(Oneida, NY – June 2014) Parents can now sign up their children aged 6 to 16 years for one or more of Oneida Public Library’s Summer Reading Programs 2014, including Summer Science, a theater workshop, an art workshop and a Lego robotics course.
Following the state-wide summer reading theme of “Fizz, Boom, Read,” Youth Librarian Michele Ryan will be leading the way in Summer Science on Tuesdays, July 8 to 29. A 10 a.m. program is reserved for 6 to 8 year olds, while the 11 a.m. slot is for 9 to 14 year olds. Each week, the children will be introduced to a basic principle of mechanical science and create their own working device, such as a catapult or a rocket, that illustrates that principle.
To kick off the first meeting July 8 at 10 a.m., author and radio personality Mark Eischen will appear to present his latest children’s book, “Donnie the Doubtful Dung Beetle.” Eischen, who regularly appears on 93Q’s Ted and Amy in the Morning show, has taken up writing children’s picture books in collaboration with illustrator Greg Warbrodt.
OPL’s Summer Theater Program for Children ventures into the Theater of the Imagination with a radio show production called “WOPL Presents,” which will involve young people 8 to 16 years old not only in speaking roles but also in the creation of sound effects. Tom Lemery returns this season as overall director, while Kayli Wilson will direct the sound-effects crew. Three shows from the Golden Age of Radio, plus simulated newscasts of 1944, will be presented.
Rehearsals and stagecraft lessons for “WOPL Presents” will be held Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, July 7 to August 6, from 1 to 3:30 p.m. The public performance, “live on the air,” is scheduled for Thursday, August 7, at 7 p.m. in the OPL “sound studio.”
Starting Tuesday July 8, artist and teacher Carol Cotten will direct the art workshop called “Lost Objects to Found Art,” an innovative program in which young people 8 to 16 years old will retrieve common throwaway objects and recycle them into artistic expressions of living things, whether sculpture or collage. The workshop meets Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, July 8-24, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.
In August, from Monday through Friday Aug. 18-22, the OPL hosts the Oneida edition of the First Lego League, a program sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Laboratory in Rome to promote the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by young people.
Ralph Kohler and Tandy Paugh from the Rome Air Force Lab will guide young people who have completed at least the fifth grade and have yet to graduate from high school in building electronically controlled robots built of Legos and programmed to complete a specific task. The Rome lab will provide all the necessary materials.
The First Lego League workshop will meet at the OPL from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Aug. 18-22. Those interested should register at the library desk as soon as possible since space and materials are limited.
August also brings to the OPL a free performance of the Merry-Go-Round Youth Theatre’s production of “Alice in Wonderland” on Monday Aug. 4 at 11 a.m. Open to all ages, the Merry-Go-Round’s production is a comedic updating of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale with young talented actors playing multiple roles as Alice wanders through the stage Wonderland. The performance will be held in the OPL’s back parking lot, weather permitting.
For the toddler and kindergarten set, Elaine Clark will return to the OPL with the Little Red Wagon program at 10 a.m. on Fridays, Aug. 1-22. Clark will introduce learning activities as well as storytelling and crafts to bolster the children’s reading skills. Parents or guardians need not sign up the children beforehand.
To register for Summer Science, “WOPL Presents,” “Lost Objects to Found Art” or the First Lego League, parents or guardians can sign children up at the library’s circulation desk.
For more information on any of these programs, contact Michele Ryan or Tom Murray at the Oneida Library, 220 Broad St., or by calling 363-3050.