crafts – Kids' Blog

Creative Storytimes at Khandallah Library

admin27 February, 2014

Khandallah Library has its final session of our Creative Khandallah Kids Storytime on Tuesday the 4th of March at 10.30am.

It has been huge fun for everyone who has come along. The kids have shared their super cool art. The library has never been so colourful. We have a Papier Mâché fish with eyebrows (the eyebrows are my favourite part), colourful drawings, a tiny mouse made out of cardboard, some big beautiful paintings and a butterfly covered in glitter!

It is so cool to have the kids’ space in Khandallah library – a place where we can look at the awesome things the kids of Khandallah can make.

Other then the fun experience of seeing the art that the kids have made, we’ve also had a fun time reading some funny stories! I particularly liked how we all got to say, “Banana” loudly over and over again. Banana is a weird word when you say it a lot. We’ve read some stories about magical things like a girl who wants to play with the moon – which a few kids pointed out just couldn’t happen. I mean the moon is so big! But she makes it happen. We’ve read stories about how all of us can be creative doing pretty much anything! Even painting a great big dot on a piece of paper is making a work of art.

It’s been so nice to see the kids take home their prizes from the library. We like to encourage creativity because, well, books are amazing creative things! So I hope after our final session on Tuesday, the kids who have come to the Creative Khandallah Kids sessions go home and keep making art. Because we’ve learnt that we are all artists and storytellers if we just keep making things.

Special storytime at the Island Bay Library

admin19 February, 2014

Don’t miss this year’s Island Bay Festival! There’s heaps happening – find out all the details on the festival website. There’s even a special seaside crafty storytime happening at the Island Bay Library.

Listen to the amazing Pauline read a seaside story then make an octopus with Lisa from Island Bay Community Centre. All welcome!

Thursday 20th February, 10.30 – 11.30am at the Island Bay Library.

Are you bored?

debbie29 January, 2014

Christmas has come and gone and you are back from your amazing fun filled holiday and you have to ask yourself.

WHAT am I going to do now? I’m bored! I need something to do!

Well never fear the library is here.

Check out some of these great titles on offer to fill the last few days of the holidays.

Online Christmas Craft insipration

admin6 December, 2013

Can you believe that Christmas is literally 19 amount of days away?! Neither can we!! It always seems like we get to this time of the year and suddenly have eight hundred and sixty three different things that we need to get done before the 25th of December: decorating, buying presents, doing baking… the list goes on!

So, we thought – why not compile some of our favourite Christmas craft activities that are not only extremely fun – but are also practical in some way! Here are some festive craft ideas for decorating, creating presents, and just having a fun time making stuff.

Why not make your own wrapping paper using some paints and a potato (or two)?

How about tackling the almighty ginger-bread house? This easy design uses Graham Crackers – you can use any plain square biscuits such as Nice or Thins instead.

Or you could make a sequined wreath to hang on your tree.

Speaking of decorations, why not try making some peg angels?

And you could make some Christmas Cookies as a gift for family members.

What about bundling the family up and making stockings out of socks? Just make sure they’re clean first!

You could make some cool keyrings, necklaces, or broaches out of this amazing stuff called shrinky dink as presents too!

We hope this has given you some ideas to help you have a crafty Christmas season – we’d love to hear about the crafts you’ve got planned for the next few weeks!

And did you catch our post about all the Christmas craft books we’ve got?

Don’t Forget… We have special Christmas storytimes happening in all our libraries between 9th – 19th December. Check out out kids events page for details.

Christmas is coming…

debbie25 November, 2013

Hey guys – December is almost here, and there is only 1 month till Christmas!! So you have just enough time to think about making an advent calendar that you can countdown the days until Christmas Day.

I found this great website that has some neat ideas for making advent calendars that are a bit different. Why not try making one out of matchboxes, paper bags or toilet rolls. You can put a little chocolate surprise into each one. There are heaps of different ideas – I really love the little houses so make sure you have a look.

Don’t forget the library has heaps of Christmas crafts books as well which makes creating your own special Christmas treats easy and fun.

New Non Fiction: Ideas for the Holiday Festive Season and Summer.

Katie22 November, 2013

10 Minute Crafts for Summer.

Summer’s around the corner. This new addition to Wellington City Libraries will give you craft ideas for summer you can complete in ten minutes. Use this book to make a fluttery butterfly peg, create a kite and race you very own raft.

Let’s Make Faces.

Feeling bored around home? Why not rummage through your household items and use this book to get ideas on how to make faces in unexpected places using everyday objects.

Noah’s Ark.

Lucy Cousins, the creator of the Maisy has adapted from the Bible story: Noah’s Ark into a picture book that young children will enjoy. Cousins stays true to her creative style with using simple language and vibrant colors that is sure to fascinate and entertain children. This serves as a good introduction to Bible literature. Also great for children that are a fan of the Maisy books.

Christmas Jokes.

Christmas is around the corner. How about some Christmas jokes to share with the family? You will laugh yourself silly (or youle laugh yours-elf silly!) with this collection of christmas jokes that is bound to tickle your funny bone. This is one Christmas joke book that you would have to be Christmas crackers not to issue this book out during the holiday period.

Also check out The funniest Christmas joke book ever if you are in the mood for more Christmas jokes.

Party Cakes to Bake and Decorate.

If you are looking some baking or make tasty treats fro Christmas, check out Usbourne’s new book on how to bake and decorate party cakes. You might even find an idea for an alternative gingerbread house, (See Gingerbread Cake recipe) over Christmas and house and star decorations that fit perfectly with the Christmas theme. The recipes for multicolored meringues look fantastic and girls, you will be tickled pink with the pink layer cake recipe. Overall this book is jammed packed with simple and scrumptious party cake recipes that anyone can bake.

For more cooking and baking ideas over the festive season, also check out this year’s previous blog post on Ready. Steady, Cook.

Top 10 Non-Fiction for October

admin23 October, 2013

Impress your friends and family with awesome factoids by checking out October’s most popular non-fiction:

1 Star Wars by David West Reynolds

2 The horrible history of the world by Terry Deary

3 The LEGO book by Daniel Lipkowitz

4 Ripley’s believe it or not! by Rosie Alexander

5 The Usborne big book of big machines by Minna Lacey

6 Big book of papercraft Fiona Watt

7 Amazing giant dinosaurs Marie Greenwood

8 Pokemon ultimate handbook by Cris Silvestri

9 See inside the First World War by Rob Lloyd Jones

10 The girls’ book of crafts & activities by James Mitchem

Welly Word Art – free event

admin18 September, 2013

We’re kicking off the upcoming school holidays with an amazing event – Welly Word Art! Don’t miss this one!

Central Library, Monday 30th September at 2pm.

There will be amazing performances, games, competitions and crafts. We even have Small Blacks TV presenter Nua Finau coming along to play some games with you.

We have heaps of cool activities happening during the school holidays. Check out our Kids Events page for info.

New non-fiction stuff to make

admin13 September, 2013

The brilliant book of easy recipes

If you’ve ever wanted to learn to cook, but been too intimidated, then have no fear: there is a book for you. There’s a great range of easy, delicious recipes for you to make, and most of them you should be able to make on your own, without needing a parent looking over your shoulder! Although asking for help isn’t a bad thing, of course. But you might want to keep everything you make to yourself, as there’s some really yummy treats in here, like marshmallow fingers and quesadillas.

The brilliant book of Easy crafts

Like the previous book in this series, this a simple book for crafters beginning in crafting. It’s perfect for younger children, as most of the projects aren’t really that difficult. What’s great about this book is that chapters are arranged by types of project, so if you feel like making a mask or a puppet you can find what you want easily.

Rock star style: fun fashions you can sketch

Lights! Camera! Action! Learn how to draw the latest celebrity fashions with this cute book. The fashions are wild but there’s plenty here to appeal to everyone. Each design is named after a genre or type of musician, from “cross-over artist” to “rock royalty.” If you’re just starting out drawing, then you might find this book a little tricky, but it’s certainly good inspiration and something to challenge yourself. But this is a great book for any budding fashionista.

My first knitting book

Winter’s nearly over, so surely you don’t want to be spending your time stocking up on winter woolies, right? Luckily for the more DIY inclined among you, this book is packed full of cute things to knit like soft toys and Ipod covers. Perhaps you might want to work on these projects during the summer so by the time winter rolls around again (we do live in Wellington, after all!) you’ll be ready to make hats and scarves for you and your friends.

Sewing for kids

Knitting not for you? Take a look at this book. As well as having lots of fun projects (mostly toys and stuff for your room) it will teach you the basics of both hand and machine sewing. It’s a great book for beginners, although there’s enough here to interest ardent sewers of all abilities.

C raft it up: Around the world

Travel around the world without leaving your house; this book has projects from many countries, and all of them cute and colourful. There’s a ton of different types of craft represented, so this is a good book if you’re looking for a bit more of a challenge.