Puppet Making

Are you a 3rd to 5th grader? Do you like puppets? Come to the Watertown Free Public Library to make your very own puppet with Gerwick Puppets on January 13th at 6:00pm!

Gerwick Puppets have performed at First Night Boston and at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Sign up at the children's desk, or call 617-972-6435 to reserve your spot in this exciting program.

This EqualAccess program is being funded through the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners with funds from LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act), a Federal source of library funding provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. EqualAccess Libraries is a professional development program sponsored by Libraries for the Future.

games games everywhere

Bored? Board Games at the Watertown Free Public Library are a BIG HIT. We recently acquired board and card games at the library.

Kids come in to the children's room and ask at the desk to sign out a board game. It's a great way to make new friends, take a break from homework, and show off your awesome skills!!!

Come check them out.

Election time!

Elections are right around the corner, and while you may not be old enough to vote, we're hoping you're still interested in the elections.

Here are a couple of links that will be useful in helping you learn more about the candidates, current issues, and will even let you play games!

Election Connection

Election 2008

Jane Yolen

As you may know, Jane Yolen will be visiting the Watertown Free Public Library THIS FRIDAY at 3:30 pm to promote her new book, "Sea Queens"!

Come to the library to hear Jane Yolen speak, check out our display of her books, and get your very own copies of her books!

This prolific author has written works for children, teens and adults with such famous titles as "Owl Moon" and "How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?"

"Sea Queens" is a book about women pirates around the world. In this prolific book, Yolen tells the fascinating stories of 12 women pirates, from Artemisia, the admiral-queen of Persia in 500 BC to Madame Ching, who sailed the South China Sea in the early 1800s.

We hope you are able to come meet this famous author, and are so proud to have Jane Yolen at the Watertown Free Public Library!

Summer Reading

Thanks to all of our summer reading participants! We loved talking to everyone about what they read over the summer, and the programs were a great success.

We wish you a very successful school year!

Scratch

I just wanted to let everyone know what an amazing program we had last week with the tweens.

Scratch is a program made at MIT that helps kids (and adults) learn how to write video games quickly, with NO head scratching!

We decided to give it a shot at the library, so we downloaded Scratch on all of our laptops and set to work for two hours as kids made rhinos fly across the screen, kids jump on trampolines, and cats to run back and forth across the screen.

Almost 20 kids came, even though we only had 10 laptops. Because of the great success, we plan on having more Scratch events at the library, so keep an eye out.

In the meantime, we are keeping Scratch on the laptops, so you can still come and play anytime you want...and when you're done, you can save what you've been working on by e-mailing it to yourself.

So have fun, and scratch!

Library Elf

I found a cool tool that you can use to keep track of all of your library cards and items checked out at any library you may attend.

www.libraryelf.com is a tool in which you type in your library card numbers, and in turn it will tell you in various formats (calendar, list, etc.) when your items are due. It will even tell you when a book you've put on hold has come in.

I think this would be most useful for a family, because you can type in everyone's card and it will compile everything in one convenient place.

I have added mine to my RSS feeder, so that I don't have to check yet another site daily.

Check it out!

It's Time to think about Summer Reading!!!

The weather has (finally) begun warming up, the cherry blossoms are budding and the birds are singing…It’s almost summer! For children’s librarians, the first sign of summer tends to bring about a moment of panic – for with summer, brings summer reading, and far too often we never have quite enough time to plan.

This year at the Watertown Free Public Library, no panic is present, as summer reading planning has been well on it’s way – since last October.

We have big plans.

“Wild About Reading” is the theme of the summer, and you won’t believe what we have in store for you. It’s going to be big. It’s going to be wild. For seven weeks, you won’t know what hit you. We’re talking wild animals, dinosaurs, magicians, concerts and more.
If you think you’re too old for summer reading, think again. For kids in grades 3-5, we will be having programs dedicated JUST FOR YOU.

Of course, summer reading isn’t just about the programs, it’s about the reading, too! Our summer reading lists have been revamped to reflect the most current, up-to-date and award winning books on the shelves, along with the classics. We have also been ordering books on CD, so if you get car sick (like me) and can’t read on your trip to Plymouth Rock, you can listen to the CD.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. We know you love reading, and we know you don’t NEED an incentive to read, but we can’t help it…we love prizes, and we want you to have them. If you read for one hour, you'll get a free summer reading t-shirt, and when you enter in our raffle you’ll have a good chance at getting a big prize.

Parties, reading, prizes…what more can you ask for in a summer? Join us at the library. It’s going to be a great summer.

National Kite Month

Ok, so I know I'm posting this a bit late - it's April 30th...the LAST day of kite month. But, here at the Watertown Free Public Library, we don't care that we've almost missed it, because we've decided to celebrate it in May!

On May 20th, come on down to the library to decorate your very own kite so you can take it home and fly it high in the sky! We have 24 kites to decorate, so you'll have to sign up by calling us (617-972-6435) or stopping by the children's desk.

If you'd like more information about kites, visit this website that has a ton of great information:

http://www.intothewind.com/index.html

April is Poetry Month!

This is an example of a cinquain, written by Paul B. Janeczko in "A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetry Forms".

Oh, cat
are you grinning
curled in the window seat
as sun warms you this December
morning?

A cinquain is a type of poetry. It is a short poem consisting of five lines, usually UNrhymed contaning respectively
two
four
six
eight
two
Syllables.

Can you write your own cinquain? Post it in the comments if you'd like!! We'd love to see what you came up with.

Baby Lapsit

If you have a baby 18 months or younger, come join us for our baby lapsit with the wonderful Caitlin!

Celebrate your baby with stories, finger plays and songs.

Baby lapsit is a great way to introduce babies to the library and helps build lifelong readers!