Dia de los Ninos at San Lorenzo Library

What fun we had today at the San Lorenzo Library. The children made Domroo Drums and Maracas. Their use of color was awesome, and they created beautiful instruments. The age range was 4-12, with a variety of skill levels. A young blind girl with Cerebral Palsy had fun making maracas with her mother as well. The kids were delighted with the "music" they were able to make when the craft time was done.

Upcoming Programs

Because my website doesn't update properly, I will continue to add new programs here.

4/29 Dia de los Ninos at San Lorenzo Library 2:30
5/2 Cinco de Mayo at Fremont Main Library 11-12 (registration is required)
5/2 Cinco de Mayo at Newark Library 1-2 We will make Domroo drums and Maracas
5/9 Butterfly Gardening & Craft at Newark Library 12:30-2
5/11 Butterfly Craft at Dublin Library 4-5
5/27 Cooking with Tweens at San Lorenzo 3:00 (registration is required)

You can find the information for registration at www.aclibrary.org click on branch

I have many creative programs available for the Summer Reading Game, if you haven't already booked. I am also available for programs for your teen volunteers.

Write A Book Contest

I am in the creativity business, yet I still am constantly amazed by the creativity these youngsters have! Today at Newark Library, I gave each child a book, and tons of goodies to work with. They each created a book that was outstanding. A 2 year old wrote letters and numbers, while a 5 year old wrote 15 pages of story telling that was fantastic. I don't have a first place ribbon for everyone, but I would say at least half of them fell into that category. Judging was difficult to say the least! This is a fabulous program for your libraries. It will need an hour and 1/2 to give them that extra time to finish up. We advertised 6-13, and ended up with a 5 year old that could write his own, so he was welcomed. The 2 year old "wrote" his own too, so he'll get a superstar award. I helped a couple of reluctant boys come up with a story line, but other than that and a little spelling help, the kids worked independently. I was also very proud of parents and grandparents for not being too helpful! Librarian Kat was very impressed with the quality of her littlest patron's works.

Multicultural Day at Newark Library

What a great time we had at Newark Library today making Multicultural Paper People. Each child picked his or her skintone color, decorative ethnic paper to create clothes, yarn for hair, and ribbons, markers etc to accent themselves. They were all so creative. A father and his young daughter had good bonding time, while a big brother helped his little sister create her doll. The imaginations were impressive and as you can see by the pictures, the results were fantastic. I was surprised to find that most of the Asian young girls chose to have yellow hair. Thanks Kat, for another fine program opportunity!

Upcoming Programs

My website is having difficulties, so I will post upcoming programs here until I can get the problem resolved.

March 7th at Newark Library We will celebrate our diversity by making self-image paper people. That will begin at 1:00.

April 18th at Newark Library We are having a "Write a Book" contest for school-age children. Come write a book, and win a prize from the judges. This programs begin at 1:00pm.

Summer is fast approaching, and filling fast, so book now to get the date you prefer for your program or party!

Valentine's Day

At the Niles Library last week, the children enjoyed making twirly heart mobiles. Their creativity flowed, as they decorated their heart with foam heart stickers, markers and their own thoughts. Many made a present for their teacher, or parent, and one young lady made her heart into a box of chocolates.
The next day at Irvington, the children designed their own gorilla mobiles, by decorating 3 hearts and 3 bananas each with many colorful stickers and markers. They then used ribbon to hang the decorated items to the bottom of the mobile. Everyone had a wonderful time, and they were all very creative.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

For those of you unfamiliar, that means Congratulations, and may you be prosperous in the new year. We celebrated Chinese New Year at Dublin Library today. What fun! A room filled with tables covered in red cloths, and colorful dragons everywhere. More than 80 children and adults enjoyed creating their very own dancing dragons. What talented crafters there are in Dublin. My husband, Bob, was amazed when he came back in the room, to see the beautifully designed dragons. We even had a few dragons receive names from their crafters. One very beautiful purple dragon ended up with the name Violet. Many received the name of their designer. Grandmothers, Moms, Dads and Children enjoyed an hour visiting together, creating and showing their beautiful art work to one another. We even had a group of special needs children come enjoy making many very unique, delightful dragons of their own. One that especially caught my eye seemed to be made of candy corns. What imaginations! Everyone including Susan, Monica and myself had a wonderful time.