Favorite Thing About Family Night @ the Library

As the school year is winding down and our last Family Night @ the Library is quickly approaching I wanted to get some feedback from the children their favorite part of our Thursday evenings together.

Here are a few of the pictures drawn by the children and their families about their favorite part of Family Night @ the Library.

Her favorite part of Family Night @ the Library was reading books.

Her favorite part of Family Night @ the Library was coloring and doing the activities.

Her favorite part of Family Night @ the Library was knowing and being able to look at many beautiful books.

His favorite part of Family Night @ the Library was when Mrs. Betts would take his picture and he could post it to Instagram & Twitter on her iPad.

She has many favorite things from this year's Family Night @ the Library ~ looking at books, making play dough, and getting a new book.

I did not draw a picture this evening, but if I had it would show my favorite part of Family Night @ the Library ~ all of the parents bringing their children to the library because they know the importance of books, reading, and family!

Thank you to all of the parents who have taken the time to spend Thursday evenings with us at the Kinkeade Library for Family Night @ the Library.

With much love, Mrs. Betts

World Book Night

The Kinkeade Library celebrated World Book Night during Family Night @ the Library on Thursday, April 25th.

Mrs. Betts was away at the Texas Library Association Conference in Fort Worth, but the library was in excellent hands with Mr. and Mrs. Ashworth and Mrs. Baker. FREE books were given to all and not only included titles from World Book Night.org, but also from some great publishers, ABDO, Capstone, and Scholastic.

The official event day for World Book Night was Tuesday, April 23rd. The purpose of this celebration is to spread the love of reading, person to person. This year the book we gave away was Lisa Scottoline's Look Again.

I love Lisa Scottoline's writing. I have read a number of her books, but this one, as a mother, really touched me. Most people get chills just by reading the single question on the front cover of the book, "What would you do if the face in a missing child photo was your son?" This is the story of an adoptive mother who comes home to find a white card with a missing child's photo. The picture has a striking resemblance to her young son. The story tells how this mother takes on the challenge of finding out the truth about her son's life and to see if this child truly is the missing child on the card. 

If you were not able to get a copy of this great book during World Book Night, check the public library or local book book store. I highly recommend this great book.

Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping

Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping
by Melanie Watt

I had the wonderful opportunity to read Melanie Watt's new book Scaredy Squirrel Goes to Camp today. I have to say like all of her books, Ms. Watt captures your attention from the first page when the reader is warned to "check your zipper before reading this book." Scaredy Squirrels is always prepared and when it comes to camping he has all of his bases covered, down to the oatmeal for the three bears he may come across in the forest.

Young lovers of Scaredy Squirrel will love this new adventure in the woods. There are great maps, charts, and instructions to read throughout. It is not just a story book to be read, but a wonderful opportunity to share how to read each of this informational text.

I highly recommend this new addition to the fun and always entertaining collection of Scaredy Squirrel titles.

Making and Playing with Play Dough

During Family Night @ the Library on Thursday, April 18th, we had some messy fun. We made Skin Therapy Play Dough (Thanks to Bethany for posting this recipe to her blog). Ms. Marge found the recipe on Pinterest and knew it would be a great activity for Family Night. I think all of the children would agree. They had a great time. Here is the recipe for the play dough. I only did 1/4 of the recipe during Family Night so the children could mix everything in the zip baggies. When you make the full recipe you will have a lot more to play with at home.

Here are some of the photos I posted to Instagram during the evening. All of the pictures will be in an album titled "4/18 - Making and Playing with Play Dough".

Mosaic Photo Frames

During Family Night @ the Library on Thursday, April 11th, the children and their parents made a mosaic photo frame. The children could choose a background (either black or white) and then the create their own design around the frame using the colored squares. Some of the children chose to apply the patterning skills they worked with during last week's Family Night - Playing with Patterns to create their design. Others made a design with some of their favorite colors. Mrs. Betts took pictures using her iPad and then printed directly from the iPad to the color printer in the library (she was giddy all evening because of the new app which allowed her to print from her iPad - Print N Share). The children had fun creating their photo frames and loved having their pictures taken with the finished product!

You can see more photos from this evening, go to the Kinkeade Library Instagram site, or the Kinkeade ECS Facebook page. I had to add a story to this blog post. One of my regular Family Night @ the Library friends was asked if he wanted to have his picture taken for the frame project while he was in the library looking for books to check out. He replied, "No, I want to check out my books first!" I was so happy by this comment, I had to take a picture of him getting his books checked out. It helps us to remember we have to take care of our priorities first. I am so please this friend has made books and reading a priority in his young life.

Playing with Patterns

During Family Night @ the Library the children and their parents had fun create their own patterns and playing pattern games.

Creating patterns with large colorful shapes.

Creating a unique pattern and then recording it on a pattern train.

Everyone loves the iPad. Playing the Patterns Game.

Easter Activities

During Family Night @ the Library we had fun with activities centered Easter. The children had fun graphing colorful jelly beans and locating the tops and bottoms of eggs to match cards. Each child also got to take home a copy of The Easter Egg Hunt and an activity packet to work on over the long holiday weekend.

Brain Games

During Family Night @ the Library the children and their parents learned how to complete a Sudoku puzzle. We used the puzzle boards created by Mrs. Betts using four colors (red, green, orange, and blue) and a 4x4 grid. Once the children were able to complete the board puzzle, they moved to the iPad and played the Sticker Sudokuapp. I believe this was one of the greatest events we have had during Family Night @ the Library. Everyone who came in seemed to have fun trying to complete the puzzles. When they were successful at completing their first puzzle on the iPad they couldn't wait to try again to beat their previous time. I could see the brains of the children growing as they used logical thinking to place the puzzle pieces.

I love it when friends take time to read!

Creative Card Making

During Family Night @ the Library on March 7th, we worked on submissions for the Irving Schools Foundation Mother's Day Card Contest. Each child was encouraged to create their very own drawing showing "My Mommy loves me by...." The entries were sent to the Irving Schools Foundation. The winning artwork entry will be the design of the Irving Schools Foundation's Mother's Day Card.

Our spotlighted Star Family, Jacob V.'s, for the evening came to Family Night. He won a free kid's meal from from Chili's. Congratulations and thank you for being a Star Family and coming to Family Night @ the Library.

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The games and activities at Family Night @ the Library, but the best part is looking for, reading, and checking out books!

Open House

Thursday, February 28th was not a usual Family Night @ the Library. On this evening we also had Open House at Kinkeade Early Childhood School.

We did not have an activity during the evening, only because we did not want to take away from the time the children had to show their family all of the hard work they have been doing in the classroom. We did have a great turn out in the library. We had 70 NEW parents sign up for library cards! This is so exciting. 

The library was busy all night long!

Our Spotlight Star Family, Alberto from Mrs. Morrison's Class, came to Family Night @ the Library. Alberto won a $10 gift card from Half Price Books and a teddy bear from Kohls. Congratulations!

During Family Night @ the Library on Thursday, February 21st, we had a great time interacting with the *NEW* Library iPads! Mrs. Dunn had fun games and activities to go along with some of the apps loaded onto the iPads. After working with the app ABC - Magnetic Alphabet Lite (a free app), the families could read Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault's Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. They were then invited to create their very own alphabet coconut tree. We spotlighted Tumblebooks.com on the computers. Don't forget you can access this great site from home. Contact Mrs. Betts if you need the username and password, or pick up a bookmark when you visit the Kinkeade Library.  I think the most exciting part of the evening was when the parents found out they could check out the new iPads from the library! Family Night @ the Library was a finalist in the Parent Involvement category for the ICE Awards. We brought home the Silver Medal for our program. Thank you to all of the parents for making this award possible. If it were not for you bringing your children to the library for family night this would not have been possible. I will post pictures of the award from the event as soon as possible.