Quogue Wildlife Refuge Animals Visit Montauk Library!

Today, we finally had our long awaited Meet the Animals program presented by the Quogue Wildlife Refuge! We originally had this program scheduled for January 7th, but it had to be rescheduled due to a snow storm.  After a long wait, we were so excited to finally meet the animals today!

Mr. Tony from the Quogue Wildlife Refuge brought a lot of different animal friends with him, including a snake, a box turtle, a hissing cockroach, a chinchilla, a bearded dragon and finally a great horned owl! Before introducing the animals, Mr Tony talked about the Quogue Wildlife refuge and some of the animals they have there that didn't come to our library.  He also talked about the work they do at the refuge and the fun programs they run.  He then took each of the animal visitors nout of their cages one at a time and talked about them; their eating habits, natural habitats, special traits they have and more! Children and parents were allowed to pet most of the animals and also learned a lot about the Quogue Refuge itself, animal conservation and how to properly treat and pet animals.  This was such an informative, interesting and fun program! Children were so excited to pet the animals and asked a lot of questions - and answered some as well!  Check out the pictures below! What was your favorite animal? Mine was Hooter the owl - so cute!

For more information about the Quogue Wildlife Refuge, their events and animals, visit their website here.  We hope to have the Quogue Wildlife Refuge animals back for future events at the library! To see some of our upcoming programs, click here! Thanks to the refuge for bringing their animals for a visit today!

Exciting New Things For March!

March at the Montauk Library is bringing some new and exciting things for both the children's department and the library itself! This month, we are adding two new recurring programs for young children ages birth through 5 years old!

Starting on Friday, March 3rd and continuing on Fridays, March 10th, 17th and 31st, the library is having a Stay & Play program for young children with their caregivers.  The program will run from 10:15 am to 11:15 am and will be a playtime for young children! We will be filling our program room in the lower level of the library with different educational toys that will help children learn through play and exploration.  Playtime will end with circle time and singing a few songs before saying goodbye.  This program is a great way for young children to interact with each other and their caregivers in an informal setting, all while having fun!  It is also something fun to do during the end of winter when it is still too cold out to play outside.  We hope to see you Friday mornings for this wonderful program!

The second new program for young children that we are adding in March is our Bilingual Storytime! I am very excited to be able to offer a bilingual storytime at the Montauk Library! Dual language teacher and specialist Mary Jane Greenfield will be conducting the storytime.  Ms. Greenfield states, "The best time to teach your child a second languages age is the same time he or she is learning his or her first language.  Research has shown that bilinguals tend to be more creative thinkers than those who speak one language and one study suggests that their brain functions may stay sharper as they age.  Two- and 3 year olds are not only increasing their vocabularies, they're starting to recognize the speech patterns they've been hearing from birth.  The earlier you introduce a second language, the easier it will be for your child to pick up its unique sounds."  Join us and introduce your child to a new language through stories, songs, fingerplays and more!  Bilingual storytime will be held two Tuesdays a month and current dates include March 14th and 28th and April 11th and 25th! In preparation for bilingual storytime, I have ordered some new picture books for our Spanish language collection.  Our new books are now on display in the children's department and I encourage you to give bilingual storytime a try!

Finally, a new change happening for the whole library is that our hours have been extended! We are now open an hour earlier during the week and close later on Thursdays and Fridays.  We will be opening an hour early on Sundays as well.  With the extended hours we hope to offer more programming and more opportunities for all ages to visit the library and discover what we have to offer! We hope to see you soon!

Montauk Library's New Hours:

Monday - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Tuesday - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Wednesday - 10:00 am - 8:00 pm

Thursday - 10:00 am - 8:00 pm

Friday - 10:00 am - 8:00 pm

Saturday - 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Sunday - 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm