{"id":33254,"date":"2023-07-06T19:14:45","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T23:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=33254"},"modified":"2023-07-06T19:14:47","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T23:14:47","slug":"kids-creativity-abounds-at-aurora-public-library-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/kids-creativity-abounds-at-aurora-public-library-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids\u2019 creativity abounds at Aurora Public Library this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Creative kids, tech kids, and even those just looking to get their hands dirty and have fun, too, will have lots to do at the Aurora Public Library this summer \u2013 and, don\u2019t tell them, but they will be learning at the same time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora Public Library (APL) is the place to be this summer for a variety of drop-in programs that suit every taste, including Maker Mondays, Tech Tuesdays, Wacky Wednesdays, Outdoor Thursdays, and Science Fridays \u2013 followed by party time each Saturday throughout the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re providing something free every day for families to drop into \u2013 realistically for any age, but best-targeted to ages four to 10,\u201d says Polly Ross-Tyrrell, APL\u2019s Children\u2019s Librarian. \u201cOur morning programs are the pre-school programs, but we feel really strongly that it is really important to reach the kids where we can reach them, so we want to be there every day we possibly can be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summer programs at the APL work like well-oiled machines, but each year\u2019s offerings are reflective of feedback from kids and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing slime again this year because everybody has been letting me know all year they want to do slime again!\u201d says Ross-Tyrrell of a staple of their Science Friday program. \u201cOur daily themes are pretty set with Maker Mondays, Tech Tuesdays… but Wednesdays we\u2019ve had a lot of changes and we\u2019re going with Wacky Wednesdays, which is a lot of silly activities. On Thursdays, we\u2019re keeping things outdoors because people have liked seeing us in the parks around Aurora. You won\u2019t find us in the Library, but outside in Town Park, Ada Johnson Park, or Edward Coltham Park (William Graham Drive), depending on the week. Fridays are Science Fridays, and Saturdays are Saturday Specials where we do giant parties on fun themes like dinosaurs, princesses and that type of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScience is kind of my thing during the school yar when I run the Mad Scientist Club. I feel it is important to make science a learning experience as they learn in school but also just that everybody knows how much fun it is, that you can learn a lot of science by making slime or blowing bubbles all over the place \u2013 whatever. I think that\u2019s what comes through in all our programs. We want kids to have fun. We do want them to learn things and we certainly want them to read books and stuff, but we want them to have fun. As a Library we\u2019re able to do that. We don\u2019t have the same mission as schools where we have to assign grades, we can just have fun with them and that\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Saturday, July 8, will be the first Saturday Special with a Circus theme with a juggler, balloon animals, tumbling mats, and more so kids can form a circus of their own. July 8 will also see the launch of the TD Summer Reading program, which is the only part of the summer APL programs where pre-registration is required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants can register for the TD Summer Reading club through the APL\u2019s Beanstack app, which also allows you to track your reading and earn \u201cbeans\u201d for every hour they read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey can earn special beans for coming to programs, get online badges, and write book reviews,\u201d says Ross-Tyrrell. \u201cThey can collect all their readings and then get a prize pack when they get to 20 hours and win free books after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also participating in the TD Summer Reading Club\u2019s Sister Library program and we have a sister library in Stony Plain, AB, and we will have a pen pal program with some of the Stony Plain kids and Aurora kids. Right now, the program is on a waiting list, but I have every expectation we will be able to extend registration because I know they have more kids and if we have more kids that\u2019s all we need. If anybody has a child who would like a pen pal in Alberta, take a look at our website and look for Write Across the Country and get on that waiting list!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devising kids programs not just in the summer but throughout the year is a \u201cdream job\u201d for Ross-Tyrrell, who says she was in her early teens when she realized she wanted to work with kids in her career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything about programming for children is my favourite thing about this,\u201d she says. \u201cI love doing story time, I love doing my science programs. We\u2019ve just come out of a solid month of visiting school classes and talking about all of this stuff and I love that too. It is one of our favourite times of year. You spend a whole day in a school and you see so many friendly faces, some of them new, lots of them old, but for me just children are my people and I feel like I understand what they want and how to do what they want better than I do adults. It is something I really enjoy and it seems to work for people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on this summer\u2019s roster of kids programs, visit aurorapl.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Creative kids, tech kids, and even those just looking to get their hands dirty and have fun, too, will have lots to do at the Aurora Public Library this summer \u2013 and, don\u2019t tell them, but they will be learning at the same time! The Aurora Public Library (APL) is the place to be this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8Em","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 05:08:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}