by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
Summer programming in all of the Meeker County libraries is
underway. I manage the Grove City and
Dassel public libraries as well as Litchfield, and our staff is running a
Cosmos summer library program again this year.
You’ve heard about Litchfield’s summer programs from Jan in previous
weeks. I know that people who live in
all parts of the county keep an eye on Litchfield media and visit our website, so let me tell you about
what is happening in the other communities.
All three of the other towns are offering the “Dig Into
Reading” summer reading program for kids ages three to eleven or twelve. At Dassel, the teen program is “Groundbreaking
Reads” like it is at Litchfield, and at Grove City it’s called “Beneath the
Surface”. It works basically the same at
all of our locations: 1) sign up and get a book bag and a reading log; 2) fill
out the reading log to track your reading time; 3) turn in completed reading
logs to earn prizes, all summer long.
If you get a chance, stop in to the Grove City library this month to see their cute garden exhibit in the corner of the children's area. They plan to change the decorating theme each month to other fun digging-related things.
Grove City is offering special “Dig Into Reading” programs
on four Mondays this summer: June 24, July 8, July 22, and August 12, from 1:30
to 2:15. They also will be holding three
“Dig Into 4-H Fun @ the Library” programs on Mondays. Two have already happened in June, but one
more will be held on July 15.
Grove City has some great teen programs that happen all year
round, with a group of regulars who like to get together. They’d love to welcome more people! Margaret leads it and she is so much
fun. There are two more “teen nites”
happening this summer: Monday, July 15, and Monday, August 19, from 3:30 to 5
p.m. They’ve also just started a
manga/anime club. That group will meet
again on Monday, July 1, and Monday, August 5, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
The Dassel library has a storyhour every Friday morning at
10:00, year-round. This summer the June
storyhours have a gardening theme. In
July and early August, the themes will be archaeology, dinosaurs, and mummies,
and machines that dig. A bit later in
August, the theme will be burrowing animals.
Elisabeth reads stories, sings songs, and leads the kids in playing
rhythm instruments, and some weeks the kids make a craft. If you live in the Dassel area, have young
kids, and haven’t gone to that storyhour in the past year, you should come and
see what a fun program Elisabeth does.
If you missed Professor Marvel’s Amazing Archaeological
Adventure at Litchfield, you can catch it at the Dassel library on Monday, July
22, at 6:30 p.m. It really was
amazing! Professor Marvel had the crowd
of 150 people laughing: kids, adults, and even teens. It’s very entertaining and I highly recommend
it. It’s free to attend and you don’t
need to sign up.
The Minnesota Zoomobile will be presenting programs at both the Litchfield
and Dassel libraries on Wednesday, August 21.
There will be live animals to learn about! It will be fun for the whole family and free
to attend.
We are offering a summer program at the former Cosmos
Elementary building again this year. It
began last week and runs through July.
Every Tuesday from 4-6 p.m., Jennifer from Grove City Library and Elle
from Litchfield Library will be there with bins of children’s books to borrow,
prizes to pick up for turning in reading logs, stories to listen to, and crafts
to do. Kids of all ages are welcome, as
well as their parents and caregivers with them.
We are setting up a couple of special programs in July that we’ll be
announcing soon.
Whichever of these towns you can get to this summer, keep
the kids reading and busy by visiting the library!
