Thursday, November 30, 2017

Holiday Happenings!

Thanksgiving is over and, with only one full day left in November, it's safe to say we have officially entered the Holiday Season! As the weather gets colder and forecasts of snow begin to loom on the horizon, we here at the Lawrence Library have been busy cooking up a fun and festive month of holiday programs for patrons of all ages.

It all kicks off on Friday, December 1st with our annual Holiday Tree Lighting and Visit From Santa! The outdoor celebrations begin at 6:45PM on the front steps of the library; be sure to bundle up it's sure to be chilly. This event is free and open to the public. All we ask is that guests bring a non-perishable food item to donate to PACH to help spread the joy this season!

Then, on Sunday, December 3rd, we have Holiday Music with Wendee Glick and Pamela Hines at 2:00PM. This musical duo will perform many classic holiday favorites as well as newer festive tunes. Light refreshments will be provided, as well as Starbucks coffee.

If you're itching to get crafty, we have a Decorate Your Own Gingerbread House night on Wednesday, December 6th at 6:30PM. Materials and refreshments--including hot cocoa!-- will be provided for all adult participants. Teens 13 and older are welcome to join in as well, so long as they are accompanied by an adult.

Speaking of gingerbread houses, the library is hosting our very first Gingerbread House Contest this year! We invite patrons to decorate and bring in their own gingerbread houses anytime before December 9th. Houses can be entered into one of three categories: Children, for ages 12 and under; Teen/Adult, for ages 13 and up; and Families, for anyone who wants to make it into a family endeavor. Each category will have a winner, and all winners will be announced on December 16th.

On Thursday December 14th we're bringing another musical group to the library: A Goodlie Companye. This well-known and well-loved traveling group brings the historic sounds of madrigal music to Massachusetts while also speaking to the history and customs behind the songs. This concert is free and open to the public, and is slated to begin at 7:30PM.

The following week we're celebrating the winter solstice with a Solstice Henna and Tarot Reading program. At 6:00PM on Wednesday, December 20th, both activities will be available for any and all patrons to partake in.

Down in the Children's Room, there's even more fun to be found for the month of December! Here's a list of our Saturday morning programs:

December 2nd: Holiday Card Crafts for Kids
December 9th: Kid Crafting (Ornaments)
December 16th: Cookie Decorating!
December 23rd: Holiday Happenings
December 30th: Welcome, New Year!

Each program is free and open to the public, and will begin at 10:30AM down in the Children's Activity Center. More information about these programs--and any other programs at the Lawrence Library-- can be found online at our website.

Each and every one of us here at the library looks forward to a cozy, safe, and happy holiday season, and we extend those same wishes to all our patrons and their families. Thank you for helping us make our library such a great place for the community; happy holidays, and here's to the upcoming year!


Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Enchanted Engineering

Update from the Children's Room!

In honor of this year's theme for the national summer reading program, Build A Better World, Miss Shannon and I decided to curate a schedule of activities and events for our calendar that all feature a focus on STEAM; that is, Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. One such program that we ran yesterday, to much success, was Enchanted Engineering.

In this program, our youngest patrons were tasked with helping the Three Little Pigs build a house strong enough to withstand the respiratory force of the Big Bad Wolf. We started out by reading a version of the classic fairy tale that many of the kids were familiar with, following our three porcine protagonists through their experiments at home durability with a straw house, stick house, and finally, a brick house. After that the kids were given free rein to gather supplies and get building! We provided Popsicle sticks, playdough, Legos, and corn-starch packing peanuts. Everyone got to work and built some great homes!

Once construction was complete, the kids switched sides, coloring and cutting out a wolf mask so they could try and blow their houses down. I'm happy to report that all the residences stood strong and sturdy, despite our wolves' best efforts!

All said, there were about 15 kids who participated in the program with the help of their adult caregivers. Everyone had a blast!

We hope to see our budding architects again on Wednesday, August 16th @ 10:30AM for our second installment of Enchanted Engineering, where we'll help Jack build a beanstalk tall enough to reach the clouds.

Take a look at some of the creations!








Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Introduction!

Hello avid library fans!

The blog officially has a new caretaker! My name is Miss Meredith; if you or your family have visited the Children's Room recently, you might recognize me as Miss Shannon's smiling and bubbly assistant. Or, as one of our younger patrons noted, "the girl with the thing in her nose". Referring, of course, to my septum piercing, which is a constant source of joy and curiosity to kids the world over.

I originally started working at the Lawrence Library back in the winter of 2015, primarily on Saturday mornings with a night shift here or there. However, in the last few months I've taken on more hours! I now get to come in and enjoy the mornings here in the library, whether they're quiet or hectic or somewhere in between, as well as my typical evening and Saturday shifts. I've never been happier!

The summer months mean hot days, lazy thunderstorms, vacations, and of course, lots of reading time. Miss Shannon and I have been busy with book recommendations for our younger library-goers, helping them pick out the new series or old familiar favorite to keep them busy during their school break. Upstairs, my colleagues have been just as busy keeping us up to date with the newest novels, non-fiction selections, movies, graphic novels, and of course, a shiny new encyclopedia set! (It really is a beauty; be sure to check it out!)

We're also smack-dab in the middle of our Summer Reading Program. This summer our goal is get Pepperell to read 1000 BOOKS!!! Joining us in our pursuit of 1k literary conquests is easy: simply sign up on Wandoo Reader's website and log the books you read to yourself or others. Then, at the end of the summer, join us for a celebratory ice cream party on Wednesday, August 23rd at 11:00AM. Who doesn't love ice cream?!

I'll be posting and updating here frequently, now that I've been given The Power. I hope to make this a space where you, our loyal patrons, can come to get updates, craft ideas, book recommendations, literary news, and all sorts of jazz! Please feel free to leave comments here, or pop on in to say hello and let us know what you think. We value and appreciate your feedback; this library is yours as much as it is ours, and our goal has always been to work with our public to create a space for all.

Thanks for taking the time to check this all out. Stay tuned for all the fun and excitement to come, and please, have a safe and wonderful summer!