Jamestown
News Library Column| History |
Jamestown
News Library Column
June 11, 2008
by Carol Reed
With school ending for the summer, you may be wondering what you will do to keep the children from putting their minds in a coma by vegging out in front of the television, or ruining their hands with carpel tunnel syndrome caused by the repetitive motion of controlling their video games. I have some great suggestions for children of all school ages. (Florence, Millis Road, and Jamestown Elementary all received some of this information. Search their backpacks.) Put Tuesday mornings, at 10:00, on your calendar each week, from June 24th through August 12th.
The national reading theme for elementary children this summer is "Catch the Reading Bug." We are participating by focusing on bugs!
True, on July 1st all ages will play with ants, whether it is the "Ants Fear Factor" (I've heard they will actually offer dead bugs for tasting!) for school children or the "Ants Go Marching" for the pre-schoolers.
True, we have invited Mad Scientists to do a workshop on bugs with our pre-schoolers on July 8. I can't wait! They will actually build bugs this day!
True, we have also invited Orkin and Terminix to give their version of "The Bug Exterminator" to our 1st-5th graders on July 8th and July 15th. (Can you jump like a spider? Can you tell the difference between the good spiders and the deadly ones? Spiders! Yuck!)
True, Kindermusik teacher Robin Gentile will offer an hour of bug music and stories to our pre-schoolers on July 15th. (How do bugs sound when they skitter across the floor? Can you make buggy noises?)
True, on July 22nd, Piedmont Environmental Center has agreed to bring live specimens found at the Center during their summer camps. Tammy Flynt will also talk about life cycles.
True, all these programs are about the six legged kind of bugs (or eight-legged spiders.)
BUT after brain-storming with friends, we sort of expanded the six-legged kind into any meaning of bugs.
We are offering magicians and mimes as "Magic goes Buggy" on June 24th for all ages. Want to learn to juggle bugs? Can you imagine clowns that "bug" people? This should be a terrific show. We are excited!
The "Shutterbugs" will bring their cameras and help the children take digital photographs on June 29. We're hoping a terrific collage will "develop" out of this project. Bring your digital camera and its computer hook-up cord that day.
On July 22, the pre-schoolers will enjoy the books and art of author/illustrator Tedd Arnold with "his bug-eyed" characters.
A play about the folk character spider Anansi will debut on August 5th. Puppet master Julie Brown will bring her children's summer group to perform. Anansi bugged a lot of his friends.
The culmination of the summer program will be Miss Spider's Tea Party for the younger children, complete with tea, and "The Ugly Bug Ball" for the older ones on August 12th. Did you ever learn to "jitterbug"? Come along and help teach the children that wild and crazy swing dance. Oh, remember to dress up as an ugly bug too.
What summer program would be complete without fleas? None, I say! Jim Alberti's Flea Circus will be in town for a family evening program on July 31st at 7PM. Haven't you always wanted to see a flea circus? How does he get those teeny bugs trained to do all those tricks?
Tune in next week, same time, same channel, to read about our summer program for older children, middle school through high school. Or better yet, check out our website, http://jamestownlibrary.info/ for the latest news on our summer program. We'll see you soon, at the library on the corner and up the hill.
