Program: Day Camp Program
Time: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons
Age: entering kindergarten through entering sixth grade
Instructor: Erin Wolfrum
Began: 2013
Funding: grant from Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Missouri State Library
Goal: To keep children reading through the summer so they can maintain or improve their reading skills
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By Michelle Brooks
Full of noise and energy, school-aged students from Active Learning School walk from their 202 Patrick Street location to the Moniteau County Library @ Wood Place each Wednesday afternoon in the summer.
The library's summer reading club, with the theme "On your mark, Get set, Read," offers a weekly, hour-long Day Camp program to five day cares in California.
Recently, the Active Learning School students studied yoga with Program Leader Erin Wolfrum.
The children enjoyed choosing different stretching poses for the group to do. And they appeared to like the challenge of figuring out how to contort their body.
"They look forward to coming to the library," said Sheila Williams.
As the oldest children at the day care during the summers, the older children need age-appropriate activities like this outing, Williams said.
Other weeks, the summer reading day care program has offered LEGOs, crafting bicycle license plates, miniature golf, giant Yahtzee and miniature bowling.
The weekly programs may include a book or reading, as when Wolfrum read an excerpt from a non-fiction book about yoga expanding their vocabulary with words like "guru," "yogi" and "flexible." But with the broad age range, kindergarten to fifth grade, finding a book that would keep everyone's interest and be on topic can be a challenge, she said.
"The library isn't just for reading," Wolfrum said. "Keeping kids active is a very important part of what we're teaching this summer."