Summer Reading Week 2

This was the first week of story times and events at the branch libraries. I survived, but just barely. I presented 22 events with a total attendance of 531.

Here's a break down:

• 5 community story times
• 4 community school age events
• 2 day camp story times
• 9 day camp school ages events
• 1 movie
• 1 special event (1st Peter Rabbit Party)

This week the story time theme was Digging Up Vegetables. The school age theme was Dig Into the Past--Pyramids. Links are to my wiki for full agendas. The story times went very well. The books were interactive and the flannel board sets well received. At two of the branches, story time attendance swelled to 43 and 56. The branch that had 43 usually only has 10 during the school year.

The pyramids (and Egyptians) event went well. I don't really read so much with this age as I share information, but that varies week to week. This week I shared, next week I'll read some. The activities (mummy wrap and writing their names in hieroglyphics) were fun...at least the kids seemed to like them. I had a hard time getting them to "Walk Like an Egyptian." Kids hit a certain age and don't like to dance in public anymore.

The first Peter Rabbit Party went okay. I had some rambunctious children who made things interesting. I'll definitely be improving my plan before the next one on Tuesday. We didn't get to half the things I had planned. I hope to post about it by itself at some point, maybe early July.

Registration for the reading contest ended for all age groups except teens this week. I have 245 kids & teens registered at my four branches. That's a 55% increase from last year's number. We'll continue to register teens until about July 18. (This is because they could still read 5 books in 2 weeks. The younger groups are counting days so keeping registration open is not possible.)

Next week, I have 19 events including my first teen event of the summer, a Mad Hatter Tea Party.