Building Bookworms: Summer reading

Showing posts with label Summer reading. Show all posts

Amara’s Farm: A Gentle Garden Story About Patience, Focus, and Noticing

Friday, March 13, 2026

Patience, persistence, and careful observation are skills students build through everyday moments — and Amara’s Farm by JaNay Brown-Wood captures that beautifully. As students follow Amara’s focused search through her garden, the story naturally supports executive functioning skills like attention, flexibility, and self-regulation while also connecting to sustainability themes found in both CSLP’s Unearth a Story™ and iREAD’s Plant a Seed, Read for 2026.

Amara heads outside excited to pick a pumpkin, but it’s not as easy as she expects. As she searches, she has to slow down, look closely, and keep trying. Along the way, the garden becomes a space where she practices noticing details, managing disappointment, and sticking with her goal — all while learning that good things take time.

The Good

This book is an excellent choice for early elementary classrooms because it naturally supports SEL and early executive functioning skills without feeling like a lesson. It also offers meaningful representation, which can be difficult to find — particularly stories that feature farming families of color in a warm, everyday way.

From a classroom and library perspective, Amara’s Farm supports:

Perseverance and patience
Observation and “noticing”
Flexible thinking when plans don’t work
Problem-solving in a real-life setting

The garden setting also makes it an easy fit for seasonal learning, science, and nature-based units.

The Not-So-Good (From a School Librarian Lens)

This is a gentle, everyday story rather than a high-action one. It works best as a read-aloud with discussion, especially for students who benefit from talking through feelings like frustration or waiting.

Classroom & Library Connections

Amara’s Farm is easy to extend in meaningful, hands-on ways:

SEL & Executive Functioning

Ask: What do you do when something isn’t working the first time?
Create a class anchor chart: “What helps us keep trying?”

Science & Observation

Discuss what pumpkins need to grow (sunlight, water, soil, time)
Talk about plant life cycles and seasonal changes

Hands-On Produce Exploration

Bring in a small selection of real produce for students to explore and compare, such as:

Figs
Kumquats
Kiwi
Potato
Eggplant

Invite students to:

Observe the outside (color, shape, texture)
Carefully open the produce and look at seeds and insides
Compare textures and smells
Taste samples if appropriate

This activity reinforces noticing, builds vocabulary, and connects the story directly to real-world experiences.

Writing Extension

Sentence stem: “I noticed…”
Create a class book: “What We Notice in the Garden”

Nature Journaling, SDGs & Summer Reading

Amara’s Farm is a wonderful launch text for starting a nature journal, making it an excellent fit for sustainability-focused learning and summer programming.

As students follow Amara slowing down, looking closely, and noticing her garden, they are practicing the same skills needed for nature journaling. Nature journals don’t need to be perfect — they are simply a place to observe, wonder, and record.

This work aligns naturally with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly:

SDG #3: Good Health & Well-Being – slowing down, being outdoors, and managing frustration
SDG #12: Responsible Consumption – understanding where food comes from
SDG #15: Life on Land – observing and caring for plants and ecosystems

This story also aligns naturally with both major 2026 summer reading themes — CSLP’s Unearth a Story™ and iREAD’s Plant a Seed, Read — as Amara’s garden mirrors the way curiosity, patience, and discovery grow when students take time to explore stories.

Overall

Amara’s Farm is a warm, relatable picture book that turns a simple garden search into a thoughtful lesson about patience, focus, and paying attention. It offers a meaningful way to build SEL and executive functioning skills while also encouraging curiosity about the natural world.

For educators looking to connect storytelling, observation, and hands-on learning — especially within garden, science, or summer reading themes — this book is a strong and flexible choice.

Recommended Grade Levels

PreK–2
(Also works well in K–3 for garden, science, and seasonal units.)

Why Your Students Will Love It

Students will relate to wanting something right away — and having to keep looking and trying. The garden setting feels cozy and familiar, and the hands-on extensions help bring Amara’s experience to life in a concrete, memorable way.

Fabulous Fridays: Iron Chef

Thursday, July 16, 2015

The Program

For this program, we wanted to create an outlet for tweens to do something creative.
Ms. S. and Ms. V. have done this program in the past, and it has been very successful. Alyssa & I decided to try our hand at it, and see if it would be as successful with the tweens.

Before we started the program, we placed all of the food on a long table. Some of the items we used were: Twinkies, sprinkles, icing, wafers, and candy. We made sure that they were products that did not require cooking.

When the kids arrived, we divided them up into teams. We had five teams of about 5-6 kids.

Alyssa started off the program with an introduction about allergies. We wanted to make sure we were aware of all allergies before we got started. Thankfully, we only had one! The rest of our participants were allergy free.

Next, we made sure each team washed their hands. While the teams were waiting to wash their hands, we instructed the teams to come up with a team name, a team captain, and a plan. My favorite part of the whole program was watching the team dynamics form.

As I was going around, one little boy told me, "I would not be a good team captain because I would go mad with power."

(This is why tweens are awesome!)

I was just blown away by what a great job they did with their team. I felt like each team chose great captains & they made an extra effort to include everyone in their team.It is incredible what kids can do with little instruction!

After everyone washed their hands, we invited the team captains to come up and get their food for their teams. We made it a rule for only team captains to get the food because we wanted make sure we had enough supplies & we also wanted to encourage that group interaction. We found out later that this was also a good method to keep the area sanitary.

We tried very hard to make sure all the kids kept their hands washed, but both Alyssa & I noticed kids licking spoons, carrying things with their hands, dropping things on the floor & eating them, & taking bites out of food & putting it in their display......

I tried really hard not to make this face.

Even though tweens are amazing, I think it is important to remember that they are still learning about cleanliness. This made Alyssa and I realize one big thing:

The competition would be based off of looks & not taste!

Our reference staff were the judges, and we did not want to be responsible for the great summer sickness of 2015.

Besides the sanitation issue, our tween boys wanted to create things just for the grossness factor.

For instance, I had some boys mix together: coffee, Runts candy, cookie crumbs, pineapple, and Lemon Head candy. After they mixed it together, they proceeded to offer it to me for a tasting.

I had to decline, but I think if we ever do this program in the future we will continue to base the competition off of display instead of taste for these reasons.

Even though we had some sanitary hiccups, the kids did make some pretty amazing creations. Here are the final products:

The Cookie Dough team made a flower out of Twinkie cupcakes.

One of my favorites was the Smart Cookie team. They made an assembly line with all of the members of their team & created this lovely structure.

The Awesome Opossums carefully made this dish based on taste. It was a mixture of sweet and sour.

Gum Drop Girls Team- layered cookies with icing.

Finally, the Food Network team (of all boys and one girl) made this really creative driver & it was also the winner of our competition.

How the Program Went

The program was a smash hit. Since we were dealing with food, we did a sign up for this program. Within the first few days we started the sign up, we had about 30 kids sign up. What was even more shocking for us- was that everyone that had signed up came! We also had many parents that wanted to stay & take pictures and watch how the program progressed. I really liked that it turned into a family experience.

What We Learned

This program made me realize that we need more programming that provide a creative outlet. It felt like they craved an opportunity to create things out without instruction. I think this might be something that they don't get to do at home or at school very much & it was part of the reason that this program was so successful. In the future, I want to offer more programs like this one. I would also like to offer it at a later time to help cater to working families.

One little girl for instance wanted to attend this program very badly, but her dad attended night classes and worked during the day. She told me she begged her dad to come & he finally gave in. He ended up hiring a babysitter special for her to come, but told her it wasn't something they could do all time.

Hearing that story meant a lot to me. I want to be able to do what I can to find a time that would work for as many families as possible. I know many families are working to support their families. I feel like we do need to offer something for this age group at a later time. We have been doing this program at about 4 pm and in the future I would like to try it at about 6 pm.

Hopefully in the future, I will be able to find the right rhythm to meet this age group's needs.

Until next time,

Pamela

Fabulous Fridays: Drawing Program

Monday, June 29, 2015

The Program

As you know summer reading can be crazy. Knowing this, Alyssa & I planned this program knowing we would need a low prep program that would act as break for us to refresh. I am so thankful we did it this way. Since we are in charge of doing multiple programs a week, the break was needed!

For this program we called upon one of our coworkers Mr. J. (who also works at a local university as an art teacher) for help. He graciously agreed to help us with this program.

Upon planning for this program, we did not have much in mind for it. It was just meant to be an open ended program where we wanted to encourage our tweens to meet other tweens with the same interest and maybe exchange some drawing tips.

With Mr. J. as our leader, we were able to turn this program into something much more. Which just goes to show how awesome that collaboration is!

Instead of just having it as an open ended program, Mr. J., turned into more of a drawing workshop. He opened the program with showing us how to draw simple shapes. He followed up with making the point that everything is made up of shapes. If you can draw a shape, you can draw anything! I think this really inspired a lot of our kids, and it also inspired me as well.

After that, Mr. J. asked for questions. One of our participants wanted to learn how to draw people. Mr. J. spent the rest of the time interacting with the kids to show them the basics on how to draw people & the shapes that make up individuals.

How It Went

This program went over very well. At first, we did not have many kids show up for the program. That was a little disappointing, but as the program went on we had more and more kids file in & want to participate. It seemed like the participants that came were passionate about drawing and wanted to learn more.

What We Learned

I am amazed at how easily a program can be adapted to the library & how the most simple programs can be the most successful. As the library moves to becoming a community center, I need to be aware that not all programs have to be lavish & all out. Sometimes, all you need is regular programming to build success & create a center for tweens to go.

In the future, I think this could potentially be a club that the library could successfully implement. I think part of its success is due to the tween need to explore their interests and to make friends with similar interests. This allows them to develop an understanding of who they are.

With this success, I would like to repeat a program like this in the future & I think it is a very easy program that anyone could replicate.

Some of you may not be as blessed as we are to have a great art teacher working at their library, but I think this is a program that one could adjust & be able to direct it with little or no art experience.

I think if you create an environment with drawing supplies and go over the basic shapes, I think the kids would build on it from there & help each other. Another option you could use is to invite older teens who are passionate about art to help with the program. I think with these adjustments anyone could do this program. :) All you would need is some pencils, paper, and a little imagination.

Until next time,

Pamela

Fabulous Fridays: Mario Kart Program

Monday, June 22, 2015

The Program

The description for our program read: "Do you have what it takes to be the best "Mario Kart" racer? Put your skills to the test for a chance to win the ultimate title! Play games and chat with other Nintendo fans while you wait to compete."

Pamela: The goal of this program was to try and provide a fun program for tween boys. We decided on this program, because Ms. V tried it with the teens last year and found that mostly tweens showed up. This was an indication to me that we were missing something in our programming for this group, So we decided to try it with the tweens, and it turned out to be really successful.

Supplies & Stations

Pamela: From our previous programs, we know that stations are successful with this age group. So we wanted to provide other activities for the participants to do while a group played the Wii.

Bingo

Using Pinterest, I was able to find these Bingo cards.

Mario Bingo Cards

If anyone wanted to watch the contestants play, we invited these watchers a chance to play BINGO. While they watched, they would try and find the characters or items on their card in the game. If they saw something on their card, they could mark it off. When the watcher got BINGO, they would receive a piece of candy. This made just watching other people play a little more fun.

Coloring Pages

Mario Coloring Pages

We printed off these pages and set up a station just to color. This was popular with both the boys & girls. Many wanted to color one to hang up in their room. It was sweet to watch the kids talk to one another as they colored. I felt like this was a nice station to break the ice & allow the kids to meet each other.

Candy

Just like teens need food, tweens need candy. It is no surprise that our candy stash was cleaned out by the end of the program, but it was fun to have candy for our BINGO game and to have a way for us to introduce ourselves to the kids as we went around the room.

Board Games

To provide extra activities, we set out board games that we had in the children's department. This was a nice way for us to have an extra activity with out a lot of prep. The kids seemed to really enjoy it as well. Many tween girls flocked to this station and entertained themselves while they waited to play. I thought it was interesting that they enjoyed this so much. Maybe we need to do a game day in the future?

How it Went

Alyssa: We just thought our numbers were record breaking for our Nuclear glow party. The Mario Kart Competition shattered them entirely with twenty-seven kids attending! This is undoubtedly a program we will repeat one day.

Pamela: I feel like this would make an excellent after school passive program. The kids were really more interested in free play. We had a few competitive ones, but the program was really about just playing together & enjoying this fun game. Instead of doing an organized program, I think this would be a better passive program to do whenever we see a lot of tweens in the department. It would make a great organized program if we had another Wii, but I didn't feel like the kids got to play as much as they wanted to. We just had more then what we were expecting show up.

What We Learned

Alyssa: More than one gaming system is best for a program like this. Also, with that many participants, you need more than just a few stations for the kids waiting their turn to play.

Pamela: The start of this program was pretty stressful. I was running to this program from another job, and had to quickly get things set up. After working most of the day already and battling traffic, this was not fun. I was pretty grumpy. (Pam is crazy! If we were all that nice when we were grumpy, it would be a much happier world...)

From my teaching days, I was always taught to have a backup plan. I remember my mentor teacher telling me to ALWAYS have a backup plan, especially when using technology. I always find her advice to be true.

Of course I didn't have anything ready &.....the T.V. wouldn't work. In addition, several of the Wii remotes were dead & the games were all in the wrong cases.

I felt like it was a case of Murphy's Law. Whatever could go wrong would go wrong, but thankfully it didn't. After we got another T.V., things started to calm down.

It really taught me how unpredictable technology is. Since I own a Wii, I thought it would be an easy set up & took the prep for granted.

I now know when doing a program such as this one, you really need to carefully check to make sure everything works & everything is in order. With summer reading, this can be hard. I think if we have things ready though, we will be more calm & it will be more of positive experience all around.

That prep is just essential!

Overall, the kids really made this experience fun for me & made my day. After everyone competed, I got to play the game with them, and I really enjoyed it. I also learned how to play the game Sorry! and a card game called Liar.

It really continued to drive home the point to me that we need to be involved with the kids when we do the program. Not only do you have a blast, but it makes that experience more fun for the kids. I hope our programs continue to be as successful.

Are you doing some game programs at your library? How did it go?

-Pamela
&
Alyssa

Fabulous Fridays: Nuclear Glow Heroes Vs. Villains Program

Monday, June 15, 2015

Fabulous Fridays: Nuclear Glow Heroes Vs. Villains Party

The Program

We wanted a way to kick off summer reading with our tweens. As we were brainstorming, we came up with the idea of a glow party. To fit into summer reading, we thought we would give it a heroes versus villains theme. Our main goal was to create an atmosphere where the kids could have fun and meet new friends. To do this, we decided we needed glow sticks- a lot of glow sticks.

Supplies

This was a fairly low cost program. The only supplies we had to buy were glow sticks from the Dollar Tree and glow-in-the-dark balloons from Wal-Mart.We spent about $15 on the whole program.

For the music, we simply streamed Radio Disney over the internet. This was perfect for this age group. Most parents would consider the content of the music appropriate, but yet it still has the teen edge the tweens crave.

The Stations

Alyssa and I (Pamela) knew that it would be difficult to get the tweens to dance. To help to curve this problem, we set up some stations for the attendees to do.

The stations were:

(1). The Nuclear Vat

The first station we directed the kids to was a nuclear vat we built out of multi-purpose foam blocks that have been sitting in our storage closet since the dawn of creation. When the kids "fell" into the vat of nuclear waste, they got to choose whether they wanted to make a mustache and become a villain or make a mask and become a hero. The main goal of this station was for the kids to choose a team. The kids spent a great deal of time at this station deciding what team they wanted to be on, and I (Pamela) spend a great deal of time trying to recruit them to the villain side. (mwhahahaha). From there, we had several other small stations.

2. The Dance Section

This program was all about ambiance! I (Alyssa) brought my amazing disco ball to add the the colorful, nighttime atmosphere. In addition, we scattered approximately eighty glow sticks on the floor, which created a really neat effect! As the kids came in, we told them they were welcome to take the glow sticks. As you can imagine, the glowing floor was extremely short lived, (but the kids had some awesome bling!) We also had glow in the dark balloons around the room. The tweens ended up playing with these and discovered that if they held the balloons over the black light, it temporarily charged the balloon and made it glow brighter. Ultimately the balloons were used for a game that involved keeping the balloon up in the air without letting it touching the ground.

3. Black Light Messages

We used a black light that was provided by a coworker and placed a large piece of white paper on the table. We invited the kids to write messages and draw pictures using highlighters. It created a fun glowing effect! The tweens really enjoyed this and as you can see they embraced their hero and villain personas. We found quite a bit of heroes versus villains smack talk on the paper at the end of the program along with other messages. My (Alyssa) favorite said, "Fun Party." I love that the kids had such a good time!

In addition to these, we also had several small stations. We had glow in the dark ring toss (which we purchased at Dollar tree) and glow in the dark bowling. For the bowling, we just used recycled water bottles a small light-up bouncy ball. To go with our atmosphere, we place glow sticks into the water bottles to make them glow.

4. Comic

We wanted a way for the heroes and villains to compete in a safe way, so we decided to have each team compete to create a giant comic strip. The winner of the comic competition would win the heroes versus villains battle! I (Pamela) lead my villains into battle. We (the villains) made a comic depicting a giant asteroid landing on earth that made everyone evil. I (Alyssa) fought for Truth! Justice! and the American Way! with an awesomely epic comic strip about a giant pumpkin and rainbow minions that attack a city, but are thwarted by the unstoppable Taco Man! The kids spent a large portion of the time carefully depicting their stories and comics. Ms. V. came into judge the comics for us. In the end, Truth, Justice, and Taco Man triumphed and the heroes won the day!

How it Went

Our numbers were record breaking for this program. We had sixteen kids attend! I think the success was due to the shameless promoting we did. Every time we handed out a summer reading card to a tween, we would give them a flier that listed our summer programs for tweens. This had a huge impact on our numbers and I felt like with these numbers it made the program go more smoothly.

The tweens were very receptive to our activities, the other participants, and to us. I do wish we had included another station. We almost did glow in the dark slime, but ran out of time. If we repeat a program like this, I would definitely add more stations.

I (Pamela) think that the tweens really respond well to a free flowing program with many stations. Knowing that works with our tweens, we want to make sure to repeat this format.

What We Learned

The biggest thing I (Pamela) learned was that you just have to get in there and do the activities with the kids. I am finding that talking to them is great, but it is better when you are more involved with the activities. Once I started to hang out with the tweens and did the activities with them, they started to open up to me. I felt like I made a bigger impact in this way. We know now that we cannot direct the activities and just make the rounds talking to them, but really need to be doing it with the kids. I hope to continue this throughout the summer in hopes of getting to know our tweens better. We are hoping it will establish a regular tween crowd and are excited for the rest of our Fabulous Friday Programs! (We just finished our Mario Kart program and will blog about that soon.) Next up: Drawing!

What are some tween programs that you are doing this summer?

Until next time,

Pamela and Alyssa

Movies Your Tweens Are Excited About

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

It is almost here!

As I prepare for summer reading, I like to get caught up on my pop culture.

I really try to strive to stay up on the latest movies, tv shows, and pop culture, but sometimes I feel like I can't keep up. This is especially true during summer reading.

To prepare, I put together a list of movies that are releasing this year that your tweens may ask you for. I realize it is a long list, but it is perfect for all of your procrastination needs. ;)

Teen Beach 2