Friday, August 21, 2015

Summer Reading Program: The Numbers Breakdown

At the Oak Brook Library this summer, we had a grand total of  2,027 reading hours in our "Read to the Rhythm" summer program. That's  84 and a half days of reading from our kids. This year we saw a 16% percent increase of summer reading participants. But the best is that the wall speaks for itself. Each record represents a new reading level achieved:


Just look at all of those participants!

Of the 2,027 hours completed, 1,543 of them were from our preschool to fifth graders, which we are very proud of. And last but not least, special congratulations to our raffle winners:

Jonah Kim
Rohan Shah
Nikkil Riachand

Please come in and pick up your Barnes and Noble prizes!

MD

Saturday, August 15, 2015

DIY Stepping Stone Workshop (And How-To)

Today we took some concrete mix, water, some gems, seashells, and beads to make stepping stones. They came out great, and overall these stepping stones made for a really simple and unique crafting idea. 

Our recipe included a basic concrete mix (dry) purchased from a hardware store that we mixed with water in plastic buckets. We put on some masks, and kept stirring the mix until it could be poured into small aluminum pans. Once poured into pans, we allowed the concrete to sit for about before putting any decorative items on top. 

This extra sitting time allows the concrete to become more stiff, so when you put gems or beads on it, those small pieces won't sink in the muck. 

And without further ado, some pictures:











As you can see we had all age groups come out. It's a really fun craft to do, and it's surprisingly simple to do if you have extra stones, buttons, and gems lying about. But note these garden stones are largely for decoration. Anything more permanent would require broken tile. 

Other tips and suggestions: 
-Really make sure the concrete sits for an hour, or you have some method to remove access water from the concrete. (Dabbing with paper towels worked just fine.) After the surface of the concrete begins to stiffen, then apply the decorative items. 
-Press hard when applying gems, stones, beads, etc, into the mix. The more concrete they have holding them in, the more they will survive outside weather/wear and tear. 
-Let these stones dry for (at least) two days. Then, you can peel them out of the metal pans quite easily. Enjoy!


-MD

Thursday, August 6, 2015

READ to a Dog: August 6th

We just wrapped up our second READ to a Dog session this summer! We were happy to see Slainte back and host dog Ginger's first appearance! Here are a few photos of the program!







 Ginger with Sue!
Slainte reading her book! 
Posted by Stephanie

READ to A Dog!

To wrap up July we hosted the READ to a Dog program with dogs Maggie and Slainte! The READ to a Dog program helps improve children's reading and communication skills by reading to registered therapy dogs. The dogs and caretakers are all wonderful teams that volunteer their time for the program.



 Slainte


Maggie
Posted by Stephanie