Bring the excitement of an Iowa City Public Library
storytime home with our Read With Me Kits.
The Library has more than 40 kits available to checkout.
Each kit was built around a specific theme and contains five books, a storytime
starter sheet, and an activity item that coincides with the theme. Activity
items vary by kit. Themes include opposites, trains, unicorns, construction,
family, cats, and shapes.
Read With Me Kits are a great addition to a
child’s story routine. They can also supplement a preschool or child care’s
reading program. Each kit may be checked out for three weeks.
We're Glowing with Excitement Over Family Night Friday!
Join us from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday, October 20, for an evening of games, art and simple science experiments that glow. The fun starts at 7 p.m. in the Children's Room. We'll have glow-in-the-dark slime, and reflective nail polish and body paint, among other glowing crafts.
The fun won't end when the Library closes at 8 p.m. Instead, we'll use the darkness to our advantage and extend the fun another hour with glow-in-the-dark games, and science experiments that bubble, fizz and illuminate.
All ages are welcome, but parents are required for children who stay after the Library closes.
ICPL to Host Annual Chess Tournament on Nov. 11
The
Iowa City Public Library’s Totally Tweens Chess Tournament will be held from 1
to 5 p.m. Saturday, November 11, in Meeting Room A.
A
staple of the Library’s tween programming, the tournament is held in honor of
Steve Young, who was active in the community’s chess population until his death
in 2012.
The tournament is open to students in third through sixth
grades. Members of the United State Chess Federation (USCF) below third grade
also are welcome. Players rated over USCF 1,000 will be in a separate section.
Membership in the USCF is not required except for the over
1,000 section and participants in second grade and younger.
This
event is free, but pre-registration is required. Children can register by
e-mailing Eric Vigil at evigil@gmail.com. Walk-ins may
register the day of the event from noon to 12:45 p.m.
Refreshments
will be provided. Participants should plan to stay for the entire afternoon.
New Digital Tools to Help Beginning Readers
We recently added two new digital literacy tools to our collection of online databases.
ABCmouse.com is a digital education program that helps children ages two through eight learn to read through phonics. It also teaches lessons in math, social studies, art, music, and more. ABCmouse.com is only available at the Library on our Children’s Room computers.
Little Pim is a foreign language learning program offered in partnership with Mango Languages. Intended for early learners through age six, Little Pim emphasizes kid-friendly design, repetition, audio from native speakers, and
simplicity, and is a stepping stone towards conversational fluency. It can be accessed in the Library or at home.
