World Giraffe Day

It's the longest day of the year, so it's time to celebrate the tallest animal in the world! June 21 is

World Giraffe Day!

Before coming to the Galesburg Public Library, I had the wonderful opportunity to work with giraffe at both Peoria Zoo and Topeka Zoo. They are incredible creatures, and it's truly awe-inspiring to stand on the other side of the fence and realize just how monstrously tall they are. Giraffes are very...particular in stepping over thresholds. Which they can define as a seam in the concrete. That they've stepped over every day for years. I once knew a bull giraffe who wouldn't shift from one stall to another for five hours. Because there was a dead moth on the ground. So in celebration of these wonderful, stubborn creatures, I'm going to share with you some of the best books we have about them, and direct you to some activities from the leaders in giraffe conservation.

Giraffes are such interesting looking creatures, and they're a popular choice for picture books. Two of the ones I really like are Will Giraffe Laugh? by Hilary Leung and Teach Your Giraffe to Ski by Viviane Elbee. Back in March we got a brand new nonfiction book about giraffes, appropriately titled  Giraffes by Kaitlyn Duling. It's so new it was barely on the shelves before we had to close, so maybe you can be the first to check it out for pickup and learn all about these fascinating creatures!

The awesome folks at Giraffe Conservation Foundation are the leading researchers for the species and the people behind World Giraffe Day. They have a number of activities and crafts you can do at home! There are masks to make, giraffes to draw (the easy way and the hard way), and coloring sheets.

So be sure to check out the books and activities, and happy World Giraffe Day!

Virtual LEGO Club: Week One Gallery

Our summer Virtual LEGO Club is off to a great start! Thanks to everyone who sent in photos of their creations. Our Week One challenge was to "dig deep" and build a construction scene out of LEGO. Here are some club highlights:

Visit the Galesburg Public Library Facebook page to find our Week 2 challenge, and check back next week for a gallery of our Week 2 creations!

Dig Deeper into Puzzles and Brainteasers

School is done for the next several months, but that doesn't mean you can't keep your brain active! Try solving these puzzles and brainteasers.  The first three pages consist of guess the emoji book titles, rebus puzzles, and riddles. The last page is the answer page if you are so stumped you just need to know the answer. :)

If you are interested in reading books about puzzles, problem solving, and other ways to exercise your brain try one of the following! These books are either available for checkout (when the library re-opens) or found on Libby to read or listen to on a device.

Juvenile Non-fiction:
Beastly Puzzles: a brain-boggling animal guessing game by Rachel Poliquin
Logic Puzzles by Edward Godwin (also: picture, number, and pattern puzzles books by the same author)

Juvenile Fiction:
I was an Outer-Space Chicken by David LaRochelle
Abby in Wonderland by Sarah Mlynowski
The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands

Picture Books:
Where's the little Mouse? ... is it in the house? by Sam Taplin
A Magical Adventure: with puzzles by Marianna Oklejak
Where's Will? : find Shakespeare hidden in his plays by Anna Claybourne

Libby:
Curious Case of the Ransom Riddler by Kyla Steinkraus
Spot the plot: a riddle book of book riddles by J. Patrick Lewis
The Wrigley Riddle by David A. Kelly (Ballpark Mystery #6)
Midnight Library: The Minotaur Maze by Thomas Kingsley Troupe
McKenzie's Branson Brainteaser by Shari Barr

Physical Distancing STEM Break with Ms. Meghan: Cavort with the Cetaceans

Did you know that your Galesburg Public Library card allows you to check out e-books and audio books through the Libby app? All you need is your library card and your PIN (your birth date in MMDDYYYY format) and you'll be on your way to reading on your phone or tablet!

I'll be pairing up Libby books for GPL patrons with STEM activities, live webcams, educational programs, and citizen science projects.

So, let's go

Cavort with the Cetaceans!

Dolphins and whales are intelligent cetaceans that live in oceans and rivers all over the world.  


Read: 

There are a number of books about dolphins and whales that you can borrow from Libby, including Dolphins! by Sharon Bokoske and Little Dolphin by Sue Unstead.

Be a Citizen Scientist: 

Researchers in Canada need your help in identifying beluga whales! Beluga Bits is looking for volunteers to examine photos taken underwater in Hudson Bay. During the summer, over 50,000 belugas hang out there! Scientists are looking for marks and scars to identify individual animals. This information can tell them more about social structure, life history, and habitat use. 
 

Books to Read While Physically Distancing: Wolf Hollow

 Did you know that your Galesburg Public Library card allows you to check out e-books and audio books through the Libby app? All you need is your library card and your PIN (your birth date in MMDDYYYY format) and you'll be on your way to reading on your phone or tablet!  

Books to Read While Physically Distancing (BtRWPD) will focus on books available for checkout through Libby.

Wolf Hollow
by Lauren Wolk
New York: Puffin Books, 2016

Eleven year old Annabelle is growing up in a small town in western Pennsylvania in 1943. When a new girl moves to town, Annabelle suddenly finds herself the subject of bullying. She finds the situation growing more dangerous as her friend Toby, the former soldier suffering from PTSD, becomes involved.

So, this book won all the awards and was on all the best-seller lists when it came out. It gets frequent comparisons to To Kill a Mockingbird, and it's easy to understand why. It should be noted that it deals in heavy subjects like bullying, PTSD, and growing up. It's not a happy book but it is a very well-written book. I'm still thinking about it the next day. The publisher lists it as middle grade, ages 10 and up. I would hesitate to recommend it to the younger readers in this age group, even if they're reading at that level or above. So while I can absolutely recommend this on the basis of the writing and story, please be aware that it's not for everyone, especially if you're not looking for a heavy read right now.     

Physical Distancing STEM Break with Ms. Meghan: Swim with the Sharks

Did you know that your Galesburg Public Library card allows you to check out e-books and audio books through the Libby app? All you need is your library card and your PIN (your birth date in MMDDYYYY format) and you'll be on your way to reading on your phone or tablet!

I'll be pairing up Libby books for GPL patrons with STEM activities, live webcams, educational programs, and citizen science projects.

Right now? The human world, it's (still) a mess. So, let's go

Swim with the Sharks!

Sharks have been around, relatively unchanged, since before the dinosaurs. They're in a separate class from most of the familiar fishes, called Chondrichthyes ('cartilage fish'). Sharks and rays have skeletons made up of cartilage (like what's in the middle of your nose) as opposed to bones like you and me.

Read: 

There are a number of books about sharks that you can borrow from Libby, including Wild Sea Creatures by Chris and Martin Kratt and 101 Amazing Facts About Sharks by Jack Goldstein.  

Watch:
The National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland has several live webcams for you to check out. So spend some time watching the Blacktip Reef, Jellies Invasion, and Pacific Coral Reef habitats.

Observe:
Now that you've had a chance to look at the three different feeds, spend some time focusing on the Blacktip Reef cam. The habitat has two species in class Chondrichthyes, blacktip reef sharks and reticulated* whiptail rays. Can you find both of them? How many species of bony fish (Osteichthyes) can you find? How do the sharks look different from the other fish? Do they swim differently? Do they behave differently; do they tend to swim with other sharks or on their own? Is their behavior different during different times of the day?

*reticulated means the animal has a net-like pattern. Reticulated giraffes and reticulated pythons are some other animals with this name. 
 
 

Physical Distancing STEM Break with Ms. Meghan: Make a Volcano

Did you know that your Galesburg Public Library card allows you to check out e-books and audio books through the Libby app? All you need is your library card and your PIN (your birth date in MMDDYYYY format) and you'll be on your way to reading on your phone or tablet! You can also check out ebooks from the library's catalog.

I'll be pairing up Libby books for GPL patrons with STEM activities, live webcams, educational programs, and citizen science projects.

So, let's go

Make a Volcano!

A volcano is a crack in the Earth's surface that allows lava, ash, and gas to escape from the lower levels down below. Today we'll be making a volcano model of our own.

Read: 

There are a number of books about volcanoes available through the Galesburg Public Library's catalog of ebooks, including Earth's Changing Surface by Conrad J. Storad and A Changing Earth by Heather Miller.

Create:
There are a lot of sites out there that will teach you how to create a volcano out of play dough, baking soda, and vinegar. For that extra science kick, I'm using the information found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's page. So we're going to create our eruption, measure it, model it, and investigate it!

You'll cut (or have an adult help you cut) a paper cup so it's only about half an inch high. Tape the cup to a piece or cardboard and label the directions North, South, East, and West.

Add a spoonful of baking soda to the cup. Then slowly pour in vinegar (you can add a couple drops of red food coloring) so you get an 'eruption' and 'lava flow'. What sort of reaction do you think is going on between the baking powder and vinegar to cause such an event?

Trace around the area of the 'lava' and dab it up with a paper towel. Put down a thin layer of dough to cover the area that was covered with 'lava'. On a piece of paper, make a map of how the lava flows. Do you think it will change now that the dough is down?

Continue to make more eruptions and lava flows, adding dough after each time, a different color if you have it. How is your volcano changing with the new material added?

Use clear plastic straws to push down into the dough. Can you see distinct layers? This is called a core sample.