Library Programs Rock!

We've had a great summer of reading! It's been all about catching the Reading Bug! Here are descriptions and pictures from the first programs.

We started the summer with a Rally for Reading on a stormy Saturday in May. Peter McCory, The One-Man Band, had everyone singing and dancing.
http://www.petermccory.com/
We even played some of his instruments! There was face painting, food, storybook readers, origami paper-folding and books to pick up and purchase from the Winchester Book Gallery.

It was the first time to register for the Summer Reading Club.

We began library programs two weeks later with Jerry Schneider teaching us about bugs in our backyard. We took some of his butterfly and dragonfly stencils and created one-of-a-kind t-shirts.

We had a great time exploring the library grounds while looking for grasses to add to our shirts. We wanted to make sure the butterflies and dragonflies were resting on something.




























We started with a t-shirt, stuffed it with newspaper, added the stencils and grasses and twigs and waited for our parents or other adults to spray our shirts with red or blue dye.

The sun helped to dry the shirt.

We had some great shirts at the end! Look at mine!

Handley Puppeteers on Broadway (Virginia, that is)

Friday, July 18th we loaded up our tour bus (the new name for the library's old gray van) and became a convoy of 4 vans of youth puppeteers headed south to Broadway, VA. It was a hot day and the Village Library of Broadway had cleared out some room in a building called the "cannery." We set up our stage and enjoyed a lunch provided by the staff of the Village Library. We had just enough time to talk through some of the logistics of working in a small space when the children and adults started to arrive. We set up our stage and got ready for the opening number.


We're singing "Happy to be Here" in this picture. The puppet leads are Omar, Priscilla and Herb. The banner on front of the stage was made by some of our artistic puppeteers.

Children were sitting and perched everywhere. Each song we did was better than the one before. Our program included songs that the puppets sang and stories told by our librarian Miss Donna. We were getting ready for the next song while the stories were being told. Our program called "Bug Beautiful" was put together from songs we had been practicing and presenting all summer.





This next song was selected by Matt. "Mr. Sun" was created by several of us. I think Kierstan drew the sunglasses on his face. In this song "Mr. Sun" is held by puppeteer, Beth. The puppets on the back row have a special dance move during the song. The butterfly on the front row sings the lead.



We had a lot of fun with the song "Splish, Splash." We even had a bubble machine! The kids really liked the bubbles. They danced around to the music and tried to catch the bubbles. The bubbles really traveled far into the room in this building because there was an air conditioning unit in the window behind the stage. The air pushed the bubbles into the room and over the heads of most of the audience.


The lead on this song is the little guy puppet in the center of the front row.


















The bubbles were coming out thick at this point.






After the "Chigger Song" and the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" we go on a bear hunt. Everyone screamed when the bear came out and started to tear down the stage to get to Miss Donna.

We had everyone up and dancing on "Silly Willy" and then we ended with "Ten in Bed" with a reminder to not "let the bed bugs bite!"


Here we are at the library sign.


We are joined by the Village Library librarian, Barbara Andes in this next picture. She is the one in the blue shirt.



We had a great time at this library. We can now say we have performed on Broadway!

Puppeteers Go on the Road

Tomorrow some members of the puppet team will present the program, "Bug Beautiful" at two of our libraries in the system: Clarke County Library and Handley Library. Everyone is excited! We spiffy-ed up our banner on Wednesday afternoon and made new props on Saturday. This puppet show will be great! On Tuesday, we present two puppet shows at the Bowman Library in Stephens City, VA. This is our home library. We present puppet shows each Wednesday and Saturday morning along with Miss Donna, the librarian, who shares stories and reads books to the preschool kids.
This special all-puppet program includes "Happy to Be Here," "Mr. Sun," "Five Little Ladybugs," "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," "Grandma's Feather Bed," "Having Fun at the Beach," "The Chigger Song," "The Mosquito," and "Ten in Bed."
A similar program was presented at the Village Library in Broadway, VA on Friday, July 18th. We had a great time and gleefully told everyone that our puppet troupe was going "on Broadway!" A photo of the team even made the local paper! We were excited!
We'll be sharing the photos soon! Come back to see more!

Getting Started

Welcome!
We had to choose a starting date and here it is! We've had dreams about a blog, we've had meetings about a blog, we've had discussions about a blog and all of it pointed to just getting started. Thanks to all of the youth that have made it possible to get one going. We have collected stories, pictures, recommendations and writings. They are the best! Look for some great pictures that have been taken just this summer. We have a great TAB (Teen Advisory Board) group and our youth volunteers cannot be surpassed! You'll see! Watch for the photos!