Rock Island, IL: With more than 300 registered at the Rock Island Library's June 4 Summer Reading Kickoff, the library's reading and activities program is off to a running start. When it comes to major league fun, the library has families covered, with a wide mixture of weekly programs and one-time special events. Upcoming activities for children and families include:
Weekly art club, drama improv, drama reader's theater, and math game programs for various ages. Go online or call 309-732-7360 for information.
Toddlers and their families can take advantage of Toddler Time storytimes, with a different activity each week, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the 30/31 and Southwest Branches, respectively. The free storytimes start at 10:30 am. The library's Play and Grow times, offered at 10:30 am on the second Thursday of each month at the 30/31 Branch, provide toddlers ages three years and younger with a fun structured play time. Activities use the Talk, SIng, Play, and Read model to build early learning concepts.
Other ongoing activities include Southwest Branch Family Crafts, offered at 6pm on the 2nd Tuesday and 10 am on the following Saturday of each month. Each program includes crafts and activities for all ages and all skill levels. Free. Registration required! For details, call Southwest Branch at 309-732-7338.
Families can also get out of the heat with a showing of classic summer movies based on games, including Zathura, Clue and Mouse Hunt. "Get in the game" family movies are offered on Friday, June 24, July 1 and 8, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, Rock Island Main Library.
Special Events -
Another registration opportunity includes a free class for Grades three to eight on the "Noble Art of Fencing," on July 6 from 3:00 to 4:00 pm at the Rock Island Main Library. Kids will learn the basics of the Olympic sport of fencing, including a look at fencer equipment and some moves. The class ends with a mock fencing match, using padded foam noodles. Registration taken until July 1. Please call 309-732-7360 or sign up online.
A performance by Juggling Jeff, on June 16 at 10:00 am, at the Main Library. Juggling Jeff is an award-winning street performer and actor from Kirkwood, MO, who will wow you with an adventurous show of juggling, comedy, jump rope and unicycle stunts.
Other special events include the Fantastic Forces of Flight science show on June 22 at 5:00 at the Main Library. Have you ever wondered what makes it possible for airplanes to fly? It comes down to four fantastic forces: Weight, Thrust, Drag and Lift! Join the Science Center of Iowa this summer as we take off on a journey to explore the forces that enable you to zoom through the air at staggering speeds. Using science demonstrations and audience participation, the show rethinks the marvel of flight and learn how physics is the ultimate ticket to new destinations!
To wrap up June, the library presents award-winning children's musician Laura Doherty and her heartfelt, upbeat children's songs on June 30, at 10:00 am, in the Main Library Community Room. Doherty, of Chicago, found her place in the acoustic-folk world early on, picking up the guitar at age 16. After college, she joined the teaching staff at the Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago. She directed the Old Town School's early childhood Wiggleworms program for more than a decade before going full time with her music career in 2009, so she knows what kids like! Her 2016 CD, Animal Tracks, is the latest in a chain of award-winning albums - Kid in the City (2009), Shining Like a Star (2011) and In a Heartbeat (2014.)
In July, Niabi Zoo brings their animal ambassadors to the library's Southwest Branch at 9010 Ridgewood Road, Rock Island. The July 7 show is at 11:00 am, and will feature live animals and a talk by a Zoo educator.
To wrap up summer reading, the library has planned an "Indoor Drive-In" on Friday, July 22 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, Rock Island Main Library, 401 19th Street. Kids will decorate car boxes to sit in, followed by a showing of Jumanji at 2:00 pm, complete with free popcorn.
Kids and families can still register for summer reading contests that give participants of all ages a chance to read to the finish line. Options include an activity log for Pre-K ages, reading challenge logs for grades K-3 and 4-6, teen and adult reading challenges, and an all new family All-Star reading challenge.The Rock Island Library's On Your Mark, Get Set, READ! reading games run from June 4 to July 16.
Participants who finish their reading challenges earn extra reward in the form of an entry into the Rock Island Readers' Cup, a special summer sweepstakes presented by the Rock Island Library and Rock Island Parks Department. Pick up a summer reading guide for full details.
All activities are free and open to the public. For more information, visit the library's online branch at www.rockislandlibrary.org, call 309-732-READ, or follow the library on Facebook or Twitter.
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Why Read Over the Summer? Library reading incentives and more than 80 free events are designed to help keep children, teens and adults active, productive and learning. More than a century of research shows that students who don't read and learn over the summer score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation than they do on the same tests at the beginning of the summer. Summer Reading helps close the 9th grade achievement gap in reading, and those gains equal greater rates of high school graduation.
