Saturday, July 30, 2022

Storytime: Turtles


All our turtle stories today were nonfiction! Can you spot the fiction title that we didn't have time to read? 

When Audrey came from the Squam Lakes Science Center, she showed us a turtle (but not a sea turtle) and told us about how turtles live. They lay lots and lots of eggs (and she showed us some) but most don't survive because they are dug up and eaten by predators!

Kids had their choice of turtle craft today...one made from an inverted paper bowl, like these.  
And the other was made with the bottom of a plastic liter soda bottle for the shell! On a flat piece of foam, kids colored their turtle's circular shell, added legs and a head, and then we hot-glued the plastic shell on top. Because it had a flat foam base, this turtle could float in water!

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Storytime: Octopus

This week, we read facts and stories about octopuses. Although some of us knew already knew about these creatures, many (including me!) did not know that octopuses have arms, and not tentacles. 

We read Inky's Amazing Escape, a true story an octopus who escaped from an aquarium in New Zealand. Who knew an octopus could be that smart! The author is Sy Montgomery, who also wrote the adult book, The Soul of An Octopus. We also read Poor Little Guy, a funny story about a pufferfish trying to escape from a curious octopus.

Then we each made an octopus, and here they are!

Friday, July 15, 2022

Whales & Seals Program with UNH Docents

Volunteers from the University of New Hampshire came to the Gordon-Nash to help us learn about marine mammals, specifically whales and seals. These helpers are called docents, and they are specially trained to do their jobs and teach kids about the ocean and its living things.

We began with a story, See What a Seal Can Do by Chris Butterworth. It told the story of seal and how he spends his days, diving, swimming, hunting for food, and resting after his work is done. There were so many surprises in this book - like a seal blows out all his breath before dives into the water, and he can be underwater with a very slow heartbeat for almost fifteen minutes without breathing. Wow!
Then docents led experiments and activities to help us learn about these mammals. At once station, kids put their hands in freezing ice water and noted the skin temperatures on their hands. Then they put on plastic bag gloves filled with solid shortening and tried the ice water again. Amazingly, their hands did not feel the cold and the blubber-like bags kept their skin temperature warm. Whales and seals, who are warm-blooded like we are, have a thick layer of blubber under their skin which helps keep their bodies warm even in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. 
Next we looked at some artifacts and some models of types of whales and seals. There was even a whale vertebrae, like the vertebrae in our own backs but much larger!.

Finally, we went outside to walk along a stretched out 100 foot tape measure. We stopped at various intervals to note the length of some of the marine mammals about which we learned tonight. Can you guess which creature is 100 feet long?

Many thanks to UNH docents Barb Dion, Kipp Freeman, and Marsha Richelli for a most informative and fun ocean mammal program!

Thursday, July 14, 2022

LEGO Time

During the summertime, we like to put out LEGO and invite our Summer Reading Program kids to drop in and build for an hour. There are no restrictions (expect for safety and noise) and kids are free to build with old friends from school or new friends that they've made through the program. It's always fun to see what they come up with! Here are some examples from our recent LEGO time. 


Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Summer Reading Program: Week 3 Events


GORDON-NASH LIBRARY at New Hampton School

2022 SUMMER READING PROGRAM


Our Programs: Week of July 11



Tuesday 6-7pm*

(note earlier start time)

 Whales & Seals

Explore the lives of the whales and seals in our ocean waters. 

  Special storytime with hands-on science activities and experiments led by volunteers from the University of NH’s Marine Docent program. 


On the campus lawn across the street from the library. Bring blankets/chairs, bug spray. 

*Book check-out & returns from 5:30-6.  After 6pm, the library will be closed. 


Wednesday 4-5pm

Drop-in LEGO Time!

Come learn, free-build, and have fun with your friends. 


    Thursday 10:45-11:45

   All-ages Storytime

    This week, a seahorse theme!

   Stories, crafts, friends & fun! 


Please support our raffle donors! 

Jeremy Hiltz Excavating, Inc ● Store#2369 Tilton Walmart ● Rossi’s Italian Ristorante & Pizzeria 

Subway of New Hampton ● White Meowtain Grooming ● Pinnacle Kitchens ● Twin Designs, Home of Diane the Turtle  Newfound Coin & Jewelry ● The Maple Creamery ● Huckins Farm ● New Hampton Community School

 Lafayette Family Resort-Wells, ME ● Granite State Whale Watch-Rye, NH

Gordon-Nash Library at New Hampton School. 69 Main Street. New Hampton NH 03256

(603) 677-3740. gordonnashlibrary.org/

Thursday, July 7, 2022

STEMTime: The Possibilities of Gravity and Inertia

We had lots of STEM fun yesterday as we engineered marble runs from cardboard, cups, paper tubes, pieces of plastic bottles, and other repurposed materials. Using what we know about gravity and inertia, we tried our builds, then tweaked them as necessary for efficiency and speed. We have marbles at the circulation desk if anyone wants to try them out!!


A Whale of a Time

 
Our theme for Storytime this week was whales. We heard a nonfiction book with facts about whales, read to us by a knowledgeable third grade patron. We also read The Snail and The Whale by Julia Donaldson, a rhyming story about an adventurous snail. Our last book was an Elephant & Piggie one by Mo Willems called A Big Guy Took My Ball. Can you guess who the Big Guy was? 

After we watched part of a video that showed a whale breaching in the ocean, we made a take-home whale with a paper plate base. Some of us chose to collage a whale, others chose a folded option. Both whale versions had blowholes represented, since we know that whales are mammals and they need them to breathe!


Friday, July 1, 2022

Storytime: Oceans & Beaches

Y
esterday was the first Storytime of our 2022 "Oceans of Possibilities" Summer Reading Program. So many familiar faces came back to Storytime now that school is out for the summer! We read two ocean books by the same author, David Somar, but they were very different stories. In Ladybug Girl at the Beach, the title character is reluctant to go into the ocean. In Three Bears in a Boat, the title characters set off to sea on their own to find a special gift for their mother.  

Our craft involved making a beach or ocean scene using paper plates or cardboard as a base. Kids made seaweed from streamers, fish from foam, and sandy shores from sandpaper. Younger children used peel-and-stick fish and ocean creatures to fill up their oceans. Some covered their final creations with blue cellophane to make their scene look like it was under water. So much fun and such creativity.