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GORDON-NASH LIBRARY At New Hampton School

2021 SUMMER READING PROGRAM

The Gordon-Nash Summer Reading Program for kids is back - and it's in person! This year's theme is "Tails and Tales" so you know there will be an animal focus! The Summer Reading Program encourages children to read over the summer months when they are way from school and formal learning. At the library, we have "Tails & Tales" forms for readers to help them track minutes they've read (or been read to) each day. We suggest 15 minutes per day for beginning readers and 30 minutes for more fluent ones, but would also be willing to set individual goals with your child. We have adapted forms for very young children who are read to or for older readers who would rather record book titles than minutes read. We offer small incentives for children to check in with us on their progress throughout the summer weeks. And we're working on an end-of-program raffle with chances to win books and gift certificates. Finally, kids do not need to read books exclusively from the Gordon-Nash - they can borrow books from friends, from other libraries, or they can read online. If your child wants a Gordon-Nash library card, all we need is parent information. 

Our weekly Storytime will also follow the "Tales & Tails" theme, with stories and a craft every Thursday from 10:45-11:45 downstairs in the new Children's Room.  

June 24: Tails & Tales from the Zoo: Lions & Tigers & Bears - Oh My!
July 1: Tails & Tales from Home: We 🖤Our Pets!
July 8: Tails & Tales from the Farm: E-I-E-I-O!
July 15: Tails & Tales from the Forest: Goin’ on a Bear Hunt!
July 22: Tails & Tales from The Jungle: Lions & Tigers & Monkeys (oh my!)
July 29: Tails & Tales from the Sea: A Whale of a Good Time

August 5: Tails & Tales Menagerie: Animal Requests from YOU!

More great news! We'll also have several drop-in, free-build "LEGO Times" for elementary age kids - and, as a LEGO resource, GNL volunteer Mike Dowal will be back! Sessions will be Tuesdays from 4:30-5:30 - on June 29th, July 6th and 20th, and August 10th (or 11th). 

To enroll your child in the Gordon-Nash Summer Reading Program, come visit us at the library, call us at 677-3740, or email us at library@newhampton.org. We're so happy to be back in business again and we look forward to seeing you all at the library! 

Summer Reading Program - Evening Events for Families!

GORDON-NASH LIBRARY At New Hampton School

2021 SUMMER READING PROGRAM

I am so excited to announce that this summer, we will again be able to gather for family programming as part of the Gordon-Nash Library's "Tails and Tales" Summer Reading Program. Our evening family programs will be held outside, under the maples on the lawn of the New Hampton School campus, directly across the street from the library. We could not ask for a more beautiful or convenient outdoor setting. Our presenters are excited to again perform for live audiences and all four have kindly scheduled rain dates in case of inclement weather. All programs will be held from 6:30-7:30. We ask that you bring chairs or blankets, bug spray if necessary, and water if you like. We hope you will come and join us for the fun.

Tuesday, June 22nd 

Steve Blunt, Musician
Fun, upbeat songs that tickle the funny bone, warm the heart, and delight the imagination - with lots of audience participation. For young and old alike.

Steve has been one of our most popular presenters in the past. We're so excited to have him returning!  

Tuesday, July 13th
Lindsay & Her Puppet Pals

Lindsay brings her larger than life Puppet Pals to child and family audiences across New England. Filled with silliness, active audience engagement, and memorable characters, this series of charming short stories will delight the young and the young at heart!

A New Hampshire native, Lindsay also is a return performer. The puppets she designs and gives voices to are amazing! A great show for kids!

Tuesday, July 27th
Melodious Zach!
Melodious songs and music, whimsical comedy, and science-fantasy.

He grew up in the Newfound area, went to local schools (and the GNL Summer Reading Program!), and now singer and songwriter Zach Benton is back! He's also now an actor, filmmaker, author, and a One-Man Band. As seen on NH Chronicle, Zach's shows are fun for all ages! I can't wait!

Tuesday, August 3rd.

Squam Lakes Science Center "No Two Tails Alike"
An animal's tail can serve as a rudder when swimming, help with agility during flight, or can even function like an extra hand. Meet live native wildlife ambassadors as a naturalist from the science center tells tales of the tails of some of New Hampshire's native wildlife. 

Always a favorite show with kids (and adults)!  This will be our final family event of the summer - so be sure to come and see what New Hampshire "tails" the naturalists will be bringing to share!

Time to Plant!

 This week's take-home craft is a kit for starting sunflower seeds. In the take-home kit, you’ll find a paper cup, a small bag of potting soil, and an envelope. Inside the envelope are some spring stickers and four sunflower seeds. Use the peel-and-stick stickers to decorate the outside of the cup. Then plant the seeds in the cup and put it somewhere where your child can water it and watch the plants grow. After a few weeks, move them to the garden or to a bigger pot. They can get tall pretty fast!

Alternatively, you can plant them directly in the ground. They should germinate at about the same rate with the warm weather we've been having. I think I'll add a plant marker to the kit!

Spring!

I think it's finally Spring! Those trees that had flowers last week are getting leaves this week! Hooray for Spring!

This week's take-home craft is a flower arrangement on a cup. Each flower is made from two white circles, colored or cut, with a pipe cleaner glued between them. Twisty pipe cleaner stems make the flowers look "Spring-y"! The cup can be decorated using the special-cut paper in the kit. A cute spring arrangement for someone special!

Happy Spring!

Poetry, and a Poet-Tree!

April is Poetry Month and April 29th is Poem In Your Pocket Day - a day to carry a favorite poem and to share it with others. Since I can't share a poem from my pocket this year, I'll share one of my favorites with you here on the blog. 

I love Jack Prelutsky (what kid doesn't?) and this is one of my favorite poems by him - perfect for Spring weather! You can read it here...or listen to it here (sung by one of my favorite musicians Natalie Merchant!)... or watch an animated version here!

It's a very silly poem, but I like it because it's cleverly written - and it's about ice cream!

And, since it's Poetry Month, this week's take home craft is a Spring (Poet) Tree! Up until a few weeks ago, many trees here looked like this one:

Now, after a few weeks of warm weather and a little rain, some trees look like this:

Lots of trees get flowers in the Spring. Sometimes they're green so you think they must be leaves - but if you look carefully, you'll see tiny or odd-shaped little flowers that appear before the leaves. Take a walk, and go look at a tree! See how it's growing. 

Then, make your own Spring tree with our take-home kit: a paper plate, a sturdy brown paper trunk, and some thin strips of brown paper to snip or tear into branches. You can color the plate first if you want, or make some grass, or a blue sky. Then make the tree and add tissue paper "flowers" or "leaves" with the tiny tissue squares in the kit. A little Springtime for your wall or your refrigerator door!

Frogs - and Toads!

Frogs! Have you seen them yet? Have you heard them at night? This week's take-home craft is a frog puppet. The folding of the paper for the puppet is a bit tricky at first, and there are simple directions in the kit for you adults to follow and to practice. But once you figure out how easy it is to fold one, you can make as many as you want - and turn them into other puppet animals, or even puppet people! I will definitely be making this versatile puppet base with kids over and over. I bet with some brown paper (or maybe a piece of a paper bag), you could even make a toad puppet at home. So call the library or email us if you want a take-home kit!

Speaking of frogs (and toads), here's one of my favorites as a quick read-aloud for this week. If you want to read more of this Frog & Toad Treasury, it's available for Curbside pickup!  And if you want a factual frog book for kids, check out Frogs by Gail Gibbons. We have the book at the library, and there's a good video of it here.

Nesting Time

Here's this week's take-home craft, just in time for Spring weather. Made of paper with real-but-fake feathers, some birds in a nest. All pieces are in the kit, and circles can be used to make two 2-part birds or four birds with one part only. The brown paper is fun to shred and can be used to add texture to the nest shape. Call or email if you'd like a kit. 

My favorite "nest" story is The Perfect Nest, by Catherine Friend. It's also one of my favorite read-alouds, because there are so many different voices to be made. It's another book where the detail in the pictures is important to the story, and I couldn't manipulate the book well enough to film it while reading it myself. So here's someone else's very good rendition of this very funny story!

March on: Rabbits!

MARCH of the Animals wraps up with a "HOP"! A Spring rabbit made of an envelope - with a hidden space and some fancy paper for a message or a drawing to surprise someone special. All the materials are enclosed in the envelope! You just need a glue stick and some imagination!

And here's the read aloud for this week - about Jasper the Rabbit, who loves carrots - until he meets a new kind of carrot!!

Maple Syrup Season

Watching maple syrup being produced is a rite of Spring for kids in our area. If you can't get to a sap house this month, check out the nonfiction and even fiction books we have that show some of the sugaring process. 

How is Maple Syrup Made? by Grace Hansen. This title will take readers through the process of bottling maple syrup, starting in Canada where there are lots of maple trees. Readers will learn how maple syrup is gathered, processed, and bottled for them to buy and enjoy on their pancakes. Nonfiction.

Maple Syrup by Lynne M. Stone. Describes one the favorite North American trees that offers one gift after another, including hardwood for building, beauty with its leaves, and a favorite taste, maple syrup. Nonfiction.

Maple Syrup from the Sugarhouse by Laurie Lazzaro Knowlton. Maple syrup season is here! Kelsey and her father begin harvesting sap from sugar maple trees. Join their family and friends in this farm-to-table process of turning sap into maple syrup. Includes maple syrup facts in the back matter to make this perfect for an educational story time. Fiction.

Sugaring by Jessie Haas. Nora wants to find a way to give the horses a special treat for helping her grandfather and her gather sap to make maple syrup. Fiction.

Sugarbush Spring by Marsha Wilson Chall. As winter melts into spring, Rosie and her grandfather collect sap, and then the whole family works through the night to make maple syrup. Fiction.

We also have books about pancakes! Yum!!

MARCH of the Animals: Elephants!

March of the Animals month continues, this week with elephants! I love this week's story, Elmer by David McKee. It's about a very different elephant who gets tired of his looks and what happens when he tries to change his appearance.  Such a cute story!

All the elephants of the jungle were gray except Elmer, who was a patchwork of brilliant colors - until the day he got tired of being different and making the other elephants laugh.

I'm always so interested to watch authors reading their own books. They know exactly how they wanted their writing to sound! And David McKee has a wonderful British accent! Check it out!

I also wanted to find some elephant facts and video, since elephants are so magnificent to watch. I wanted to be sure to link to an expert, and have decided that World Wildlife Federation is it. Here's the link to their elephant information: https://www.worldwildlife.org/media?page=2&species_id=elephant

And here is this week's craft - it's a black & white Elmer, to color as your child sees fit, and it's seen here with some of the other Elmer books we have in the Children's Room. Give us a call if you want an Elmer book and a coloring paper or click here to print out Elmer at your house!