The Weyburn Public Library's Summer Student Programmer this year is Makena Ricard. She's hoping to see a good turnout of kids and families at this Thursday's kick-off barbecue for the summer activity programs. However, it's important to register with the library for the barbecue, which is being held from 4 to 6 p.m. and is sponsored by the Young Fellows Club of Weyburn.
"We're going to have some hot dogs and some games to play," she shared. "When you first show up to the BBQ, we'll have a registration table set up with our program guides that have the list of all the activities we're going to have planned for the summer, and there will be a QR code that you can pull up and we can go through the registration together."
Programs for ages six to 12 will be split into two groups on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"So 10 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, six to eights and nine to 12s," noted Ricard. "So we've got some craft stuff like origami. We're going to do a street art day and we've also got some more physical stuff like I'm planning mini Olympics for the end of the program. The Weyburn Police are going to come out and join us for that one. There's a cooking day we've got, and some STEM experiments. That'll be awesome."
She said the barbecue will be a good opportunity for kids and parents to meet the programmer before summer activities begin.
"A lot of these younger kids haven't experienced [the programs] with me before or [we] haven't worked together, so it's a great time to meet, and for the parents to get a little bit more comfortable as well because it will be one-on-one and there are times that we won't be in the library and planning to take kids to the parks and take them outside as well. So it's a great opportunity for everyone to meet and take away some of the nerves around it."
Ricard, of Radville, is currently heading into her fifth and final year at the University of Calgary for Education and English, with hopes of either becoming an English teacher or a special education teacher.
"It's a really great opportunity and very happy to be here. I think the age group too, like that six to 12, some of them love reading. Some of them are like 'too cool for school' on it. But fostering the love of reading and getting to pair it with other activities, and you can see the connections. It's really awesome."
The event is also the kick-off for the summer reading program.
"For every hour a kid reads, they track it in their notebook and come in and get a prize. We've got some really awesome donations from different businesses in town and you get a choice between like a coupon for something or a physical prize. It might be like a bouncy ball or something," explained Ricard. "In each of the age groups, at the end of the summer, if you're one of the top three readers, you'll also get a prize for that. In the past, it's been like gift baskets, and at the windup party, we will also do a draw for our grand prize. In the past, we've had bikes for our grand prize, so it's really exciting."
She said the kids can read anything they want, as it's all about fostering a love for reading.
"If they want to listen to audiobooks, that's great too. It can be a graphic novel, a comic book, or anything that gets you excited about spending time and learning. Differentiating it for different kids too, especially with the age group as well. Braille books are also something that we can track. Just making it so that everyone can approach it. You can't do the program because you can't read isn't a factor for this, which is awesome."
Read more: Register now for WPL's Summer Reading Program kick-off bbq