Programs Revving Up

Welcome to a busy week here at the library!

As of 10 a.m. January 31st--19,800 pages!

Crafters start us off this week with Yarn Pom-Poms…pictures coming soon.  We’ll end the first month of 2012 by judging the first coloring contest and counting up January’s page count for our 100,000 page challenge.  It’s looking pretty good so far!  Only 4 months left!  Can we make it?

Thursday, we’ll have Middle Schoolers in to hone their skills in the art of Japanese Manga drawing.  Stay tuned for pictures.

Friday, we begin Young Authors and Illustrators with a nice-sized group of kids ranging from first through seventh grades!  We’re supremely excited to be creating our picture books for a second year in a row.  Registration closes Thursday, February 2nd.

A Polar Bear researching Polar Bears! Paddington Polar Bear was a good help at YAC

 

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Youth Action Committee

met this past Saturday and decided on a yard sale of toys and clothes to benefit panda and polar bear rescue and preservation efforts.  Stay tuned for information on donating your old toys and clothes to the cause!

 

 

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Teens, Start Us Off!

Middle School X-Pressionists

for 1/19 and 1/26 has been CANCELLED due to low registration, but

X-Pressionists: Manga is still on for Feburary 2.  

Sign up today!

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Young Authors and Illustrators and Crafting Club

still have openings.

Any age may attend, but the authors and illustrators must have 2nd grade level or above reading and writing skills.  Crafters need only be dexterous and diligent!

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T  e  e  n  s    1  3  -  1  8

are invited to participate in the

2012 Teen Video Challenge

hosted by the Collaborative Summer Library Program. Click the poster below to print and post around town or go to this link to find out more about how YOU could win $275 and have your video featured on television!  You can also download this poster in .pdf!

Jump into the New Year!!

We begin the new year with a

Town-Wide Reading Challenge

100,000 pages in 5 months!  Can we do it?

Read our press release, featured in Hilltown Families!

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Register online NOW for Middle School X-Pressionists and Crafting Club!

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Also, come in this Saturday for our first Puppet Play Time!

We don’t have anything donated yet, so this week kids can make their own

paper bag puppets!

 Drop-in only: parent supervision necessary.

Farewell to some, and what’s coming next!

Today is the last day of Explorers, and all of us are sad to see it end.  Not to worry though, we plan to give it another go in the Spring!

Cold day for an outdoor snack, but everyone's still having fun.

Last week we had a rockin’ good time studying Geology at the Connecticut River.  Thanks to all the parent volunteers who helped our librarians guide our little balls of energy safely down the street.  One of our volunteers was able to bring clay concretions and quartz crystals for everyone to take home!

Explorations took us down the bank to find rocks--no one fell in though!

 

 

 

This week’s explorers will be Meteorologists–can they learn to predict our strange New England weather?

 

And Coming Soon:

 

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Next week we welcome the 5th and 6th graders to our library for a 2-hour Drawing Class!

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Starting Saturday, December 10 at 11:00, 4th graders and older are welcome to join Youth Action Committee!

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Wednesday, December 21, 5:30 to 6:30.

Come to the library in your pj’s, learn about Solstice traditions and do a glow-in-the-dark project!

 

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Rolling down that hill was good fun!

Dog pile! And some theatrics.

Some last pictures of Explorers enjoying their time outside. Thanks, 1st and 2nd Graders for a great program!

Kid-Mania!

Thanks to the snowstorm and Election Day, we didn’t get Hatfield’s First Graders in to the library this month, but Children’s Librarian Cheri decided to pop over to the school for a quick read-aloud and to hand out library cards.  The book of choice was The Incredible Book-Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers, author of Lost and Found, an adorable book about friendship.

Maybe someone's living in that tree...

Explorers have begun their rounds of the natural world here at the library, and their toughness is inspiring!  Both of our first two weeks were rainy and cold, but the Arborists explored the trees around the library, finding out that moss grows heaviest on the North side of a tree and why, we held leaves up to the light to see their veins, and we bound little booklets with sticks we found outside.

Arborist, or Ninja?

The Zoologists kept their noses to the ground to find evidence of animal life in the area, such as our extensive subterranean mole highway system, a tunnel where the library mouse stays hidden from view while scurrying around (outside) the library, and some leaves which had obviously been chewed by something.  Explorers returns after Thanksgiving for some more scientific fun!

Making the booklets was VERY hard for small fingers. Good Job!!

Knitting Club is getting more independent now that people are more comfortable with working their stitches.  Purling is picking up and eventually we’ll be able to learn increasing and decreasing, which will give us the skills for following our first pattern!  A few people have finished their squares for our baby blanket service project, so hopefully we’ll have something to give the Survival Center by the coldest part of the winter.

Everyone travel safely this Thanksgiving, and don’t forget

WE’RE OPEN NORMAL HOURS ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25 AND SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26TH

Come in to give your parents a break from a house full of kids and we may even let you pull out some of our craft supplies!

What a week!

Library staff dressed as a graduate and Mrs. Peacock from Clue!

Last week began with learning to purl in Knitting Club, continued on to our 3rd meeting of the Hatfield Public Library Book Club, then we jumped into Thursday with some super MESSY peanut butter sculptures, and ended the week with a fun Halloween party on Saturday, complete with stories, a craft, some snacks, and of course, COSTUMES!

Thanks to the Friends of the Hatfield Public Library for the candy corn, Dunkin’ Donuts Munchkins, string cheese, and crackers!  They made an excellent finish to our party.

Then there was the freak snowstorm.  As luck would have it, the power came back on at the library on Monday evening, so Tuesday we were back in business.  We had several families come in to just get out of the house, as school doesn’t resume until Thursday and many people still don’t have power.

Hopefully we’ll manage to post more photos soon, but for some reason it isn’t working the way it should.  Stay tuned for our last Library Club!

Kid Fun

We are having so much FUN this Fall!!

October welcomes colorful leaves and amazing knitting to our little library.  I think the Halloween spirit is getting to some people’s heads though…

Sometimes it's hard to understand what vampires are trying to say...but they seem to like knitting!

Apple Browning Experiment Results

Library Club only has 2 more sessions to go: Messy Art and Reading. We’ll be creating peanut butter sculptures the first week and doing a book club-style discussion of the book Just Juice the last week.  Food Science week explored how to keep sliced apples from browning.  Our top dip was Lemon Juice for effectiveness and flavor!  (followed closely by orange juice) Apples dipped in dry salt tasted the worst.  YUCK!

After Library Club, we gear up for Explorers! 1st and 2nd graders will spend 4 Thursdays exploring the world around us.

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Don’t forget our Halloween Story Time at 11:00 on Saturday, the 29th (you can wear your costume!) and then a special Preschool Story Time on Saturday, November 5 at 11:00.

 

 

More pictures…

Playing in the leaves before knitting club

Very involved in her new skill

"Wow, we ROCK"

Youth Action Committee GIM Saturday!

General Interest Mtg. Saturday 12:00-12:45

Coming up next….

This Saturday we launch a NEW program!

Appropriate for our youngest audiences, but older siblings welcome.

A Full Week of Fun

Great Job!!!!!

This week I want to give a shout out to all the kids who tried new things at the Hatfield Public Library.

Knitters hard at work

We had young knitters learning the art of patience as they slowly cast on and knitted their first stitches.  Everyone worked hard and hopefully we’ll all remember how to do some of it when we return next Tuesday.

A couple of our knitters excited to get started

 

 

 

 

We hope the frustration of learning a new skill didn’t drive anyone away!

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Library Club: Exploring

The Art of the Book

We looked at the end pages of books (the paper on the inside cover), both old and new.  A few books we looked at even had some gold leafing on the pages!  Gold leafing is a way of putting very, very thin gold onto the edges of paper.  It is also used to decorate paintings, furniture, or book covers.

While we didn’t get to do any gold leafing in Library Club, we did get to create our own end pages.  They’re still drying downstairs, but we had some MAJOR creativity going on.  Click on the thumbnails to see the full effect.

Done by a 3rd Grader!

Abstract Realism: sophisticated!

The kids really got into the layered effect after a while

Stay tuned for more amazing explorations next week!