Activities planned at local libraries over vacation
Courtesy photo The Book-It Theatre will present ‘Ada’s Violin’ Dec. 27 at the Quincy and Ephrata public libraries. Local public libraries are sponsoring a winter reading program and a lot of activities during winter break.
MOSES LAKE — There’s usually plenty of excitement in the first few days of Christmas vacation, but then there comes that moment, the time when kids start complaining about being bored. Local public libraries have started a winter reading program to help with that.
Activities include a visit to Ephrata and Quincy by the Book-It Theatre, a Moses Lake author reading from his new children’s book in Moses Lake, crafts and stories for children.
The winter reading program is different in different libraries – it ends Jan. 2 in Moses Lake, but continues through the end of January in Quincy.
Monday is the official start of winter break in Quincy, and kids can learn how to make “Simple Powered Lego Machines” from 10 a.m. to noon Monday and Tuesday at the library, 208 South Central Ave. Familiarity with computers is required. It’s free, but kids must sign up in advance, according to library officials.
The Moses Lake library has story time for children, for preschoolers at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, babies at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and toddlers at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. Bilingual (Spanish-English) story time is at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. During Christmas vacation there will be craft projects as well.
The Moses Lake library is located at 418 E. Fifth Ave.
Kids can make pop-up cards from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Moses Lake library, and snowflake or bird ornaments from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday.
Author Don Adolfson will tell the story of “The Little Crow that Didn’t Know How to Fly” from 1 to 2 p.m. Dec. 22. It’s based on a real crow, one that Adolfson watched in his front yard, he said. Despite the urging of his mother, the little crow didn’t want to jump over the edge of the nest in the tall tree.
All libraries in the North Central Regional Library system are closed Dec. 26, but baby and toddler story times return to the Moses Lake library Dec. 27 and 28.
The Book-It Theatre brings the story of “Ada’s Violin” to the Quincy library at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 27, and the Ephrata library at 4:30 p.m. the same day. The Ephrata library is located at 45 Southwest Alder St.
The theater company, based in Seattle, uses minimal props to tell stories based on children’s books.
“Ada’s Violin” tells the story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay. Ada and her family live in a small, very poor town near Paraguay’s capital, and – like many other people in her town – her family makes a living recycling, refurbishing and reselling materials they find in the city’s landfill.
Music teacher Favio Chavez wants to teach the community’s kids how to play music, but real instruments are expensive and precious. So Chavez decides to use the materials available from the landfill to build practice instruments for the kids.
Admission to the Book-It production is free.
The Moses Lake Library sponsors a “warm storytime” from 1 to 2 p.m. Dec. 28. Along with stories to warm up a cold day, children can participate in a scavenger hunt for snow-related clues, and be part of an in-the-library “snowball fight.” But they’re not real snowballs, library officials said.
The winter reading program ends in Moses Lake Jan. 1, and the winner will be announced Jan. 2.