JPL West Regional's photostream

JPL West Regional's photostream on Flickr.

Thank you to everyone who came to our Holiday Party. We had a great time with you all. We hope you had a wonderful time with all the crafts, treats and stories. Happy Holidays from the entire West Regional Library Staff!

Ornaments

Miss Antoinette and her crafty crew are at it again.

As you are coming in this holiday season, please stop and take a look at our tree in the front foyer. It is covered with ornaments which were created by the children who came to our Early Release Craft on December 7th. Below are pics of our tree being decorated by those same children and their parents:

Find the Tree

Ok, it's that time again. Click on the holiday tree below and see if you can find Our Christmas Tree. Come in and show us where and you can pick a present from our prize box. And as an added bonus, you have until January 10, 2012.

C3PO wishes West Kids Merry Christmas

Upcoming Events

We have so super duper special events coming up this Holiday season. December 7th @ 2 pm, we have a holiday edition of the Early Release Crafts. And two Saturday Surprises, count them, two! One will be on the 10th of December and one on the 17th. I can't spill the beans on the one on the 10th but the 17th, I can give you a hint. Your hint is: What did Luke blow up in Star Wars? Holiday Origami will be happening on the 12th of December at 4 pm.

Our Family Holiday Celebration will be happening on the 21st of December and it is going to be fantabulous! We will do crafts, make treats, watch movies, hear stories, and so much more. More super duper awesomeness than the children's department can hold... so it is being held in the community rooms. Yep, rooms : ) We ho-ho-hope to see you all at our special Holiday events.

Turkey Hunt Anyone?

What kind of key doesn't open doors?

(Psst...this pic is a big hint)
A Turkey!

Click on the word "turkey" above to go to the 360 tour of the children's department. Find the turkey in our 360 degree tour, come into the West Regional Library to tell us and pick a prize. Don't be a turkey and be late. Pick up your prize before November 30th.

Dia de Los Muertos

Dia de Los Muertos is a Mexican festival called Day of the Dead. It is a day on which people are remembered particularly those who have passed away. One of the custom of the day is to decorate sugar skulls. Our decorated skulls were decorated for the Early Release Craft program and since they were plastic, we highly recommended no one eat them.. we had candy to pass out afterwards instead.

We had over 30 people in attendance. In addition to decorating skulls and eating candy, we had Mexican music playing. Our next Early Release craft will be on November 16th. We are painting Thanksgiving candles for you to use as a centerpiece.

Happy Halloween!

Princess Fiona and Gangster's Moll

Princess Fiona

Can you guess who is playing Princess Fiona and a Gangster's Moll for Halloween? We hope you enjoyed all your treats from this Halloween season from the Halloweenie puppet show to the Halloween origami. Check out our new calendar to see what we have in store for November.

Trick or Treat?

Can you guess what we're going to be for Halloween? You may just have to come by West Kids Department to find out on Monday.

But before that, don't forget to drop off your name and phone number on your check out receipt. You could win a pumpkinhead full of goodies. We will be raffling it off on October 28th at our puppet show.

The puppet show is called "Halloweenie: A Trick or Treat Tale". It is the tale of Dr. Frank and Igor. Dr. Frank is bossing Igor around so Igor decides to play a trick on him with your help. Hope to see you there!

Hickery dickery Dock...

Thanks to all who attended the Toddler Times yesterday. We had such fun learning how to do Little Miss Muffet and Hey Diddle Diddle with actions.

Little Miss Muffet (put hand down by side as if showing something small)
Sat on her tuffet. (pat your bottom)
Eating her curds and whey. (pretend to eat)
Along came a spider (walk your fingers up your arm)
Who sat down beside (pat your bottom)
And frightened Miss Muffet away (run in place)

 Hey Diddle Diddle (cup hands around mouth)
 the cat (meow and show whiskers)
and the fiddle (pretend to play fiddle)
 The cow (moo with horns on head)
jumped over the moon (jump)
The little dog (bark with hands bent like paws)
 laughed to see such a sight (laugh with hand over eyes)
And the dish ran away (hands on hips while running in place)
With the spoon (Hands over head while running in place)

That Little Miss Muffet rhyme is always my favorite. It always makes me laugh when the spider crawls up my arm.

Oh, wow! We also learned how to say the word spider with our hands. I am hoping to include different ASL words in our storytimes. It and fingerplays are a great way of helping kids both communicate and build those small motor muscles. Those are the ones in your hands that help you make small movements. They are super important when your kids begin to start writing.

.Afterwards, we made cow windsocks. No, not the kind you were on your feet : ) They help us know which way the wind is blowing and maybe a fun thing to play with too if you make your own breeze. Come on by next Tuesdays for our pumpkin storytime. There is one storytime at 10:30 am and one at 11:00 am.

Win a prize!

See if you can find the pumpkin in this new 360 degree view of the children's department.

Shhhhh.... I am going to give you a hint.... shhhhhhh.... don't tell.....

Hint: Look on top of the zebra striped box

I didn't tell you anything, right? Just come in and tell the staff where the pumpkin was and pick a prize. You have until October 31st. Good luck!

Alley-oop

Are you feeling a bit dizzy? Mysterious and spooky? Or all together ooky?

Well, we have the cure for that! We are having a Halloween themed puppet show on the 28th of October @ 4:30 pm. It will be an open to all ages show. There will also be a craft afterwards.... talk about a treat : )

Keep an eyeball or two out for our Preschool storytime time changes too. The regularly scheduled dates of October 5th and 12th will go on as planned. With the change in Wednesday hours of 12 to 9 pm, we will be adjusting our schedules shortly and will let you know what will be the new dates shortly. Are there any other programs you would like us to include? Just drop us a line at wst_ill@coj.net or ecowart@coj.net and let us know.

All other normally scheduled programs (Toddler Time and Early Release crafts) will go on as previously scheduled. Thank you for all your support!

Bubbles, bubbles and more bubbles

Join us tomorrow for Preschool Storytime with Miss Chris... here's a hint about it.... what is this kitty playing with? 

Storytime will be at 11:00 am and there will be a craft following after storytime.  It is open to kids ages 3 and up. 

Look out, Stuart Little!

  Look out, Stuart Little and Geronimo Stilton!  There are two new mice in our library.  They have come to us by way of Pet Smart and they are settling in quite nicely.  They are currently living behind the children's desk.  The plan is to house them in children's for about a month or so and then hopefully find them a nice new home.  Maybe with you?  Please let us know at towards the end of October. 

They really enjoy hanging out in paper tubes as you can see.  One is white with black spots and one is grey and white.  If you want to learn more about taking care of real mice, take a look at our mouse books in the 636.9353 area of nonfiction.

They also enjoy playing tag with each other, playing with the wood shaving and getting nice and clean for visitors.  You might have noticed that I haven't called them by their names.  Well, these two girls don't have names right now.  What do you think you might name them?

New Staff

Hello! My name is Eve Harm or Miss Eve and I am the newest addition to the West Regional Kids family.

I am originally from Jacksonville and have lived here my entire life. I am super duper excited about getting back into childrens. My last library was San Marco but I have worked at Webb, Graham, Westbrook, Maxville, Main, Brown Eastside and now West : ) I love kitties and have four at home...

I will presenting the Toddler Time on Tuesdays at 10:30 and 11:00. Our rhymes for today included:

Open, Shut Them
Open, shut them (Open both hands and then make a fist)

Open, shut themGive a little clap, clap, clap (Clap hands together)

Open, shut themOpen, shut them

Fold them in your lap, lap, lap(Fold hands in lap)
Creep them, crawl them (softly sung, walk fingers slowly to your chin)

Creep them, crawl themRight up to your chin, chin, chin (have fingers on chin)

Open wide your little mouth(fast)

But do not let them in. (Hide hands)
Open, shut them (Open both hands and then make a fist)

Open, shut themGive a little clap, clap, clap (Clap hands together)
If ready for storytime,
Ready for storytime
Put them in your lap, lap, lap (Fold hands in lap)

Shake My Sillies Out
I’m gonna shake, shake, shake my sillies out.
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out.
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out.
And wiggle my wobbles away.
I’m gonna clap, clap, clap my crazies out.
Clap, clap, clap my crazies out.
Clap, clap, clap my crazies out
and wiggle my wobbles away.
I’m gonna jump, jump, jump my jigglies out.
Jump, jump, jump my jigglies out
Jump, jump, jump my jigglies out
and wiggle my wobbles away.
I’m gonna yawn, yawn, yawn my sleepies out.
Yawn, yawn, yawn my sleepies out
Yawn, yawn, yawn my sleepies out
And wiggle my wobbles away.
I’m gonna shake, shake, shake my sillies out.
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out.
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out.
And wiggle my wobbles away.

Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends, "Goodbye!" (clap hands to beat and wave during 'goodbye')

Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends, "Goodbye!"

Now it's time to say goodbye,

Wave your hands,

Wink your eye,

Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends, "Goodbye!"
(Sang to the tune of “She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain)

This week's theme was Friends. We heard some great stories about a bear named Alexander as well as "My Friend Rabbit" by Eric Rohmann. Then did a fun friendship bracelet craft : )

Next week's theme is Apples and be forewarned, there will be painting, shaking and a whole barrel of fun : P Hope to see you there!

Goodbye... (but Not Really)

Ms. Sara, family preschool storytime conductor, blog author, tea party giver, and paint thrower extraordinaire has been transferred to the Willowbranch Branch of JPL. 

She will miss everyone @ the WRL children's department, especially her Wednesday morning preschool crew! 

You can visit her at her new library on the corner of Park and Cherry Streets if you happen to be in the Riverside/Avondale area.  She would be most glad to see you (and Granny Alfie would too)!

Ms. Sara and Alfie Bette Frahmatozy

Zoo Trek is Now Over

Karl and the zoo crew have wrapped up the spring session of Zoo TREK.  Our Terrific Responsible Ecology Kids have learned so much about conservation and have come away with a better understanding of how all our actions affect the animals who share this planet with us.  Thanks so much, Mr. Karl!  We're looking forward to another session in the fall!

More Spring Fling Pics