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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2008 - The Year in Review

2008 was a busy year in Children's Services! Here are some highlights:


In January 2008 musicians from the Fort Wayne Philharmonic performed pieces from Beethoven Lives Upstairs in the Jeffrey R. Krull Gallery.


In February 2008, the winners of the Your Reading Pet Photo Contest were announced.


In March 2008 over 300 children & adults attended the Homeschool Sneak Preview.


In April 2008 the kids in the Early Reader Roundup group practiced their emotions with Mo Willem's Elephant & Piggie characters.


In May 2008 Time 2 Chime, the homeschool handchime choir, finished off their year of practice with a live performance.


In June 2008, Fritz the GermanFest dog stopped by Children's Services to sign up for the Catch the Reading Bug Summer Reading Program.


In July 2008 kids had the opportunity to meet a ballet dancer from the Fort Wayne Ballet as part of a special SmartStart Preschool Storytime.


In August 2008 kids displayed their good sportsmanship and concentration skills at the Children's Services Chess Tournament.


In September 2008 things got very fancy at the Fancy Nancy Tea Party.


In October 2008 the Art Out of the Box kids painted two cars on the Library Plaza.



In November 2008 hundreds of children and grown ups enjoyed performances by Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Players.

On December 31, 2008 we prepared for another wonderful year!

Please remember: The Main Library and all branches of the ACPL will close at 5pm today & will be closed all day tomorrow. Please visit early to pick up your books and other materials. The Main Library will re-open on Friday, January 2nd at 9am. Branch libraries will re-open at 10am.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

A Year of Blogging!

2008 has been a year of blogging for the ACPL Children's Services Department! Here are some fun statistics from the ACPL Kids Blog:
  • We posted 375 times this year - that is more than a post a day.
  • The most frequently visited post was viewed 335 times.
  • The second most frequently visited post was viewed 329 times.
  • Our least popular post was viewed 1 time.
  • The most popular "A Child's Book Review" post was viewed 103 times.
  • The blog was visited over 13,500 times this year.
  • Most blog visitors were from Indiana - over 6,000.
  • The state that sent the least number of visitors (4) was Wyoming.
  • The blog was viewed by people in 100 countries.
  • Canada sent almost 400 visitors, Macedonia and Cyprus just sent one visitor each.
  • The blog was read in a total of 47 languages including Swedish, Afrikaans, Hebrew, Chinese and Bulgarian.
2009 will bring plenty more blog posts! We'll see you here.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Play with Spot online!

What preschooler doesn't love the the Spot books by Eric Hill? Now you can read Spot books, play Spot games, and color with Spot online. Click on "Fun with Spot" to start playing.

Click here to find out which Spot books are available at the library. We have over 100 Spot books, videos, and board books. We even have some in Vietnamese, German, Spanish, and other languages!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Early Learning Center Mailbox

What a colorful butterfly!

The Early Learning Center is a 2,200 square foot room just for preschoolers and their grown ups to enjoy together. The activities in the room are designed to help children learn the skills that they will need in order to learn to read.

Visit the Early Learning Center:
Monday through Thursday 9am to 8pm
Friday & Saturday 9am to 6pm
Sunday 12pm to 5pm

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Take a wild guess!

Can you guess how much snow (total) we will have in December?
All throughout December we have been collecting guesses to answer the question "How much snow (total) do you think we'll have in Fort Wayne by the end of December?" Visit Children's Services at the Main Library to drop in your guess and to check out the updated totals.


The closest or correct guesses will go into a drawing and three lucky winners will receive a magnetic storybook kit!


Contest ends at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 30th,2008

Friday, December 26, 2008

Kwanzaa Begins!

Click here to find this book in the Library Catalog!Kwanzaa begins today and lasts for seven days.

My First Kwanzaa by Karen Katz is a nice introduction to the holiday for very young children. For older children, check out Paper Crafts for Kwanzaa by Randel McGee. This title is full of creative projects to make in celebration of Kwanzaa.

Happy Kwanzaa!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Happy Christmas!

Today is Christmas Day & the ACPL is closed. The Main Library will re-open tomorrow at 9am and branch libraries will re-open tomorrow at 10am.

There have been a lot of fun Christmas books published this year, such as David Pelham's Here Comes Santa, which is a pop up book! Remember, the Library receives new books almost every day, you are sure to find something that you will enjoy on our new book shelves.

Happy Christmas!