Summer Reading Kickoff 2016 - The Princess, the Frog & the Pea

This past Friday, the Montauk Library kicked off it's Summer Reading Club 2016 with a puppet performance by Liz Joyce from A Couple of Puppets, the resident puppet company of the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre. Ms. Joyce entertained children with The Princess, the Frog and the Pea puppet show in the lower level of the library.  Prior to and after the show, children were able to sign up for the Summer Reading Club 2016, where they can record the books they read during the summer and earn prizes and raffle tickets. Many children signed up for the reading club and attended the wonderful puppet show!

 After the conclusion of The Princess, the Frog & the Pea, Ms. Joyce led a puppet making workshop for the attendees which took place outside in our side yard by the Serenity Garden.  Children made puppets using popsicle sticks, glue, yarn, sequins, paper, feathers and more! Some children made the characters from the show and others got really creative and made their own characters - one boy even made a ninja! Everyone seemed to have a great time at our first official summer program. Thank you to all who celebrated the summer kickoff with us!  If you were not able to attend, children can still join the summer reading club as registration is ongoing. Please see Miss Jackie in the children's department to register today!

Weekend Fun - Bunnies and Crafts at the Library!

    In case you missed it, we had bunnies at the library this past Friday, April 1st (no this is not an April Fool's joke!).  Judy Wilson brought her basket of eight adorable bunnies for the children of Montauk to see, hold and pet.  This program was aimed at young children ages 3 to 5 years old with a caregiver.  Ms. Wilson had everyone sit in a circle and she talked about bunnies and how they are born and develop in the first weeks of their lives.  She then let everyone take turns to hold and pet a bunny.  She ended the program with showing the children how bunnies act in their natural environment with food, water and toys.  Children then were able to all say goodbye to the bunnies as they left the program.  We did not expect this program to be so incredibly popular! Unfortunately, not everyone who wanted to attend was able to due to limited space in the program.  If you missed it, don't be too upset because we will most certainly be having Ms. Wilson and her bunnies back again next year for multiple sessions of her bunny program!  Check out the adorable pictures below!

     On Saturday, April 2nd, we switched gears and held a program for tweens and teens making awesome duct tape and magnet crafts.  It turned out to be the perfect day for crafting because it was rainy and cold, and the girls enjoyed pizza and working on some new projects.  Those who attended made different crafts out of duct tape by creating duct tape fabric and weaving/sticking it together. Some of the crafts made included flowers, wallets, coin purses, tassels and even a full purse!  We also had supplies to make mini-magnets for the kids to put in their lockers or on their fridge at home.  Using mini-jewels, modge podge, and magnets, the girls were able to cut out photos, use modge podge to paint them onto the clear jewels and then attach magents to the jewels.  All of the crafts came out really good and everyone had a good time! Keep an eye out for more tween and teen programs coming in the future!

A Look Back at March Programs...

March has been such a busy month in the children's room! We had a lot of programs going on this month, along with St. Patrick's Day, the first day of Spring and Easter all in the same month! I wanted to take a look back on some of my favorite programs of the month and share some of the pictures we took capturing these fun events.  My favorite programs were St. Patrick's Day Crafternoon, Bubble Science and of course Spring Cupcakes!

On March 8th, children came to the Montauk Library to create some pretty awesome St. Patrick's Day crafts.  First, we painted shamrocks using green puffy paint and topped it off with some glitter.  We then made leprechauns by gluing and coloring a leprechaun's face and then painting on his red beard with puffy paint.  Puffy paint is a mixture of equal parts glue and shaving cream, which creates a creamy kind of "paint."  What's really cool about it is that when it dries, it maintains it's puffiness, making whatever you paint pop of the page in 3D.  It also gives your painting a smooth texture once it dries.  To make different colored puffy paint, simply add food coloring and mix!  Our final project was a St. Patrick's Day countdown craft! Children made rainbow chains out of construction paper strips and attached the chain to a pot of gold.  The children made one paper chain link for each day until St. Patrick's Day that remained.  Once they took it home, the children can remove one chain link per day until St. Patrick's Day.  The children had a lot of fun and made some creative and beautiful artwork!

Another great program we had in March was called Bubble Science! Programmer Cheryl Frey Richards came to Montauk and did some bubble experiments with children who signed up for the event.  They also got to create artwork by blowing bubbles with colored bubble solution.  Finally, she showed children how to make giant bubbles! This program was so much fun! Cheryl will be back at the library in May for a program called Boom Painting where children will experiment with fizzing and exploding paint to make awesome artwork.  She will also be visiting the library this summer for an outdoor Jackson Pollack mural painting program.  We can't wait!

Finally, we had a great time at our Spring Cupcakes program where children decorated cupcakes to look like different symbols of spring.  First, we decorated vanilla cupcakes to look like butterflies using m&ms, pretzels, pull-and-peel Twizzlers and green icing.  Second, children sculpted pull-and-peel Twizzlers pieces into birds nests and topped it off with mini Cadbury eggs for our birds nest cupcakes design.  The final cupcake was a fluffy bunny design! Children frosted the cupcake with vanilla frosting and dipped the cupcake in coconut shavings (making the bunny look fluffy).  Then they used marshmallows, jelly beans, m&ms and more coconut to decorate the face and ears of the bunny.  Both sessions for this program were full and everyone had a great time and made some fabulous looking cupcakes!

We had a lot of fun in March and we have even more great programs coming up in April, including a visit from some bunnies, a fruit sushi & dessert pizza making program and more!  Check our upcoming events page for more details!  See you in April!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Children's author and innovator Dr. Seuss would have turned 112 on March 2, 1904.  Theodor Seuss Geisel, the man behind the pen name, was first an illustrator and cartoonist for several magazines and also worked on ad campaigns and political cartoons before turning to children's books after World War II.  He wrote many classic children's books that remain the cornerstone of children's book collections today.  Dr. Seuss published a total of sixty children's books in his lifetime and has a children's book award named after him, the Theodor Seuss Geisel award, which honors the authors and illustrators of beginner children's books of merit.  To commemorate Dr. Seuss' birthday every year, March 2nd has been named the official date for Read Across America Day, which celebrates reading and promotes reading motivation and awareness for children.

In honor of this wonderfully wacky author and his beloved books, I decided to throw a birthday party for Dr. Seuss this past Saturday, and all the children in Montauk were invited!  We had Cat in the Hat party hats for each child, as well as Lorax mustaches and a chance to play Pin the Hat on the Cat.  But what's a birthday party without dessert? The main event of the birthday party was decorating Seussational Seuss-themed cookies! 

First, everyone made one Cat in the Hat cookie using a chocolate cookie and red velvet oreos stacked on top of it secured by vanilla frosting. This created a replica of the Cat in the Hat's famous hat.  The second cookie we made channeled Sam, Sam I am, from Green Eggs and Ham! We frosted sugar cookies with green frosting and topped it with a Nilla Wafer cookie and sprinkles to create our own green eggs and ham! Our final two cookies were made to look like a red fish and a blue fish from Seuss' classic story One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.   Using red and blue frosting, we frosted the cookies and decorated them with m&ms to make them look like fish.  Children got to take home their treats in a treat box to enjoy. 

We all had a great time honoring Dr. Seuss and getting creative with delicious desserts.  Check out the photos below! Interested in attending our programs? See what's coming up in the month of March here. 

#ThrowbackThursday Wii at the Library!

Last Saturday was really exciting because we finally had our first gaming program at the library! Children were invited to spend the afternoon playing a video game tournament with their friends on our new Nintendo Wii game consoles.

Children who attended got to play Wii on the big screen in the community room!  First, we went over the basics of how to use the controllers safely and what buttons to press to play. Then, we got started! The kids raced each other in Mariokart in groups of four.  Those who weren't playing cheered their friends, made Lego creations in their downtime or had some snacks while they waited.  Special helpers Emily and Julia assisted me in keeping score. 

After playing Mariokart, we started a Wii Sports Tournament, which included games of bowling and basketball.  After we finished the tournaments, everyone received a certificate of participation and left with a smile on their face.  We can't wait to host our next gaming afternoon...we hope to have up two screens with two gaming systems going at once! Check out the pictures below and stay tuned for more game afternoons!

Happy Valentine's Day From the Montauk Library!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Montauk Library! In celebration of Valentine's Day we had a Valentine's Day Dance for preschoolers.  Children were invited to dance under our disco ball to the latest tunes and show us their moves! We also had toys set up for the reluctant dancers to play with, including a kitchen set, play food, a shopping cart, a teeter totter, push toys, cars and trucks and a see-through tunnel! We also had Valentine's Day coloring sheets and crayons so the little artists in attendance could make pictures for their Valentines.  Everyone who attended got to take home a Valentine's Day balloon as well!  There was a lot of dancing and playing and everyone had a blast...check out the pictures below!