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Wonderopolis

By on May 23, 2013 in Alex, Children, Children's Services Staff, Research and Resources, Uncategorized

drinkThough I’m fascinated by all things scientific now, as a child I was intimidated by the numbers and technicalities of science, and stayed that way well into young adulthood. My electrochemical engineer husband now has to bear the brunt of my trying to play catch-up with basic scientific concepts. I constantly bombard him with questions that fourth-graders have mastered: “So, wait, when you take a cold drink out of the fridge and it starts to sweat, that moisture is coming from the air because the water vapor in the warm air is turning back into liquid water when it hits the cold glass?!”  Ergo, I make heavy use of the library’s children’s non-fiction section any time I want to brush up on (or start from scratch about) a topic, whether I need a refresher on how our government is structured or an overview of climate change.

You can never have too many weapons in your knowledge arsenal, so when I stumbled across Wonderopolis recently, I was intrigued. A project of the National Center for Family Literacy, Wonderopolis is a fun and easy-to-navigate treasure trove of learning resources designed for children, parents, and educators of all stripes.

CastleI immediately signed up to receive its Wonder of the Day via email. The next day’s Wonder happened to be #931:  Where is the Biggest Castle in the World? The content included an article and video explaining the answer (Prague), sections including Try it Out (comprising activities like how to build your own sand castle based on a “Physics of Sand Castles” article written by NASA); Still Wondering? (with a link to a nearly two-hour film on castles and their historical significance hosted on the Kennedy Center’s website); and Wonder Words (with hyperlinked tags for further discovery within the Wonderopolis database). Teachers and parents will appreciate the ability to find a Wonder by correlation to Common Core State Standards. Kids can even submit their own Wonder for consideration.

It’s so easy to fall into a rut: doing the same things, talking to the same people, ingesting the same news sources, even forgetting to wonder about anything new. So do yourself a favor, and either sign up for a Wonder to be delivered to your inbox daily, or simply remember that when those little questions pop into your head (Why do zebras have stripes?) you could Google them, but the more enriching option, especially for kids, may be to search them in Wonderopolis.

Happy wondering!

Wonderopolis

 

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Happy Love a Tree Day

By on May 16, 2013 in Books and Authors, Children, Nancy

Today is Love a Tree Day!  This relatively unknown holiday falls every year on May 16th.  It’s a good day to plant a tree, water a tree, learn about a tree, and yes, hug a tree.

On a more personal note, the holiday falls during my parents’ visit this year.  And that’s perfect timing.  My dad has a bit of Johnny Appleseed in him.  For the first several years of his retirement, he was all about trees.  On a piece of land in Oregon, he walked miles and miles, digging and planting.  With 100 pounds of Douglas Fir seedlings on his back, he planted the first mile.  He then hiked back to the car for another 100 pounds to plant from mile two to mile three.  Back to the car for another load of seedlings, another mile, and another round of digging and planting.  When I asked why, he simply responded that this would be a good forest one day.  It’s getting closer – the first year’s trees are now twenty feet tall.  In another generation or two, this will be a grand old-growth forest.  My dad is no longer planting his forest, but this year on Love a Tree Day, Johnny Appleseed is In The House.  And we are celebrating.

For a celebration of your own, check out our growing collection of tree tales.

redwoods 1 15Follow a young boy as he wanders through a forest of giant redwoods, using only his imagination and a book he finds as he’s riding the New York subway.

 

appleseed 1 15Many know the legend of Johnny Appleseed, the Massachusetts man who planted apple trees all the way to California.  But this true story of Johnny Appleseed, or John Chapman, is even greater than the legend.

 

picture-a-tree-1 x 15This award-winning new book asks, “What do you see, when you picture a tree?”  Lyrical language and sculptured illustrations invite readers to take a new and creative look at trees.

 

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Come fly with me?

By on May 9, 2013 in Becky, Children, Children's Services Staff, Uncategorized

As one of the children’s librarians I have a bunch of fun.  Children, in case you aren’t aware, think differently than grownups.  But why?  Well according to various “child experts” I’ve listened to over the years, there’s a very good and simple reason.  Small children don’t have the experience and knowledge to figure things out that grownups do.

For instance, if you as an adult are going on a trip by plane, and you’re told that you’ll need to “change planes” you know that you’ll be landing at an airport, walking down the steps, entering the airport and (hopefully) getting on the next plane at another gate.  But a child who’s never flown before wouldn’t know this and would have to try to figure things out with what they know about “change” and “planes.”  I once heard a story about a family who was going to move across the country.  Their young son was very excited about the move once he knew that he got to take all of his stuff, he’d have a big new bedroom, a backyard, and therefore a dog.  As the time for the move drew near and they began to talk of the flight, the little boy didn’t want to go anymore and would cry and scream at the mere mention of it.  Finally they asked him why.  He answered that he didn’t want to have to walk across the wings from one plane to the other because he was afraid he’d fall.  With his limited knowledge about planes he’d decided that changing planes meant…midair and that they would all climb out on the wing then jump to the wing of the other plane to continue their trip.  I would cry and scream too if that were the case.

Everyday we see children of all ages for storytimes, After School Center, various programs, class visits or just to pick out books.  Sometimes they walk right up to our desk and ask for what they’d like.  Sometimes they hide behind mom or dad and get them to ask us.  Sometimes they’re crying.  Sometimes they’re singing.  Sometimes they’re juuuuuust learning to walk and take full advantage of our long aisles to practice, which is about the most fun of all to watch.

Whatever stage your child is in, we undoubtably have programs going on for them.  We have storytimes for babies from birth to 5 years of age.  We have After School Center for children 6 years old to 8th grade.  High school students volunteer their time to help younger students practice their reading and older students with their homework.

To find out about our full schedule go to www.sunnyvalelibrary.org or sign up for our online newsletter here.

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I remember a book I loved when I was a kid…

By on May 3, 2013 in Books and Authors, Children, JoAnn

One of the fun parts of working on the Children’s Information Desk is helping people find books. And fairly often, someone will come to the desk and begin their question with, “There was this book I loved when I was a kid…” and then they’ll say something about how the Library probably doesn’t have it or the librarian has never heard of it. And then we magically know the book they want and get them a copy, and they are so happy to see their old friend again!

But it’s not magic. Because if there’s a book that you have read that’s so good that you remember it for ten or thirty or fifty years, and loved it enough to want to find it again, chances are that others did too. And if enough other people read and loved and remember that book…that’s what makes a classic.

Just for fun, I emailed everyone who works at the Sunnyvale Library asking what their favorite childhood book was. I limited everyone to one book (and that’s a hard choice to make) but didn’t specify any particular age group they had to have read it in…and here are the results, in no particular order..

And because most of these are classics, you’ll probably recognize many of them. And maybe you’ll come to the Sunnyvale Library, find them, reread them, and share them with another generation.

Oh, and as I was typing this blog post, someone walked up to me and said, “There was this book I read when I was a kid…”

 

homer sidewalk garden

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Behold Your Queen! by Gladys Malvern
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum (two people listed this)
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill
Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

 

 

 

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Baby Bird Watching

By on April 18, 2013 in Children's Services Staff, Gardening, Kathleen, Local
Camouflaged nestling.

Camouflaged nestling.

Recently I found a baby bird in my small backyard. Our meeting reminded me of the scene from the movie “E.T the Extra-Terrestial” when Gertie got her first look at E.T. Mutual cries of surprise erupted then a tentative friendship was reached.

In our case the little bird scurried to safety and I ran inside to grab my camera and a stool so that I could wait patiently to snap some pictures. I figured that mama bird was not faraway so I chose a spot for my stool a respectful distance from the baby and waited quietly to snap some family photos.

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When you are sitting still and waiting, time goes very slowly, but eventually mama returned and as you can see from the photo to the right, she first flew to the top of the fence to look down at her baby. I learned that getting a family shot was not going to be easy because the time the two spent together was brief. Initially I snapped a lot of fuzzy photos before I learned to wait, camera poised, ready to shoot.

Mother bird came and went several times as I watched and then she suddenly decided to relocate her baby. The two scurried behind some flowerpots and then mother flew up onto the fence, hopped down to the yard and then took flight. I thought she was gone but she came up behind me and gently nudged my back. I interpretted this as an acknowledgement of my presence and possibly a warning that she was watching me. I remained in my spot making minimal movement until I had taken a picture of mother and baby together.

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 Even though we live in suburbia it is still possible to have encounters with wildlife. My husband and I purposely keep our backyard somewhat natural and have been visited on many occasions by nesting birds as well as birds who are just passing through. Each spring we are visited by courting Mourning Doves who  literally spend hours just sitting on our fence. Sometimes at night in the summer a racoon shows up to dig for bugs in the yard. Our main rule is, never feed the wildlife, we don’t want them to become dependent on us nor do we want to create an environment that is unsafe for us or any of our visitors.

The Library offers books on gardening to attact wildlife and the Children’s Department has a book on designing a butterfly garden (the information will be useful whether or not you’re a kid.) Ask a librarian for assistance in locating these or any other books on gardening, birds, wildlife or whatever strikes your fancy!

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