Picking up a great book for a summer adventure is a great way to learn more about our world. And the Killarney and Cartwright libraries have been enjoying a fantastic summer sharing the love of reading with the young people in both of these communities!
Krista Law is the Library Administrator for both libraries, and each community has its own version of a summer reading program for kids of every age, as well as adults.
Summer Fun at Killarney Library: Reading Challenges and Storytime Adventures
In Killarney there are two separate programs, the summer reading program where kids choose from a series of challenges, and then there are the interactive story time presentations at the Lakeland Regional Library on William Avenue by summer student McKenna Wiesner.
"So, kids can select the challenges that they want to do, and they complete them at home with their own reading time at home," shares Krista Law. "So, it's pretty nice for kids. They come in, they pick the books they want, they pick their challenges. Some of the challenges you have to read a certain kind of book, so it gives them the challenge of finding the kinds of books that are going to meet the challenges. And then they go home, they do their reading, they bring back their completed challenge, and then once a week we draw for prizes. So, if your name gets drawn, you get to come in and pick a prize. And that goes on for the whole summer," she adds.
"The kids are really, they're just so excited about it. And I think part of it is they like picking their own prize from the selection we have out, and Stacy here, does a really good job of making sure that there's a variety of challenges for every reading level. So, it doesn't matter if you're just a little kid learning to read or a bigger kid!"
The reading program is also for teen and adult readers where those challenges are age-appropriate.
"Those run a little differently because there are more tasks to complete. And so, the teens and the adults have the whole summer to do those challenges. And then we do one draw for a slightly bigger, more grown-up prize for those two challenges. So, we do have a take home summer reading challenge for every age, including adults."
When they're fortunate enough to have provincial funding the library will hire a summer student. This year, Killarney student McCanna Wiesner has facilitating a program that's more interactive. It includes a story time, crafts and games and songs.
"And she's doing a fantastic job," shares Law. "So, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, she does a morning preschool program and then an afternoon school age program on a theme. This week's theme was Space."
"She runs an hour-long program so that there's a story and songs and crafts and activities and the kids have really, really been enjoying that. And a couple of the local daycares have been taking advantage of that program. So, they've been coming and attending those when we have space for them because of course they're bigger groups. But that program has been going really, really well."
"So yeah, that makes the library very busy between those two programs!"
Turning Pages for Prizes: Cartwright’s Creative Reading Adventure
Cartwright's summer reading program looks quite a bit different. For every 15 minutes kids read, they check off a mark on a map. And for every hour they read, they get a seashell.
"And those seashells can be redeemed for prizes," shares Law, "and the kids love it!"
"So, they come in with their little maps and get the seashells for the time that they've read, and then they have to figure out what kind of prizes they want. So in Cartwright, the prizes are all set out, but they have little price tags on them with one shell, 2 shells, 3 shells, on each of the prizes," she explains.
"So, the kids have to figure out, OK, I have 5 shells. Do I want one big prize? Do I want two or three little prizes? It's also a sneaky way of us getting them to do math too, because they have to figure out what they want. And for some reason the format of that program works really well Cartwright. The kids really love collecting some kind of token and then redeeming them for prizes. So that program is going really well there!" adds Law.
Please listen to more with Krista Law below!
For more information please visit their website HERE!
Lakeland Regional Library Killarney is located at 318 Williams Ave, Killarney
Lakeland Regional Library Cartwright is located at 483 Veteran Drive, Cartwright