March Events for Kids

December Events

 

June Events for Kids

March LEGO Club

Thirty-two kids joined us for this month's session. The challenge was all about wind and moving air, and building MOCs that could withstand the stiff breezes of a hair dryer set on HIGH. Some creations even moved in the wind!

Here's a very sturdy MOC!

and here's a MOC with a windmill - that really works! Wow!

This is the book that we listened to before we began our builds - a funny fictitious story about how the folks in one Icelandic village tried to control the winds. 

There's always lots of fun at LEGO Club!

October Events for Kids!

 

LEGO Challenges

I sure am missing LEGO Club, and I bet kids are too. Here's a free LEGO Challenge board by a Massachusetts teacher! Do some or do them all!

#BuildtoGive

This December in LEGO Club, Mr. Dowal and I challenged kids to make a MOC that would help to give bricks to children who might not necessarily have any. Through a promotion by the folks at LEGO.com, for each MOC photo posted on social media, a LEGO set will be delivered to a child in need somewhere in the world. Our LEGO Club kids made the Christmas ornaments and scenes posted here with the hashtag #BuildtoGive. MOCs will be on display at the library until mid-January.

LEGO Club: Building Bridges

November's LEGO Club had the challenge of building a bridge using bricks provided by Mr. Dowal. MOCs will be on display this month upstairs in the display case! 

LEGO Club 2018-2019

Another fantastic year of LEGO Club is in the books! We spent the May and June sessions thinking about what kinds of living conditions astronauts must need when they spend time in space. Each child built a section for a Space Station and, before we left for the last time, they were all attached into one huge space vehicle. It's on display for the summer in the reference section of the library. Come and look!

We had a blast this year! A big thank you to the parents who let their kids come to the library after school for this club and to Mrs. Troup at New Hampton Community School who made sure everyone arrived safely. Thanks also to club founder Mike Dowal for sharing his LEGO expertise and knowledge with eager learners. Finally, thanks to Wallingford's Inc of New Hampton who graciously donated funds so kids could have an after-school snack before each LEGO Club began.

I'm looking forward to next year's LEGO Club already!

Animals at LEGO Club

At this month's LEGO Club, we read The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen. Then Mr. Dowal challenged us to make an animal from LEGO! Here are a few of our creations!

December LEGO Club

LEGO Club kids today listened to the The Night Before Christmas - A Brick Story, illustrated by Amanda Brack. They joined in the reading and noticed the creative uses of bricks in the color photographs. The LEGO Challenge for today was to make a small ornament from bricks. When it was completed, kids attached a gold wire for hanging and a small tag with the date for remembering. They also made a second ornament to put in the library's display case.

LEGO Club!

Back in action again this fall, with assistance from Mike Dowal and five New Hampton School students!

LEGO Club: Building a Box

January's LEGO Club began with partial readings of two picture books - The Birthday Box by Leslie Patricelli, featuring an imaginative child with a carton, and The Mud Flat Mystery by James Stevenson, about neighbors' curiosity when a large box is delivered to a vacationing friend's house. Both stories were precursors to this month's LEGO challenge: to build a box that could open and close.

Mr. Dowal had sorted out the moveable LEGO bricks that could serve as hinges and, for those interested, demonstrated how a box could be built by using plates. Kids made their own MOCs, some with boxes and some without. Many are on display in the cases at the back of the library. 

Again, several New Hampton School students joined us for the fun! Thanks for visiting with us and for being good role models for younger kids! 

LEGO Club: Building with Slopes

LEGO Club this month was again fun and very well-attended. We had some extra helpers come over from the New Hampton School to help out and join the fun. 

Mr. Dowal worked with kids who wanted to learn how slope blocks could be used in building. There were several builders who used their new knowledge to build their "mocs" (my own creation). 

Here are some of the other mocs that were created in this session. 

Look! One clever builder found a LEGO magnifying glass among the bricks! So we had fun taking pictures with it in front of the camera's lens. See?