New York Statewide Summer Reading Program

Summer’s Really Over

pollyalida — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:53:17 +0000

Hope you all had a wonderful summer full of fun activities and tons of reading. Have a great story to tell? An program that was really successful, a funny anecdote or two? We encourage you to share your stories here.

And here’s a summer reading celebration story I couldn’t resist sharing: Readers dig library director’s bug diet, from the Lawrence (KS) Public Library. Over 2000 children participated in their summer reading program and their had to own up to his promise to eat some bugs. Good for him! But ewww…. Bet there were other bug eating bets out there too! (via AL Direct 8/27/08)

Did you eat bugs? Share your stories!

StoryTubes Gearing Up for Next Year

pollyalida — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:53:26 +0000

Seven children from New York State created short videos about their favorite books and entered the 2008 StoryTubes project. Get ready for more next year!

Interested in joining in the 2009 program? Check out the StoryTubes site for more information.

StoryTubes - Reading Energy

Clifton Park-Halfmoon library gets buggy!

pollyalida — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:50:01 +0000

Using a simple FLIP video cam and lots of creativity, the folks at Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library put together an awesome video to promote their summer reading club. Cindy Robertson from the library says:

The song was so catchy that after some kids heard it in their morning programs at school, they came into the library weeks later singing it!

Check it out on their Summer Reading Club page.

Pizza boxes, s’mores and banking?

pollyalida — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:38:06 +0000

Marie Ellsworth of the Caldwell-Lake George Library sent us this note about one of their summer reading projects. They’ve teamed up with TD Banknorth and other local businesses to offer reading incentives. TD Banknorth is running a summer reading program that offers children a $10 incentive to read 10 books this summer.

We are right next door to Banknorth so we’ve worked out a cooperative venture. The kids sign up for the program here and get a packet I made up with the bank reading form, Pizza Hut & Appleby’s forms.

We are featuring earth-friendly projects in the children’s room. Next week is a solar s’more cooker made out of a pizza box and tin foil. Yeah, I’m not kidding! Our local pizza shop donated to boxes.

The bank is going to display the projects and any recyling ideas the kids come up with. They’ve even put up a special table to show the projects and promote the library and the NYS reading program.

Our motto is: “Save Money, Save the Earth.”

This seems like a good way to promote community involvement and make more people aware of library services.

Sign me up for those s’mores!

Albany Public Library’s Summer Reading & Computer Camp

pollyalida — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:58:14 +0000

Check out the fun stuff that the kids at the Albany Public Library have been doing this summer. APL is running some summer Computer Camp programs and the kids have been blogging and podcasting and making videos. Their enthusiasm is contagious. Thanks to Marcia Middleton for the heads up.

READ photos and a buggy contest!

pollyalida — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:05:16 +0000

Stillwater Free Library is running a fun contest. They created a bug themed poster with READ on it and took photos of all the kids wearing buggy glasses. Check out there photos and the contest on their Reading Bugs flickr set.

And check out more summer reading ideas at the Library Summer Reading Programs flick group.

Jigsaw Puzzles for your Web Sites

pollyalida — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:44:27 +0000

wordle cloud for summer reading bugs

Originally uploaded by pollyalida

There are a bunch of fun jigsaw puzzles on the Kids and Teens sections of the website. And you can put those puzzles on your web pages too! The embed codes for the puzzles are in the Planners section. Just copy and paste. They take a minute or so to load the first time you view them, but should be fast after that. Questions? Leave a comment and we’ll get back to you.

New Word Search Games - English & Spanish

pollyalida — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:07:29 +0000

There are some new word search games in the Kids section of the web site. I made one with the names of insects in Spanish. I hope I got all the words right! Do let me know if there are errors - just leave a comment here.

I can do more word searches in other languages too. Leave a comment here to suggest other languages. And if you have a list of words would be a big help too! Thanks.

3 Apples Book Award Nominations in September

pollyalida — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:52:34 +0000

Nominations for New York State’s 3 Apples Book Award will begin in September this year. A great way to encourage new titles to be nominated, is to remind the children and teens about the 3 Apples Book Award during the Summer Reading Program

The Children’s Choice Award is for students in grades 3 to 6 (ages 8-12). The Teen Choice Award is for students in 7th-12th grades (age13+).

An easy way to promote the 3 Apples during the Summer Reading Program is to create a display of past nominated and winning titles along with the tag line “What will win this year? What’s your favorite book?”

Please visit the 3 Apples website for more information.

Ewww… Edible Fear Factor @ Lester Public Library

pollyalida — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:59:38 +0000

Originally uploaded by Lester Public Library

Here’s a fun (?) program idea held at the Lester Public Library in Two RIvers, Wisconsin.

The idea came from one of our teens - created and produced by Terry. Watch the field of contestants dwindle to two. In an amazing finale it was determined a tie by the judges (the audience).

Check out the full set of photos from this event, they had quite the turnout.

And while you’re there, check out photos of activities in other libraries in the flickr summer reading photo pool.