Policemen & Firefighters

This week's Storytime featured stories of policemen and firefighters. We read Firefighters! Speeding, Spraying, Saving! by Patricia Hubbell, about what happens when firefighters must quickly go to fight a fire. Going to the Firehouse by Mercer Mayer was about a little critter wanting to help out at firehouse. Sherman Crunchley by Laura Numeroff told about the city's nicest police officer, and the problems that arose when he couldn't say "no". Finally, Peggy Rathmann's award-winning Officer Buckle and Gloria told the very funny story of a police officer and his canine helper.

For our craft, we put together a fire truck with wheels, a ladder, and a brave little firefighter. Some of us added lights and sirens!

Local Heroes: The New Hampton Fire Department

We had special community heroes visit us for tonight's program! Kendall Hughes of the New Hampton Fire Department brought some of his crew to explain the work that firefighters do. He even brought some young Explorers who are training to become firefighters.

The firefighters showed us some of the books they had to study from as they learned how to do their important jobs. They brought lots of slides of firefighters at work, helping the community in many ways, and not just fighting fires. They passed around the thermal imaging camera and showed us how it is used to find a person in a smoke or fire filled room.

Did you know New Hampton Fire Department members were given the New Hampshire Hero Award in 2009? They brought their plaque and passed it around so we could read it. 

Then the best part - the fire engine and the rescue truck! The firefighters showed us the equipment they use in both vehicles. The EMTs showed us the tools they use to monitor an injured person's health. They let kids try on the air tank. We watched as Matt climbed into his fire-fighting gear. And they let us climb up on the engine and look around from up high. 

 

 

Before we left for the night, Mr. Hughes and his team gave us fire hats, hard hats, and lots of safety information and activities to take home with us. Thank you to the members of the New Hampton Fire Department - true community heroes!

Brave Animals

At today's Storytime, we read three stories about brave animals. Little Dog Lost by Monica Carnesi told the true story of Baltic, a small dog who was rescued from an ice floe in the Baltic Sea and became the mascot of a Polish research vessel. Peggy by Anna Walker was about a brave chicken who gets blown into a new adventure. Finally, everyone's favorite, Rainbow Fish, took a brave chance to recover something lost and, in the process, made some new friends. Everyone loved Rainbow Fish  Discovers the Deep Sea by Marcus Pfister.

Today's craft had nothing to do with bravery or with animals! We had fun making mobiles or wind chimes from found objects, like plastic cups, plastic lids, straws, beads, and old CDs. They were interesting to make, and each one looked very different from the others.

Animal Heroes: Pemi, The Therapy Dog

Can a dog be a hero? Yes! when she's a therapy dog! John McCrae, representing the NH Humane Society, visited the library with Pemi, his therapy dog. Pemi is a Leonburger, and a very big, very calm dog. John told us Pemi needed to be specially trained and pass a test to become a therapy dog.  In addition to schools and libraries, Pemi also visits people in nursing and retirement homes. She lets people pat and talk to her and she reminds them of dogs they had when they were younger. Pemi even visited Dartmouth College when the students were studying for big tests. Spending time with Pemi helped students to relax!

John and his helper Mary Ann let us pat their dog and some kids even read a book while Pemi quietly listened. Elephant & Piggie, Peter Rabbit, Dr. Seuss - Pemi liked them all!

Andrea was also here from the NH Humane Society. She told us a little about what the Humane Society does to help animals and thanked us for our thoughtful donations. She left with children's donations of pet food, paper towels, and cash and she also took the dog toys we made last week! We hope dogs and cats at the Humane Society love them!

New Books from Summer Reading Heroes!

These are but a few of the new books donated to support this year's Summer Reading Program, Every Hero Has a Story. These picture book biographies were carefully selected by library staff, then willing patrons signed up to provide us with the book of their choice. Thanks to the generosity of these "Summer Reading Heroes", we now have more beautifully illustrated biographies of famous people like Jane Goodall, Amelia Earhart, Malala Yousafzai, Robert Frost, Clara Lemlich, Rachel Carson, Henri Matisse, and others. These books portray the subjects, not just as adults, but also as young children so readers are able to see the early traits and characteristics that helped to make each person an important contributor to our culture or our society. 

Each of these wonderful books carries a special bookplate in the front that names the donor. On behalf of the Gordon-Nash Library and the children who visit it, we thank the following patrons for their thoughtful donations:

Eileen Curran-Kondrad

Mark & Theo Denoncour

Linda & Mike Dowal

Michelle DuBreuil 

Pat Hoertdoerfer

Becky Lougee

Brandie Martinez

Shana Martinez

Wendy Pietroniro

Trudy Powers

Wendy Schongalla

Turtle Time!

Drop in anytime in the next two weeks to make yourself a colorful paper plate turtle with a tissue paper shell!

Paint Party!

This week for Storytime, we ventured downstairs so that we could paint! Between painting sessions, we listened to a few favorite stories. Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown was the story of a well-dressed and distinguished tiger who longs to be something else. Help! A Story of Friendship by Holly Keller tells what happens when Mouse begins to question his long-standing friendship with Snake.

But, as you can see, the waterbased tempra paint was the real star of the event! It was so much fun to be creative and paint freely!

Traits of a Hero

We started the evening by listening to The Tree Lady by H. Joseph Hopkins, the inspiring story of Kate Sessions who, as a young girl, loved trees and being in the woods. In school she studied science to learn more about plants and later became the first woman to graduate from the University of California.  Kate decided that the desert town of San Diego needed trees. So she researched and started a huge tree-planting movement that changed San Diego to the green, garden-filled oasis it is today. Now, more than 100 years later, her gorgeous gardens and parks can be found all over the city. That's what a small girl who loves plants can do if she works hard and is perseverant!

We brainstormed words and phrases for traits that we thought heroes might have: kindness, respectfulness, empathy, obedience, helpfulness. We also noted that heroes would take care of the Earth, with reducing, reusing, recycling, and not wasting resources like water and electricity. Then we drew pictures of ourselves portraying one of these traits. 

Next, in an effort to reuse and recycle, and to show kindness to animals and helpfulness to the volunteers at the NH Humane Society - we made dog toys from old t-shirts! It was fun to choose the colored strips and to braid them together. We have so many dog toys to give to John McCrae and Pemi, his therapy dog, when they come to visit the Gordon-Nash next Tuesday night! John will deliver our dog toys and other donations to the NH Humane Society for us!

More Superheroes!

At Storytime this week, we had fun hearing several books about superheroes. Super Duck by Jez Alborough, was a rhyming book in which Duck tries to help his friends with their runaway kite. Do Superheroes Have Teddy Bears? by Carmela LaVigna Coyle showed two children donning capes to play in the mud, save their stuffed animals, and conquer vegetables and the darkness. Timothy and the Strong Pajamas : a superhero adventure by Viviane Schwarz was a great book about a little boy who gets super strength from the pajamas that his mother patched up!

Then we customized our cut-out Superhero masks! We colored with crayons and markers, and we added sparkly stars and shapes. Don't we all look super?

Superhero Camp

On Tuesday, we all became superheroes for the night. We decorated capes made from tablecloths with foam cutouts and we colored paper masks. We made cuffs from tin foil covered toilet paper rolls and superhero bracelets from pipe cleaners and pony beads. We also made a superhero ID card with our name, super power, and a drawing of ourselves in costume.

Before we left for the night, we each had a turn at the photo booth, where our superhero flew over the nighttime city!