Students enjoying their zoo day during week three of the Tama Library’s Summer Reading Program. Photo provided.

Week two at the Tuesday summer reading program was very educational. The presenter was from the education department of the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines. She brought along two friends, Olive, a tiger salamander and Erie, a 30-year-old Gopher Tortoise. Olive is native to Iowa, but Ernie is from the southeast United States.

The children learned a lot about different habitats and the animals found in each. Dragonflies were made for this week’s craft out of pipe cleaners, mini clothespins and stick-on jewels.

Names were drawn for prizes, Kool aid and Goldfish crackers were the snack of the day. On Thursday of Week 2 the group had 3 educators from ECILOG – The East Central Iowa League of Cities.

They read the book Construction Site Mission: Demolition! By Sherri Duskey Rinker. They presented the library with its very own copy too! They brought along a building made of cardboard and talked about all the different construction materials that can be recycled and what they are used for. Everyone learned a lot including the adults in the group. Afterwards the dragonfly craft was made and the group had their snack.

On Tuesday of Week Three our presenter was Cedar Rapids Storyteller, Darrin Crow. Darrin entertained everyone with some great tales about Fox and Bear, Opossum, Turkey, and Rabbit. All animals that can be found in “Beyond the Beaten Path”. The students really enjoyed the tales from folklore and had some good laughs.

Next, they made animal masks for the craft and the treat was a special version of a Smore. The group made our snack with small pretzel sticks in a marshmallow, dipped in milk chocolate and rolled in graham cracker crumbs.

Very yummy and easy. Prizes and activity packs were given away like they are every week. On Thursday everyone read stories about fishing. Lastly the group made the animal mask craft and had smores too.