Jennifer Vogler was the host of fifteen 3 and 4 year olds for story time at the Library on Tuesday morning. The stories these children listened to were: The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper, Janet Stevens version of the Aesop fable, The Tortoise and the Hare and The Berenstain Bears Big Red Road Race by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Mrs. Vogler and the little ones talked about how important it is to always try your hardest and do your best at whatever you are doing. At activity time the children colored a train on the front of an easy reader booklet Mrs. Vogler had assembled for them to take home. Tatum and Chaney Vogler are providing helping hands for this group of little listeners.
The Circus was in town when the 5 and 6 year old group met at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. The children listened intently as Mrs. Gaines read Circus Ship by Chris Dusen. The story was about circus animals who were on a ship bound for Boston. The animals were being ruled by a cruel ringmaster. When the ship docked the animals hid from the ring master. The children played I Spy as they searched large colorful pages of pictures for those animals hiding in Boston. They checked out a map of the United States and learned that the city of Boston is not close to Rock Port, Mo. Everyone colored and decorated a paper mask to look like one of their favorite circus animals. Tiger masks were the most popular. The kids played “carnival” games of ring toss, bean bag toss and “guess how many” with jars of marbles and M and M candies. Reid Ellis and Ellie Garst won the guessing contest. The most daring in the group walked a high wire (a fine line on the floor) jumped through a ring of fire (a hula hoop) and tried their hand at juggling! This group of twenty who met with Tiffanie Gaines and Malisa Linthicum closed by their program listening to Curious George Goes To The Circus by H. A. Rey. Juleighanne Adams and Debbie Sly were on hand to help with the games and activities.
Trudy Heitman continues to lead both groups of early and middle elementary readers who meet on Thursday mornings. Their focus remains on the Olympics and the 2016 Summer Games being held in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. This week’s project started with mixing together a concoction called salt dough. After the dough was formed, it was rolled to “cookie” cutting or in this instance “medal” cutting thickness. Olympic medals are being made! Will they be gold, silver or bronze? The medals will be painted next week. These two groups, totaling seventeen young readers, continue to enjoy the books titled The Hour Of The Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne.
Library Director Janice Rosenbohm comments, “The children who have participated in the first half of our summer programs in Rock Port are having wonderful experiences. Mrs. Vogler, Mrs. Gaines, Mrs. Lintchicum and Ms. Heitman are fabulous volunteers! Successful programs are also ongoing at the branch libraries in Tarkio and Fairfax. Wonderful volunteers are providing excellent programming at those locations, too.”