The L.P. Fisher Public Library is well-known in our community (Woodstock, N.B., Canada) for our board game programs, like Connect Four Tournaments, Family Game Nights or our (competitive!) Chess Club.
The building blocks of physical literacy begin at birth as we explore our environments with our bodies — but that doesn’t mean our skills are fixed at a certain age! Physical literacy skills can be acquired and improved throughout the lifetime.
This year the LP Fisher Public Library teamed up with our local run club, the River Valley Runners. They got a place to have their monthly meetings, access to awesome running books (and periodicals, thanks to the generous donation of a member), and we got to particpate in their fun runs and help plan their events. It has turned out to be a true win-win.
Creating a physical literacy program at your library doesn’t always have to happen under your roof. Take to the streets (or trails)! Are you already an avid runner or walker? Share your enthusiam. Would you like to be? Get motivated with some helpful volunteers.
We spend a lot of time in libraryland talking about literacy. And there are an awful lot of literacy skills to learn and teach: pre-literacy skills, visual literacy, numeracy, cultural literacy, information and computer or digital literacy…whew! But one of the most overlooked and underappreciated literacy skills is the one we use almost constantly from the time we are born: kinetic literacy, also known as physical literacy. Â
Toddlers and preschoolers can be a challenging (and adorable!) age to teach. I highly recommend adding some yoga poses or movement exercises to your storytime programs, if only to help get those wiggles out! Â
Welcome to another installment of Kinesthetic Library Programming! Â This time we're going to learn about bringing yoga to your littlest patrons and their caregivers.
As I write this, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems like online programs are the only way for librarians to connect with their patrons. Digital storytelling is a creative way to engage patrons virtually right now — and as a bonus, you will learn some fantastic skills you can take back to your libraries when this is all over, for intergenerational workshops or homeschooling projects to improve digital literacy. So let's get started!
Sure, we can all enjoy the rush of nostalgia when we dump out the contents of a Jenga box or hear the crash of Connect Four. But there is a whole new world of games out there, and we're libraries — we won't be left behind!
Ever think about starting a tabletop game collection at your library? If you're a game enthusiast, you could probably come up with a whole list of ideas that would blow your patrons' minds — and your library's budget. Board games, after all, can be both exciting and pricey.
But if you can solicit donations of gently used games — or find them for cheap — you might be able to amass a larger collection that you thought possible.