It’s been a very busy month here at the library. Our Summer Reading Program began June 1st with our students starting their reading logs. Our Theme this year is “Read Off the Beaten Path”. It is all about camping, fishing, wildlife, and outdoorsy stuff.

Our first program for kids who will be in 1st grade and up was on Tuesday June 7th. Our program was presented by the Tama County ISU Extension Service’s Jenny Hulme and her assistant Paige. We learned about camping and campfire safety.

The kids made a papercraft Smore and built their own edible campfire-Great fun! We also stung cereal on strings to hang out for the birds to eat. We drew names for prizes and had Kool-aide outside. Our snack for the week was Swedish Fish and gummy worms.

We were a little crowded due to our usual meeting room being used for the primary election and we appreciate our adult patron’s patience dealing with the congestion. Thursday’s program for kids who will be in grades PK & K was held June 9th and was much calmer-It’s a smaller group. We read some great stories about camping and made bird feeder rings. We played a game involving wire baskets and Ping Pong balls.

We drew names for prizes and had Kool-Aid, Swedish fish and gummy worms. Yum. Each week everyone gets to take home an activity packet to help keep them busy during the week. Check out our Facebook page for all the weekly pictures. We have 82 kids signed up this year, and it is such a blessing after the last two years.

Many of the students are “readers only”. Our program has two parts, weekly learning programming in June and for everyone, including those who can’t make it to the programs, the reading part of the summer. Kids read and log their time during the months of June and July. The last day to turn in log sheets will be Friday July 29th.

Every hour read earns them a prize and every 10 hours read earns them a free book and a chance to win the Grand Prize of 4 Adventureland tickets to be presented on Tuesday, August 2nd on Prize Day. Kids remember, every day you stop by the library, to make your guess at the guessing jar.

We have a fun packet of books-one for the closest guess by a boy and one for the closest guess by a girl. Keep the kids reading to prevent Summer slide. Kids who don’t read during the summer can lose up to two months of learning by the time they return to school in the Fall. Children who participate in summer reading programs and read a minimum of 6 books over the summer score higher in Reading AND math when they return to school.