Summer STEM for Kids and Tweens

Summer STEM for Kids and Tweens

Summer STEM for Kids and Tweens


This summer, we’ll be doing video crafting focusing on STEM activities. Our Kids’ Corner and Tween Scene web pages will have links to videos with the instructions and demonstrations for each craft activity.

You can come by and pick up a Grab-n-Go craft bag with all supplies needed for the activity. These bags will be available on the first Monday of each week. We only have a limited number of these, so once they’re gone, they’re gone! We’ve included the lists of supplies for each craft in case you don’t get one of the Grab-n-Go bags. That way, you may use your own supplies and follow along with our videos.

Themes and Crafts for June:

  • June 16  Dragons- Charm the Dragon (Dragon Snake Charmer)
    • tissue paper
    • ball-point pen
    • wool
    • aluminum foil sheet
  • June 22  Royalty- Communicate with the princess in the Tower (Secret Codes)
    • white crayon
    • water color paint
  • June 29  Jack and the Beanstalk- Need a way down (Ziploc bag parachute)
    • ziploc bag
    • yarn or string
    • knight toy
    • big straw

Themes and Crafts for July:

  • July 6  Three Little Pigs- Scare the wolf (film canister rocket)
    • plastic film canister
    • antacid tablet
  • July 13  Goldilocks- Who dunnit? (DIY DNA)
    • licorice twists
    • 4 colors of jellybeans
    • a handful of toothpicks
  • July 20  Cave of Wonders- Wishes in the lights (bubble lamp in a bag)
    • Ziploc bag
    • antacid tablet
    • water
    • oil
    • UV light
    • highlighter
    • paper towel

Enter the Summer STEM drawing!

Enter to win STEM-themed prizes by sending us a photo of you doing one of these activities! Place the photo in the body of your email (no attachments) and send it to madisonlib.org@gmail.com. We’ll hold drawings at the end of the month!

Summer STEM – Charm the Dragon

Summer STEM – Charm the Dragon

Charm the Dragon

Week 1 of Summer STEM from Your Library
Watch the Instruction Video

Experiment with static electricity and charm a tissue paper dragon!

  • Place your tissue paper over your dragon template. Trace the lines and cut out your dragon.

  • Place your dragon on the sheet of tin foil. Bend the head slightly towards you.

  • Rub your pen against the wool for at LEAST a minute.

  • Hold the pen near the head of your dragon and wave it. The head will rise to meet the pen.

  • Experiment with other ways you can build a static charge. Will a balloon work better?

Enter the Summer STEM drawing!

Enter to win STEM-themed prizes by sending us a photo of you doing one of these activities! Place the photo in the body of your email (no attachments) and send it to madisonlib.org@gmail.com. We’ll hold drawings at the end of the month!

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On the Same Page 2020 – Island Escape

On the Same Page 2020 – Island Escape

On the Same Page 2020 – Island Escape

A Tropical Paradise

Friday, February 28, starting at 7:00 pm in the Community Room

Join us as we finish our On the Same Page celebration of Peter Pan and dispel the winter gloom!

Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.

A Host of Activities

We’ve got fun activities for all ages. Spend an evening on the beach enjoying the waves. Be sure to wear your Hawaiian shirt! We’ll have all the tropical sounds, food and fun that you could wish for, including drinks with umbrellas. 

Besides having a great time while ignoring the outside snow, participating will give you a chance at the night’s drawing for ultimate relaxation, a massage from Urban Massage. (Must be present and an adult to win, though there will be a drawing prize for the youngsters as well.)

Jane is now a common grown-up, with a daughter called Margaret; and every spring cleaning time, except when he forgets, Peter comes for Margaret and takes her to the Neverland, where she tells him stories about himself, to which he listens eagerly. When Margaret grows up she will have a daughter, who is to be Peter’s mother in turn; and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.

On the Same Page 2020 – Open Book Discussion

On the Same Page 2020 – Open Book Discussion

On the Same Page 2020 – Open Book Discussion

As Part of the Library Book Club

Wednesday, February 26, at 1:30 pm in the Entry Foyer
and
Thursday, February 27, at 6:00 pm in the Entry Foyer

Children, Tweens, Teens and Adults are welcome to join this On the Same Page discussion about Peter Pan, the mischievous boy who refuses to grow up.

“Listen, then,” said Wendy, settling down to her story, with Michael at her feet and seven boys in the bed. “There was once a gentleman—”

A Story for the Ages

Our story starts as Peter Pan lands in the Darling’s proper middle-class home to look for his shadow. He befriends Wendy, John and Michael and teaches them to fly over the rooftops of London (with a little help from fairy dust). He and Tinker Bell whisk them off to Never-land, the island where lost boys play, mermaids splash and fairies make mischief. But a villainous-looking gang of pirates lurk in the docks, led by the terrifying Captain James Hook. Magic and excitement are in the air, but if Captain Hook has his way, before long, someone will be walking the plank and swimming with the crocodiles…

“It’s awfully sad,” the first twin said cheerfully.
“I don’t see how it can have a happy ending,” said the second twin. “Do you, Nibs?”
“I’m frightfully anxious.”
“If you knew how great is a mother’s love,” Wendy told them triumphantly, “you would have no fear.”

On the Same Page 2020 – An Awfully Big Adventure

On the Same Page 2020 – An Awfully Big Adventure

On the Same Page 2020 – An Awfully Big Adventure

The Illustrations of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan

Wednesday, February 12, starting at 7:00 PM IN THE COMMUNITY ROOM

For this On the Same Page event, we’re pleased to have guest speaker and BYU-Idaho English Professor, Jacqueline Harris, who will present a fascinating discussion.

“Would you like an adventure now,” Peter said casually to John, “or would you like to have your tea first?”

Capturing Barrie’s Neverland

2nd and 4th Thursday’s at 4:00-4:30 pm in the Community Room

Professor Harris will share how famous artists and illustrators have been captivated by Barrie’s Neverland and the boy who wouldn’t grow up. The artwork discussion will feature the pen-and-ink illustrations of F.D. Bedford, the full-page color renditions by Mabel Lucie Attwell, and the fairy watercolors prints by Arthur Rackham.

(And in the spirit of let’s not go home empty handed, there may be a small token given at the end of the evening to offset library forgetfulness, if you know what I mean. .)

F. D. Bedford

Mabel Lucie Attwell

Arthur Rackham

[Peter Pan] became a bestseller, and rightly so, as it was to be thumbed to loving death in nurseries, generation after generation. In her role as an illustrator for children it is the most successful of her books, as it touched most enjoyably on the areas of that marvelous story in a way that children can understand and remember forever.

Chris Beetles about Mabel Lucie Atwell’s illustrated version of Peter Pan

On the Same Page 2020 – Fairy and Mermaid Crafts

On the Same Page 2020 – Fairy and Mermaid Crafts

On the Same Page 2020 – Fairy and Mermaid Crafts

Fairy and Mermaid Crafts

Saturday, February 1, starting at 2:00 pm in the Community Room

We’ll kick off this year’s On the Same Page activities with
fairy and mermaid crafts for all skill levels.

When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.

Choose Your Level and Choose Your Craft!

For the younger or less nimble fingered, we’ll make mermaid tails from craft sticks and bright papers. Intermediate crafters can decorate a fairy house. More advanced hands may choose the luminary jar with a fairy, mermaid, or Peter Pan design.

Mermaid Tails

Your kids can’t get enough of mermaids? Come make mermaid tails! Super easy to make and you can even glue on some magnets and put on your fridge! Click Here to see how to make them. This is the easiest of the crafts we’ll be doing tonight.

Fairy Houses

Let your imagination grow and create a house for those magical fairies to rest. Use things you have at home and come enjoy making these cute fairy houses. This craft is the intermediate level activity.

Fairy / Mermaid Lanterns

Upcycle mason jars and turn them into a set of lanterns with magical silhouettes of mermaids and fairies set against the luminescent background of the sea or a luscious green forest. These charming fairy / mermaid lanterns are not only easy to make, but look adorable in a garden or when used as a night light. They’ll be sure to spark your child’s imagination or your childish imagination. Click Here to see how to make them. This is the most difficult of the three crafts.

There was another light in the room now, A thousand times brighter than the night-lights…. It was not really a light; it made this light by flshing about so quickly but when it came to rest for a second you saw it was a fairy, no longer than your hand, but still growing. It was a girl called Tinker Bell, exquisitely gowned in a skeleton leaf, cut low and square, through which her figure could be seen to the best advantage. She was slightly inclined to embonpoint…. The loveliest tinkle as of golden bells… It is the fairy language. You ordinary children can never hear it, but if you were to hear it you would know that you had heard it before.

On the Same Page 2020 – Book Release Party!

On the Same Page 2020 – Book Release Party!

On the Same Page 2020 – Book Release Party!

All Things Pirate with Peter Pan!

Friday, January 17, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm in the Community Room

This is the night! We’ll start giving away free copies of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.* This is our book for our annual February community reading series On the Same Page.

*One per household, please.

Captain Hook’s eyes were the blue of the forget-me-not, and of a profound melancholy, save when he was plunging his hook into you, at which time two red spots appeared in them and lit them up horribly. 

Loads of Fun for All Ages!

We will have treats, a craft, a few games, sneak peeks at the upcoming activities which will take place all through the month of February. Feel free to dress as a pirate (we will) to make the most of this arrrrrsome experience!

Come eat and enjoy some exotic sharks, fish and chips, mini cannonballs and ginger ale as we dress up as a pirate from making hooks to eyepatches and even get a tattoo! We will be walking the plank, playing Loot and ring toss using swords, we even have pirate coloring pages for your little ones!

All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, ‘Oh, why can’t you remain like this for ever!’ This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.

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