New Teen Advisory Board Website

Thanks to our amazing teen volunteer, Abenezer, we have a fantastic new Teen Advisory Board website.  

The Aurora Central Library’s Teen Advisory Board is open to teens in grades 6-12.  If you know what you want to see in the Library, have suggestions for books to order or programming you want to attend, put in an application today.


Can't make it to our meetings?  Feel free to use the forums on new site to make suggestions!  We want to hear from you, and get new ideas on how we can better serve your needs.

For more information on our library, check out our Facebook page or go to auroralibrary.org.For more information on our library, check out our Facebook page or go to auroralibrary.org.

Spooky Halloween

The Aurora Public Library Central Branch is hosting a very special Spooky Storytime and Costume Parade on October 30 at 10:00 am.  Kiddos are welcome to bring their costumes and go trick-or-treating around the library.  

Frankly, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year.  Most of the staff will be following a "haunted western" theme.  If all goes well, you'll get to see me in boots and a neat hat.

The lineup for this week's storytime is below.  I tried to branch out of the typical Halloween lineup, and take a look at other spooky tales.  I particularly enjoyed Vampirina Ballerina, by Anne Marie Pace.  It has a neat little message attached to it.

Books:

Additional Reading:

Oh Yeah!, by Tom Birdseye ; illustrated by Ethan Long.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat, by Lucille Colandro ; illustrated by Jared Lee.

Brooms are for Flying! by Michael Rex.

Click, Clack, Boo, by Doreen Cronin ; iIllustrated by Betsy Lewin.
The Hallo-wiener, by Dav Pilkey.

Rhymes, Fingerplays, and Songs:

“Five Little Pumpkins” (Storytime Katie)

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate
The first one said, “My, it’s getting late.”
The second one said, “There are witches in the air.”
The third one said, “I don’t care!”
The fourth one said, “Let’s run and run and run.”
The fifth one said, “It’s all Halloween fun!”
Then oooooh went the wind, and out went the lights!
And the five little pumpkins rolled clear out of sight.

“Pumpkin, Pumpkin” (Storytime Katie)
Pumpkin, pumpkin, big and round, (Make big circle with hands)
Sitting on the cold, hard ground. (Touch the ground)
Soon I’ll pick you off the vine, (Pretend to pick a pumpkin)
Give you a name, and make you mine (Hug pumpkin tightly)
Carve a face for all to see, (Point to face)
Add a candle for Halloween glee! (Clap your hands)

Action Rhyme: “Monster, Monster” (Storytime Katie)
Monster, monster, turn around
Monster, monster, touch the ground
Monster, monster, reach up high
Monster, monster, touch the sky
Monster, monster, touch your nose
Monster, monster, grab your toes
Monster, monster, touch your knees
Monster, monster, sit down please

Song & Puppet: “Flutter, Flutter Little Bat” (Storytime Katie)
Flutter, flutter little bat
How I wonder where you’re at
Up above the midnight sky
Peeking down with yellow eyes
Flutter, flutter little bat
How I wonder where you’re at

Action Rhyme: Black Cat

Black cat, black cat up in the tree. (look up)

Black cat, black cat staring at me. (circle hands around eyes)

Black cat, black cat come down from there. (shake finger)

Black cat, black cat you gave me a scare! (put hands on hips and shake head)

Early Literacy Tips:

•  Talk about the names of favorite Halloween traditions such as “pumpkin, scarecrow, cider, candy, costume” - sound out the different parts of the word “pump” and “kin” – clap while saying them separately and then together again, first slowly and then faster. 
• Help your child think of words that rhyme with Halloween like “green, clean, bean, thirteen, queen, screen, teen, tangerine, submarine, trampoline” – make up silly rhymes with these words. 
• Help your child find things that start with the “H”- “huh” sound all around the house (hat, hand, help, hot, happy). 
•  The sense of rhythm obtained from listening to songs and rhymes will help your child to identify patterns, like rhyming words, which will help them learn to read. Because songs automatically break down words into smaller sounds through tones, singing with your child is one of the best ways develop early literacy skills. Say silly rhymes and sing songs about Halloween. 
• Help your child learn sequencing. This will help later on in recalling the parts of a story (beginning, middle, and end). When you are making a costume or carving a pumpkin, ask your child to help you remember the steps, or ask him to repeat the order in which you did things. “What did we take out of the pumpkin first? What did we do next?” 
• When you are finished trick or treating, ask your child to tell you what other costumes he remembers seeing. 
• Look at the candy wrappers and name the letters you see. Sort them by size, shape, color, flavor, etc.

Activity:

Make Toasted Pumpkin Seeds:

1. Separate the seeds from the pulp and rinse them in a colander

2. In bowl combine 2 c. pumpkin seeds, 1 1/2 tbsp. cooking oil, melted butter or margarine, 1 1/4 tsp. salt, until seeds are coated. (Try other spices like paprika too!)

3. Spread on large shallow baking pan.

4. Bake at 250 degrees approximately 1 hour, stirring occasionally until crisp, dry and golden brown.

Costume Parade:
What Halloween Storytime would be complete without a costume parade?  Our very special storytime will be held on October 30, 2013 at 10:00 am.  Pictures to come soon!


For more information on our library, check out our Facebook page or go to auroralibrary.org.

The Anime Club is a go!

I am really excited to get this program up and running.  There have been requests here and there to get an anime club together at the library, and I am happy to say that we will have our first meeting at the beginning of 2014.

I just have to say thank you to Right Stuf Inc.  While other anime enterntainment companies have discontinued their club affiliate programs, Right Stuf continues to offer wonderful outreach to local groups that try to bring anime to the public.

Our first two screening are thanks to Right Stuf Inc and Nozomi Entertainment.  Admission is free and popcorn will be provided!

Here is what we have so far:

Wednesday, January 22, 2014. 3:30 to 5:30 pm

Aria the Animation, Volume 1.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014. 3:30 to 5:30 pm

Sound of the Sky, Volume 1.

Bringing some color into our space

We have an unusual layout at our facility.  It can be difficult to tell when you walk out of one department and into another.  Our youth services area suffers from this a tad bit, and we get strangers wandering in and out all day.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be frustrating for a patron who just does not want anything to do with our fancy display of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Big Nate books.  In an effort to define our space, our teen volunteers helped put up some pixel art on our plexiglass windows.  I have to admit, it looks pretty neat.  Although these younger whippersnappers seem to have a hard time identifying some of them.

YuGiOh! Library Tournament

I am amazed at what the youth in our community can come up with.  When given the opportunity, these kids are more than happy to step up and take ownership of the programs they love and enjoy.  The Afternoon Game Club has given a core group of kids that very opportunity.  Earlier in the summer they approached me, and asked if we could work together to set up a tournament, complete with all the fame, glory, and prizes that are obligatory during such an event.  From that idea came our first ever Library Tournament.

Held on Wednesday, August 14, the tournament had twenty-six registered participants, all ages eight to eighteen.  While it was chaotic at times, and I admit a little more than I expected, everything ran well with the help of two very knowledgeable volunteers.  Without them, the tournament would have been impossible.

We ultimately crowned one young man champion.  He walked home with five new Number Hunters booster packs.

It was successful.  The kids loved it.  Maybe, just maybe, we will do it again next year.

Colors

We had a blast at this week's storytimes.  PJ Storytime clocked in at 27 participants, and Preschool Storytime had 68!  It was a great way to end the summer.  Our library will take a storytime break for the month of August, and start up again in September.

This week's books:

If you haven't had a chance to read "The Day the Crayons Quit," then do it as soon as possible!  This is an adorable book about a boy who must figure out how to appease the demands of his many crayons. 

Pete the Cat is always a hit.  The kids know this books so well.  It was a great tool for getting the kids really involved in the story.

For our craft, we took little squares of color paper and used our imaginations, designing whatever came to mind.

For more information on our library, check out our Facebook page or go to auroralibrary.org.

Gaming @ the Library

Last Thursday, July 18, about ten teens and I set up the Nintendo Wii in the large community room and played Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart.  Everyone jumped right in and had a great time.  We are getting a great core group of teens that show up regularly to our activities.  Perhaps sometime soon we can finally organize a youth advisory board, and build an effective space for our teens within the library

 

Check out our Facebook page for more information.

Angry Birds |Life Size| at the Aurora Central Library

 

After discovering that the pigs had stolen our birds' eggs, twenty kids vented their angry by throwing birds at a life size pig fort.  The kids took turns clobbering the fort with angry bird balls.  In between turns, they had the chance to reconstruct the fort, making it increasingly difficult for anyone trying to knock a big down.  While it was ruthless at times, they seemed to enjoy the activity. 

 

 

 

In addition to having the life size game, we had Angry Birds Space set up on the projector.  Kids were able to pick up a controller and show off their puzzle solving skills on a giant screen.

 

See more photos on our Facebook page.