Spring is in full swing and that means Mother’s Day is on the way! Hey kids, don’t forget to let your mom, grandma, aunt or other special mother-figure in your life how important they are to you and how much you love them. Handmade cards and gifts are always more personal and special. Take it from a mom who knows.
Need some ideas? The library has a lot of great arts and crafts books.
My very own Mother’s Day by Robin West
All new crafts for Mother’s and Father’s Day by Kathy Ross
Make your own cool cards by Peg Blanchette
Gifts kids can make by Sheila McGraw
Here’s one of my favourite crafts for Mother's Day. Put your handprint along with the following poem on construction paper for something Mom's are sure to treasure:
Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls.
But every day I'm growing -
I'll be grown some day
And all those tiny handprints
Will surely fade away.
So here's a little handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small.
This poem was found on the following website:DLTK
There are also instructions there for cards and other Mother’s day crafts you can make.
Don’t forget to take time out and share a story together! Here’s a few of my favourite stories featuring moms:
Love you forever by Robert Munsch
What moms can’t do by Douglas Wood
What Grandmas can’t do by Douglas Wood
The Mommy book by Todd Parr
The Grandma book by Todd Parr
31 uses for a Mom by Harriet Ziefert
My monster mama loves me so by Laura Leuck
Turnip Soup by Lynne Born Myers
~Written by Linda McDade, Children's Services staff member
Cinco de Mayo is a National holiday in Mexico celebrated on the 5th of May. It began as a celebration for the military victory over the French forces of Napoleon III, at the Battle of Puebla, but has since began to be celebrated outside of Mexico as more of a celebration of Mexican culture.
Check out some of our great books on Mexico to learn more about this vibrant culture. Or maybe you want to learn Spanish? If so we have what you need. Do you already speak Spanish? If you do did you know we have a collection of Spanish language books?
Books to check out:
Bibliography:
Garcia, Homer D. C. "Cinco de Mayo." World Book Online Reference Center. 2008. 2 May 2008 .
At the Central Library:
Saturday, May 3rd at 10:00 a.m. Limit of 40
At the Petticoat Creek Branch:
Saturday, May 3rd at 2:00 p.m. Limit of 30
Spring is here, let’s go fishing! Enjoy great stories and make your own fish to take home. Registration is required.
1970 was the first year Earth Day was celebrated. It was all started because of a growing concern for the environment. Massive rallies were held all over the United States. By 1990 141 countries were celebrating Earth Day, including Canada.
Today all over our Country people held special programs to learn about how people can help the environment. Here at the Central Public Library we had a local author, Margaret Cecconet, come in and speak to students about her new book, What Ever Happened to Apple?
What Ever Happened to Apple? is a picture book about the journey of an apple from the Macintosh tree he grew on to the garbage bin he was thrown in. There he wishes he was in a compost bin instead of "somewhere dark and gloomy." This is a great story that helps children understand the importance of composting and is a must read for anyone learning about the environment.
Here are the winning entries from the Mystery Short Story contest. Click on the title of the story to read it.
Rainbow Flower
by Erin, JK
Category JK - SK
The Fairy and the Witch
by Nura, Grade 1
Category Grade 1 – 3
The Alien on the Bookshelf
by Laura, Grade 4
Category Grade 4 – 6
The Fairy and the Witch
by Nura, Grade 1
Category Best of Contest
The Treasure Hunt Mystery
by Olivia, Grade 4
Award for Distinction
The submissions were read, the judges have met and decided...
the winners for the Mystery Short Story Contest are:
Category JK - SK
Rainbow Flower
by Erin, JK
Category Grade 1 – 3
The Fairy and the Witch
by Nura, Grade 1
Category Grade 4 – 6
The Alien on the Bookshelf
by Laura, Grade 4
Category Best of Contest
The Fairy and the Witch
by Nura, Grade 1
Award for Distinction
The Treasure Hunt Mystery
by Olivia, Grade 4
We will be posting the winning stories later in the week so you can read them!
In My Backyard is a wonderful book. It is about the wildlife you will find in a backyard. The writing is simple and flows nicely, making it a good read aloud. The accompanying illustrations are beautiful! Ron Broda has done the scenes of the backyard in paper sculpture. Because they are sculptures the pictures are given a 3D quality that make them much more realistic. They are so detailed that it is hard to tell that they are made of paper. If you look closely every page has a ladybug somewhere.
This delightful book is one of the Blue Spruce Nominees.
The Library invites young writers to enter our March Break Mystery Short Story Contest.
- The short story must begin with the line,"I took a book from the library shelf and noticed that there was something stuck on the shelf behind it".
- The short story can be no more than two pages long
- The short story must be accompanied by an entry form
- Our distinguished panel of judges will select winning entries from four categories: JK to SK, Grades 1 to 3, Grades 4 to 6, and Best of Contest.
- All winning entries will be published on the Library's website.
- Contest ends at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 14th.
- To submit your entry you may drop it off at your local library branch or email it to kids@picnet.org.
Contest entry forms can be downloaded from here
I fell in love with the book Grumpy Bird instantly. The comical drawing of a little grumpy blue bird on the cover with the bright yellow background caught my eye. I pulled it off the new book cart and read the first page. The main character, Bird, wakes up one day and is grumpy. He is so grumpy he doesn't even want to fly, instead he decides to walk. Having woken up grumpy for no reason myself quite a few times I felt a kinship to this little bird stomping along. He runs into his friends along the way and they join him on his walk. By the end I was laughing and so was Bird. It was adorable, and funny and my new favourite book!
In October, I was happy to see that it had been nominated for the Blue Spruce Award! But not as overjoyed as I was last week when I found out that the author, Jeremy Tankard, would be autographing copies at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference Expo! So off I went with my copy of Grumpy Bird to meet Jeremy Tankard. It was quite thrilling. He signed my book and drew a sheep on the back of a poster for me. It was amazing how he could make such an adorable sheep just using a black marker! Grumpy Bird is Mr. Tankard's first book. When I asked if he was working on what was next he told me that he has a new book coming out sometime next year called Boo Boo Bird. It will be about a very sad bird who bumped his head. I cannot wait to read it!
If you want to read Grumpy Bird (and really you should!) check to see if we have a copy in by clicking:
Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard
If you would like to learn more about Jeremy Tankard and how he wrote and drew the story of Grumpy Bird check out his website:
http://www.jeremytankard.com/
Every year on January 27th families all across Canada celebrate Family Literacy Day by reading together and attending literacy events in their communities. Join us on Sunday, January 27th at 2:00p.m. at the Pickering Central Library for a half-hour of stories, songs, fingerplays, and more! Families will have a great time clapping their hands and tapping their toes.
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