Thompson Public Library

Due to lack of registration for in-library programming in 2016, we decided to only run a Reading Challenge and our regularly scheduled story time during the summer of 2016.

The kids earned stickers for every book they read in the summer, and every time they hit a treasure chest they would get a prize, when they completed the map, they would get a bigger prize! This was a 72 book challenge. We only had 4 kids finish the entire map.

We hired someone who does Henna out of their home to do a Henna Workshop in 2016 and 2017. She taught the group the history of Henna, as well as brought pre-made henna which the participants could decorate on themselves or have you do a design.

For this program we did an 8-week registration only Story Time session for babies aged 6 months - 2 years. We made a theme for each week as follows:
Week 1: Animals
Week 2: Colours
Week 3: Movement
Week 4: Weather
Week 5: Feelings
Week 6: Vehicles
Week 7: Food
Week 8: Nursery Rhymes

Each week we read short, simple board books that fit each theme and sang songs and did simple activities.
Ex. Week 1 was Animals, we had animal puppets for Amanda (who ran the program) and various stuffed animals for each of the babies.
- Week 2 was colour, and Amanda supplied each of the babies with paint and cardstock in a paperbag, and they did finger painting
- For Week 4, that was Weather, we sang songs about rain "It's Raining, it's pouring.." and did activities with a parachute (which the kids absolutely LOVED).
- For Week 6 we did vehicles and had toy vehicles that each of the kids played with
- Week 7 was Food, the kids played with play food.

In celebration of National Aboriginal Day, we brought in Sylvia Mercredi, a local who does many Aboriginal Crafts, to teach two Dreamcatcher workshops - one for Kids and one for Adults. We had a maz registration of 10 participants per session, with a fee of $10 for Adults and $5 for kids (to cover supplies and fee).

We held a Pre-Father's Day casual event at the Library. Using donated LEGO (we held an event previously that we put a call out for LEGO, and we have two big buckets of it now), we encouraged kids to bring their favourite builder helper, in case they weren't able to bring a father figure the day of the event. We provided Juice and cookies and set out the LEGO at the tables in our Junior section and let the groups guide their own LEGO projects.

Dr. Jenn Nyhof from Thompson Veterinary Clinic joined us at the Library to read a group of 50 kids from two schools and three day cares the book "May I Pet Your Dog" by Stephanie Calmenson. She then discussed what Veterinarians do, good ways to treat an animal and when you should bring your pet to the Vet. Every child was then given a stuffed animal that they 'adopted' and they needed to decide in what way the animal needed to see a vet. Dr. Jenn and other volunteers went around and 'fixed' the animals by bandaging the body parts that the children had indicated needed attention. She then answered questions and told stories about her time working in different clinics and animal hospitals as a Vet Tech and a Veterinarian.

In Summer 2015 instead of doing a weekly Summer Reading Program as we had done in the past, we decided to return to the roots of Summer Programming at the Thompson Public Library and do a summer reading challenge in the form of a Bingo. The board had 72 squares on it and the goal was to get a Black Out, fulfilling all of the categories listed in the boxes. We placed all of the Bingo Boards on the windows in our Junior Section and each time kids came in having read books (or having been read to), they would get stickers to place on their boards. We had 12 kids finish the challenge and they received prizes that were donated to the Library.

We did a Toddler Paint Hour series every Friday for a month where each week we introduced a new method of painting to the group.

Week 1: Stamp Painting - we gave the kids different items to "stamp" paint onto huge white pieces of paper. Items included: cookie cutters, paper towel rolls, foam shapes, ink stamps, cotton swabs, and pom poms.

Week 2: Yarn Painting - we dipped yarn into paint and dragged it along our paper to make art with yarn strokes. We also had toilet paper rolls wrapped in yarn to roll over out paper to create cool designs.

Week 3: Bubble Painting - using dish soap, water and washable paint we blew bubbles using drinking straws and stamps small pieces of white paper over the bubbles to create an imprint.

Week 4: Fingerprint Art - I taped foam shapes onto pieces of paper and had the kids "trace" the image and the rest of the paper with their fingerprints. We then removed the foam shape and we were left with a cool design.

All supplies used were items already in the Library, so no money was spent on this series.

In June 2016 we had a rock painting workshop outside of the Library for kids. We asked kids to bring their own rock and we used paint and juice boxes leftover from other programming so this program did not cost the Library any money directly.

We did this on a Saturday afternoon and the sun was shining and while we gave kids examples of what they could paint on their rocks, most of them came up with their own designs.

In May 2016, we ran a Wine & Paint Night at the Library, we invited a local artist (Bronte Hendren) to host a Wine & Paint on a Friday night when the Library was closed. She instructed 10 women how to paint a garden scene and each woman had a glass of wine while they painted. We obtained a One-Time Liquor License for the Library and charged each participant $40 for registration to cover supplies.