Summer is here and that means that Mother Goose in the Park returns for another round of summertime fun! The library is proud to be partnering again with the Hand in Hand Parent Link Centre and the 5 for Life Coalition to bring another summer of stories, songs, crafts, and games! Join us each Thursday from 10:00am-11:15am behind the amphitheatre in Kinsmen Park. This program is free to attend and requires no registration. Please bring a chair or blanket to sit on. The program will run from July 6 - August 24.
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If you are a teen between the ages of 8-17 and you have a library card from a Marigold member library, you are eligible to enter the Teen Summer Library Experience! This year, the contest will be run with two age categories: 8-12 and 13-17. Each will have one winner who will receive a grand prize. The contest consists of 5 challenges. Each activity has a point value and the more activities completed by a participant, the more points will be collected. The participant of each age category who has collected the most points will win a grand prize! To register for the program go to www.teensbookingit.com and fill out the TSLE Registration form. Forms can be dropped off at the library or scanned and emailed to teens@marigold.ab.ca. Good luck and happy reading!
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Please join us each Friday this summer for fun, free activities open to everyone! You do not need to be registered in the Summer Reading Program to participate. All events will be held in the upper level of the Family Centre/Arena. Drop in! July 14 You know how much we love to break records at the library! Join us from 1:00pm-3:00pm as we attempt to break more awesome records! July 21 Grab your Pjs for our Pajama Party Movie Marathon to find out if the book REALLY is better than the movie (even though we know it is!) Popcorn will be provided. Various movies. Join us from 9:00am-3:00pm. July 28 Build your spy skills. Become more stealthy with our laser obstacle. Solve mysteries and decode clues! Join us from 1:00pm-3:00 pm. August 4 Bunch of Munsch Day! Today we celebrate the works of Robert Munsch with an array of activities for all ages! Join us from 1:00pm-3:00pm. August 11 Paint Your Story! Did you know the new Strathmore Municipal Library will have a new art gallery? Pop in anytime between 1:00pm-3:00pm to help create a tile mural that will be displayed in the library!
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Below is a rendering of the new Strathmore Municipal Library. A few highlights include a new teen area (top left), new art gallery (formerly the Lambert Centre lobby), renovated and relocated Children's area, relocated circulation desk, relocated computer area(bottom left), new soft seating and magazine section (formerly the Lambert Centre lobby), new large program room (formerly FCSS), and new smaller meeting/quiet study room (formerly FCSS).
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The Strathmore Municipal Library is pleased to welcome back Charlie Ziehr for the 2nd Annual Act the Week theatre program! Act the Week is a theatre program designed for children ages 7-11. Each session will consist of games, drama, exercises, and preparation for a live show at the end of the week. The program will run from August 21-25 from 1:30pm-3:45pm on the second floor of the arena (160 Brent Blvd.). Family and friends are invited to attend the final performance on Friday, August 25 at 4:15pm. Registration will run from July 10-August 11. Please stop by the library to fill out a registration form. This program is free to attend and limited to 10 participants.
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We are headed into this summer excited about the changes ahead. For a few months, we will be cramped into a small but functional space as our facility gets a long-awaited facelift. This will be a time of short-term pain for long-term gain, and we are committed to finding creative solutions to ensure that we minimize disruption to our patrons. If you have ideas of how we can operate programs outside of the library, or you know of a local company or organization that would love to host a Baby Rhyme Time or a group of knitters, please let us know! Our pack up will begin in earnest July 21-22, and we hope to call on volunteers to help us move everything we will not need in our temporary library into storage containers. If you are interested in helping with the move, please send me an email at asmlibmgr@marigold.ab.ca. We have movers coming to set us up in our new space July 24th, and I hope we can be open again by July 26th. No items will be due back during our closure. We will have a limited selection of books and movies on our shelves in this temporary space, but our Interlibrary Loan department will be busy working to get anything you want or need delivered to you. Another challenge of our temporary location will be that we will not have an after-hours book drop. To accommodate our patrons, there will be fine leniency during this time. As one of our staff said, it will be like camping: it is a bit uncomfortable, and you do not have everything that you are used to, but it is an adventure. I have been reading a lot of historical fiction lately, and one of the best was Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Donna Decker, a fictional account of the 1989 Montreal Massacre at Ecole polytechnique. This was a heartbreaking read, but worthwhile. Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien has been another terrific book. Set mainly in China, the book explores the impact of revolution on individuals and families. I learned a lot from this book, and it makes me want to learn more. Another book that taught me a lot this spring was the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The summary report provided a good start to filling in the gaps in my education about the history of the relationship between Indigenous and settler peoples. This is a difficult read, but critical for Canadians who desire a positive and productive relationship between all the peoples of our nation. The report is tragic yet hopeful as it looks toward a future of reconciliation. What have you been reading about lately? Is there anything you have read that has opened your eyes to a new perspective or taught you something you didn’t know? I look forward to hearing from you.
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Below are renderings designed by our own Heather Ulmer of the proposed Teen Area and Lobby seating area! Are you excited to see the finished product this fall? We sure are!
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In June’s Newsletter we discussed how to select the correct books for your baby’s age. This month will focus on how to enjoy literacy activities with your young one. Doing these fun activities together will enrich your child’s early learning experience by improving many of their skills. Rhymes, poems, lap bounces, and fingerplays are all great literacy activities to help support your child’s healthy early development. Early child development includes physical, social/emotional, and the language/cognitive domains of development. Practicing literacy activities will help to build competency in all of these areas for your child and will also strengthen your bond with each other! Most of us know several rhymes and poems that we like to read with our children, however lap bounces and fingerplays are less widely known to those not in the industry. A lap bounce is basically what it sounds like – you simply place your baby on your lap and bounce to the beat of a song you are reciting. When doing so with very small babies, be sure to support their necks and make your movements small. As your baby grows, you can increase how much you are bouncing and become more energetic. One of my favourite lap bounces is called “Ride to London Town” and the words can be found online. A fingerplay uses hand movements that coordinate with the words of nursery rhyme. This will better engage your little one’s interest and help them to remember the words and rhythm. One of my favourite fingerplays, and a very popular one, is “Itsy Bitsy Spider”. Some specific skills that literacy activities can help to improve include memory, vocabulary, imagination, sense of humor, spatial awareness, motor coordination, and the ability to relax. It is a great idea to start building these skills from birth. For more information on sharing books with your baby you can ask for a “Books with Baby” handout at the library and check out the April, May, and June newsletters on our library’s website. Because the Baby Goose Rhyme Time program is over until Fall, we hope that you will join us for Mother Goose in the Park in Kinsmen Park on Thursday mornings at 10:00 AM starting on July 6th!
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On June 17, the Strathmore Municipal Library launched its first Little Free Library at the Wheatland Society of Art Studio & Gallery (115-3rd Ave.). That same day, our second Little Free Library was placed at McBride Career Group (202-2nd Ave.). These are just 2 of the 9 libraries the Strathmore Municipal Library plans to place around the Town of Strathmore. We are currently looking for stewards who would be interested in caring for a Little Free Library on their private property or in a public location. Our aim is to spread the libraries throughout the Town of Strathmore; therefore, if we receive a number of applications for one area, we would then hold a draw to choose a steward for that area. If you are interested in becoming a steward, please pop into the library to fill out an application or go to www.strathmorelibrary.ca/littlelibraries to download the steward application and to view the Little Free Library Steward Agreement.
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