(Oneida, NY – June 2015) Parents can now sign up their children for one or more of Oneida Public Library’s Summer Reading Programs 2015, the theme for which is “Every Hero Has A Story.”
Starting off the summer on Monday, July 6, the OPL Children’s Summer Theater workshop will be rehearsing and performing an original play “Dare and Double Dare,” which focuses on coping with bullies. The theater workshop runs Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon, July 6 to August 5. In it, some 20 children aged 6 to 14 years will learn theater skills and rehearse the play under the tutelage of Tom Lemery, who has directed the Children’s Theater program at the library for six summers.
The play concerns three bullies challenging the Tree House Club for mastery of their home turf. In defense, club members call upon their individual strengths, becoming in the process super heroes with strange powers. The play will be publically performed on Thursday, August 6.
Youth Librarian Michele Ryan will conduct the regular reading program, “Every Hero Has a Story,” on four consecutive Thursday afternoons from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m., July 9, 16, 23 and 30. Each week children 6 to 14 years old will learn the science behind the super power of a favorite super hero and then meet the super hero, as played by a professional actor from the Syracuse stage, to train in the moves and tricks that make the super hero “super.”
The schedule for “Every Hero Has a Story” is: July 9, Spider Man and the Science behind His Fabulous Webs; July 16, Superman and His Gravity Defying Leaps; July 23, Wonder Woman and the Secrets of the Amazons; and July 30, Batman and His Wonderful Toys.
Continuing the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) theme, Ryan will lead a workshop for 9 to 12 year olds called Science Rides a Roller Coaster on Aug. 11 at 2:00 p.m. In it, teams will research, design, build, test and evaluate table-top roller coasters. The workshop is limited to 12 participants, so early registration is recommended.
For budding artists, Ryan will conduct an art workshop on Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 2:00 p.m. for 9 to 12 year olds in which the preteens will create super heroes or villains and draw comic book covers portraying them. No registration is required for this program.
Finally, for the week of Aug. 17 to 21, the First Lego League returns to guide aspiring robotics engineers who will be entering fifth through ninth grades in September in the design and creation of electronically controlled robots made out of Legos.
The intense workshop, which will run from Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., will be lead by Ralph Kohler and Tandy Paugh from the Griffiss Air Force Laboratory in Rome. The Air Force will provide all the equipment and materials needed.
The First Lego League program is limited to 14 children, and registration is required.
OPL’s summer reading programs are free. Parents can sign up children for the various programs at the library’s check-out 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.