Winter Reading Program Swift Current Library

Family literacy was the foundation behind this program. Councillor Tim Bugera participated in the event. Grandparents and grandchildren did crafts together. Father and daughter played games at the library. Mothers read magazines to children when waiting for their turn to come to get their face painted. Each family was engaged for 90 minutes at the library. They visited different stations -- food court, candy store, mascot store, face paint, game, craft and watched puppet shows. Each station had a ticket. Children read the name of the station before giving the ticket to the person responsible for the station. Family pictures were taken in the Photo booth and these pictures were printed and given to the family. A lasting memory and impression of the library was taken home by the family to engage a conversation with the family members and friends.

The Family Day Social team included Tekeyla, Hilary, Kyle, Emily, Courtney, Ariel, Jacie, Amanda, Kelsey, Darliss and Carol -- Awesome Job! Are we ready for the Feb 21 Trickster Coyote program?

Manisha Khetarpal
City Librarian

Winter Reading Fun and Family Social Day
What is there to do in Swift Current on a January Saturday afternoon when it is -26 C outside? Come to the library! Thirty children between the ages of two and eight and their parents and grandparents enjoyed an afternoon of easy winter fun at the library Family Social Day. Tekeyla Friday read a short story to the children assembled on the new colored squares carpet in the story time area of the library. The winter theme was well chosen as the children sat and listened with interest.
Two hand puppet plays by Tekeyla followed the story. Manisha and Tekeyla began with Carrot’s First Snow Day which continues the ongoing tale of Carrot and his good friend Tomato. In this adventure Tomato learns about snow through library books and through experience. Warm clothes make it fun! In Carrot and Polar Bear the audience loved the dynamic chase sequence when a hungry polar bear goes after Carrot. The lesson of this tale is that the most unusual pairs can be good friends when one helps a friend in need.
With ticket books in hands the children moved around the library taking their time to ‘spend’ their tickets at the various activity centres. At the Games table the two games with top billing were ‘Balloon Squish’ (when you broke your very soft balloon out fell a prize) and ‘Polar Bear’s Lunch’ (when you put your hand inside a paper bag you touched either 1 a starfish or 2 squishy worms or 3 a round plastic penguin) The best balloon breakers were a mom and her two children balancing on a soft white balloon that bulged in every direction but did not immediately burst. Jade and Tekeyla collected 24 games tickets and co-ordinated the games.
Across the floor from the games area was a long table with four craft stations attended by Emily and Margaret(myself). A simple cut and paste polar bear craft made from a variety of sizes of circles was the first choice for many children. More than one parent complimented our children’s scissors collection. They are safe, strong and cut well. The snowflake tree was a runner-up for most popular craft. In this craft you trace around your hand on colourful paper and glue a large number of pre-cut snowflakes on the hand tracing to look like a tree. Another polar bear activity was equally popular and this was threading blue wool in holes around the edge of a white bear shape. This involved some adult help with threading. Given 11 different winter pictures to color and a choice of crayons or markers, the option to color was chosen least; perhaps because the craft table was a standing station. Some parents and children moved to nearby round tables and chairs to continue their craft. 29 craft tickets were collected.
Kyle and Hilary worked at the snowflake scene photo booth taking group or single digital photos and transferring them to the first public use computer where they were printed to take home. It was a very professional looking picture that many people wanted done and they were kept busy throughout the afternoon.
In the entrance at the Mascot Store Jacie and Ariel did good sales in extra tickets (sold 80), cookies and candies that some patrons were hesitant to purchase upon entering the library. They found there was little interest in other items such as pencils, paper and erasers. They collected 38 tickets plus some change.
Near the reference area in the Polar Bear Food Court Amanda and Kelsey were kept busy making snow cones in a blender, serving hot cocoa and ‘snowman poop’ and an assortment of cookies. Next time they’ll have more snow cones ready in advance as they found it difficult to keep up with demand.
The big sellers were cookies and snow cones. There were 38 tickets collected and change as well.
Jennifer Watson enjoyed the face-painting station and she is becoming known as the resident face-painter at the library. Parent’s read Chickadee to children as they relaxed in the blue armchairs while waiting one’s turn. It was a quiet haven to enjoy library materials with your child. Kelsey will investigate better paint materials for the next face-painting session. 15 tickets were collected .
Carol and Courtenay sat near the Polar Bear Food Court at the Comic Book Station-draw your own polar bear comic. The age group attending was quite young and, as noticed at the craft table, coloring did not seem to attract a lot of attention today. Courtenay suggested the comics be placed with other crafts in future.
The afternoon was fun, relaxed and did not get hectic with congestion as the activity centres were well spaced within the library. There was enough space and room to participate and the short wait one may have had was a comfortable one. No hurries. Everyone who participated had fun.
A short meeting was held at the end to recap and sort through our ideas of what worked and what could we do better next time. Excellent session conducted by Manisha. Courtenay will prepare a to-do list for next time which will minimize set-up confusion and help with co-ordination of tasks. It will be posted in the staff room and staff may add their suggestions.

Weaver’s report
Margaret Lottridge