the Future- Ironton

If you weren’t able to make it to the Ironton Planning for the Future event, you missed out on some great information.  I wrote down some of the ways each panel member can help teens and young adults with their college and career prep and wanted to share it with you:

-          

       Vickey Bonney- Missouri Job Center

o   Free resource

o   Career assessments

o   Workshops on how to fill out online applications effectively

o   Resume writing workshops

o   Presentations on how to use social media responsibly

-       

            Alison Sheets- Mineral Area College

o   Helps with planning for financial success

o   Resource: missouriconnections.org

o   She is a free resource for adults and teens

-        

       Denae Gitonga- University of Missouri Extension

o   Offers services at a free or very reduced rate

o   Helps with developing small businesses

o   Helps with leadership skills and how to become a leader in your community

-         

       Ashley Bales- University of Missouri Extension

o   Adult and Youth Education on Family Financials

o   Helps educate about car loans, credit, college debt

o   Prepares taxes

o   Helps with health insurance and Medicare

-          

        Nicole Thomas- Arcadia Valley High School

o   College/career counselor and school counselor

o   Gives resources and connects you with colleges or career centers

o   Can offer a very helpful college preparation timeline

-          

        Chris Wigger- First State Community Bank

o   Bank offers student checking accounts

o   It’s never too early to start saving with a savings account

o   Community Strength is incredibly important to build

o   Currently has a position open for a part time teller (as of 6/29/17- this may change): Check online for current job opportunities

If anyone would like to discuss any of this further, please contact me at the library via email or phone.

Structure Building!

The teen event this week was Structure Building!  They were tasked with three objectives: to make the strongest structure, the tallest structure, and the most creative structure.  The tricky part was that they were only given 20 spaghetti noodles, 10 marshmallows, 1 yard of string, and 2 ft of tape to make their structures.  We have some awesome teens and they walked away with some cool prizes. In Ironton, we even had some staff members and a parent join in on the fun!  You won't want to miss the next teen event: Build a Better Meal Challenge!

Steelville Competition

Bourbon Competition

Cuba Competition

She won a Pool Pass to the Cuba Pool!

Fredericktown Competition

John Jones, Tech Services, trying to build the tallest structure

Ironton Competition

We even let a parent join in!

Connie Reed, Administrative Assistant, trying to make the strongest structure

Summer Reading Program!

Our Summer Reading Program starts on Monday, June 5, 2017!!!  Head to your local branch to find out about all of the exciting things we have going on this summer! This summer, we are going to be focusing on all of the things that make this world a better place.  For example, we will be exploring construction, engineering, gardening, community service, animal habitats, heroes, and much more! The first week's schedule looks like this:

• June 5- Ironton 10 am; Viburnum 1 pm
• June 6- Steelville 10 am; Bourbon 1:30 pm
• June 7- Cuba 10:30 am
• June 8- Fredericktown 10:30 am; Ironton 2 pm
• June 9- Annapolis 2 pm

On June 7 at the Cuba branch, Dino O'Dell will be performing during the Opening Party!  He will also be performing at Fredericktown and Ironton on June 8.  You will not want to miss these performances! I hope to see you next week!

Why should you come to a Young Writer's Program?

Have you wanted to write a novel in a month? Do you want to meet others who are interested in writing? What about just wanting like-minded individuals to correspond with? Want to push and challenge yourself? Just like being at the library?

Come to October's Novel Prep Sessions on Tuesdays @ 3:30 pm. The Library is providing laptops for who can't bring their own and writing devices for those who like to hand-write everything!

The First Meeting, on October 6th, will go over what NaNo is, what most people do to prepare, signing up for the Young Writer's Program, find our Virtual Classroom, and outlining what our goals are for our October Prep and for November .

Then we will have an activity to help us lock away our Inner Editor and start to relish the insanity that will be November.

Some Key Notes: The point of this program is to push yourself on your creativity, make you fulfill a self-made promise, and nothing you write will be public. Also, everything done inside of the virtual classroom is self-contained. If at the end of November you wish to edit your novel and try to get it published, I will aid you as much as possible!

The Giver Trailer

If you're a fan of Lois Lowry or dystopian science fiction (think The Hunger Games, Divergent), you only have sixteen days to wait until The Giver hits movie theaters!

Keep reading!

Shaen

Teen Event- Doctor Who

First of all, a HUGE thanks to Miss Pat, for gamely taking over the Doctor Who Teen Program last week while I was out sick with the flu!  We had to cancel our Ironton session in order to give her enough to time to finish prepping materials (though if you were signed up originally to attend the event at Ironton, please drop by the front desk to pick up a craft kit to take home with you), and our Fredericktown session was packed to the brim!  Check out all the photos below (plus the cool handmade Tardis one of the attending adults brought).

Gathering before the program starts.

Getting ready to make bowties (in keeping with Matt Smith's Doctor, who proclaims "bowties are cool".).

Yep, they're cool :)

And cooler still!

The group also made paper cubee-style Tardises.

A finished Tardis (in the perfect shade of blue).

Check out the fez (if you're a Whovian, you get the reference!).

A finished paper cup Dalek.  This kid's an artist (and a superfan!).

One lucky winner found a Doctor Who picture taped under her seat during a game of Unmusical Chairs- and earned some Doctor-approved metallic glitter slime!

Posing in front of the Tardis with a finished project.

More Tardis pictures.

Keep reading!

Shaen