Kids Blog

Here’s a photo of two of our latest new scientists with John Field. They are holding up the ‘comets’ that they made at the Kilbirnie Library for the Astronomy School Holiday Programme. They are wearing gloves because the comets that they have made are icy cold! Come along to the session at Central Library at 11 am if you want to meet John and make your own icy ‘comet’ too!

How would you like to travel back in time? I came across a book that is like a trip through history that goes way back to the stone age and then all the way to the digital age. You’ll never guess you’re reading a history book because it has cool illustrations and presentations. It even has mazes and newspaper-like articles so no page is ever boring. Have a look for yourself and check out Take Me Back at the children’s non fiction area today.

We’ve got some interesting new books in the library. If you’re interested in the environment then you might like to check out Why Should I Switch off the Light? and also Clothes and Toys, which talks about the problem of how to recycle clothes and toys when you’re too big for them. There’s also a cool magic tricks book (The great big book of magic tricks), and some books about famous people: Handel (a famous composer), Florence Nightingale (the most famous nurse) and Frida Kahlo (an artist). For all these and more visit the My Library Children’s Non-fiction Page. Visit all the My Library pages here!

Hey guys here’s what we have planned for the second week of the school holidays at these libraries. We are continuing with the astronomy theme:

Moon & Stars (4-8 year olds) – Wadestown, Tuesday 14th July, 11am
Super Space – Broooklyn, Tuesday 14 July, 11am
Fizzing Comets (9-12 year olds) – Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie), Tuesday 14th July, 2pm
Super Space – Newtown, Wednesday 15 July, 11am
Moon & Stars (4-8 year olds) – Khandallah, Wednesday 15 July, 10.30am
Fizzing Comets (9-12 year olds)  – Karori,  Wednesday 15th July, 11am
“Space” activities (4-8year olds) - Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie), Wednesday 15th July, 2pm
Super Space (4-8 year olds) –  Island Bay,  Thursday 16th July, 11am
Fizzing Comets (9-12 year olds) - Central,  Thursday 16th July, 11am
“Space” activities (4-8year olds) - Miramar, Thursday16th July, 2pm
Moon & Stars (4-8 year olds) – Cummings Park (Ngaio) Friday 17th July, 11am

If you are attending the Fizzing Comets session please bring gloves to keep your hands warm! The Fizzing Comets session is for 9-12 year olds only. See you there! It’s going to be exciting!

Look! Up in the Sky!
Want to know how to make your own planetarium this school holidays? Or you could create your own sky map for your room! Click on the orange links for instructions.

Marcus is from Ireland, he is rich and part of a big family. Huw leads a very different life back in Wales with his mum. After meeting at a camping holiday both boys wonder what life would be like in the others shoes.  This is not as hard as it seems after all the boys are identical, but changing places may not be as easy as it seems. Check out Swap by Malachy Doyle to see how things develop.

Do you enjoy looking at beautiful illustrations in books? Or fancy yourself as a bit of an artist? Then check out these great new booklists in our Kids Catalog Web.

“Illustrious Illustrators” has some popular titles from very famous children’s book illustrators.

And “Wordless Picturebooks”  is a list of books where the pictures tell the story.

Are you potty about Harry Potter? We can’t wait for the release of the new movie next week… so we went searching our archives for inspiration. You can test your HP knowledge and keep busy with fun activities over the school holidays…

Check out our Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling books & links on the Kids Catalog Web:
Don’t forget – to see the websites just click on the spider web. Have fun with the crafts, quizzes and crosswords!

One of our favourite sites is the BBC which has the latest news on the film and info on the Harry Potter actors. And guess who has swine flu?!

The holiday programme is underway with rockets being made and launched at Island Bay, Johnsonville, and Tawa Libraries this week!

It’s totally free and heaps of fun! Launching Rockets is available for 9-12 year olds, all you need to do is bring a bottle to turn into a rocket. See here for more info.

Do you have something furry, scurrying, swimming or even flying at home? Then most probably you are one of the millions of people who have a pet. Have you ever wondered when our love affair with domesticating animals started? It goes way back when Queen Cleopatra gave Roman emperor Julius Caesar a giraffe and the 16th century pope Leo X even had a dancing white elephant. But not all animals can be pets so don’t start getting any ideas of owning a tiger because one tiger pet-owner-wanna-be got mauled! We must remember to leave wild animals where they belong. If you want to know more about how we started to have pets check out Animals in the House by Sheila Keenan. It’s a vey informative and cool book!