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Flower Petal Suncatchers

Tray of fresh flowers

Inspired by a project in Jean Van't Hul's book "The Artful Parent: Simple Ways to Fill Your Family's Life with Art and Creativity," children created colorful suncatchers with natural materials, clear contact paper and paper plates.

This is a simple and creative project for children and adults to complete together. When offered in person at the library, participants visited the library's garden to pick flowers, leaves and other natural items to use in their project. 

Star Wars Spelling Bee

Library workers dressed up in Star Wars themed costumes

In honor of Star Wars Reads Month in October, our library held programs related to the iconic movies. We capped it all off with a Star Wars Spelling Bee at the end of the month, at 4:30 p.m. on a Thursday.

We picked specific words related to the movies and provided example sentences related to the movies to provide context. The event ended with a costume contest.

Unicorn Party

A girl on a horse decorated as a unicorn

The Unicorn Party was planned in response to the growing fandom associated with unicorns, particularly among children, tweens and teens. The program lasted 90 minutes and comprised several unicorn-based activities, unicorn snacks, a unicorn book display and a "live unicorn" (i.e. decorated pony).

Middle School Panel

School bus

The Fifth Annual Middle School Panel  was a great opportunity for parents/guardians to hear about the local middle schools and their programs. This program was geared for parents/guardians of fourth- and fifth-graders. 

The event was hosted by the Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library in partnership with 17 area schools and organizations. Program representatives from the area schools addressed parents, legal guardians and students about their respective middle schools in terms of academic programs, resources and performance.

Trivia Night

Trivia Night

The West Linn Public Library holds an every-other-month Trivia Night in our Community Room. We do not require registration but ask people to form teams of two to five people and just show up. People who do not come with a team are welcome to join another team as long as it remains five people or less. The program is targeted to adults, but all ages are welcome, and we usually have at least one family with kids that shows up. 

Noon Year's Eve Party

For the past three years the Lakeville Public Library has hosted a Noon Year’s Eve celebration on Dec. 31. We make party hats, dance, have photo booths and do a countdown to noon. The festivities end with a huge pizza party.

This is one of our largest and costliest events of the year; last year's party attracted more than 200 guests.

A Marvel-ous Spring: A Superhero-Themed Program Series

A group photo from a superhero program

Anamosa is a community of 5,533 in eastern Iowa, and it's quite remote. Many families drive 30 to 50 minutes to the nearby cities of Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Dubuque looking for family activities.

Our residents are always looking for things for kids to do close to home, so the Anamosa Library & Learning Center put together a spring-long, superhero-themed program series for all ages, culminating in a private showing of “Avengers: Endgame” at a movie theater in Cedar Rapids. 

Black Superhero Showcase

In honor of Black History Month in February, the Portland Library held an all-ages event with screenings, games and activities celebrating black superheroes. We screened episodes of “Static Shock,” a TV show from the early '00s that featured a black superhero, and had an array of games, coloring pages and a book display.

We have held the event for the past four years, and it has grown in popularity each time.

Story Time in the Orchard

Woman reading outside to a crowd

Story Time in the Orchard is an all-ages story time hosted by Boyertown Community Library and Frecon Farms. It is held outdoors on Thursdays at 9 a.m. from mid-June through October, weather permitting.

This program enhances awareness of local agriculture, provides a family experience of nature and boosts health literacy while having fun.

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