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So Much to Choose From!

Check out all the things happening at the Library this Friday and Saturday »

A Walk in the Park Friday, Sept 20, 10 am @ Meadowbrook Park

Movie and Music in the Park, Friday, Sept 20, 5 pm @ Lenexa City Center Commons and Cornerstone Park in Gardner

Johnson County Genealogical Society Meeting (10 am) DNA and Genetic Genealogy: Bringing it All Together (1 pm) Saturday, Sept 21 @ Central Resource Library

Unlocking Em-PAW-thy Saturday, Sept 21, 1 pm @ Leawood Pioneer Library

Take Time to Rhyme!

We’re celebrating 10 years of 6 by 6: Six Skills by Six Years, our award-winning early literacy program. Today's skill is "Take Time to Rhyme!"

Notice Print All Around You!

We’re celebrating 10 years of 6 by 6: Six Skills by Six Years, our award-winning early literacy program. Today's skill is "Notice Print All Around You!"

Look for Letters Everywhere!

We’re celebrating 10 years of 6 by 6: Six Skills by Six Years, our award-winning early literacy program. Today's skill is "Look for Letters Everywhere!"

Have Fun With Books!

We’re celebrating 10 years of 6 by 6: Six Skills by Six Years, our award-winning early literacy program. Today's skill is "Have Fun with Books!"

Make Your Own 6 by 6 Happy Birthday Video

Help Celebrate the 10th Birthday of 6 by 6!

That’s right, Johnson County Library’s award-winning early literacy program is turning 10!

We want YOU to participate with a short, simple, video! Grab your smart phone, or record from your tablet or laptop!

How? There are 2 easy options!

1) Happy Birthday Message
Script: (feel free to improvise)
“Hi! I’m (insert name here). I want to wish 6 by 6 a Happy Birthday!”
Then, upload it to your favorite social media site: (Facebook, twitter, YouTube) and use the hashtag #6by6

2) Act out one of the 6 by 6 Activities
Script: (again, please feel free to improvise)
“Hi! I’m (insert name here). To help celebrate the 10 birthday of 6 by 6, I encourage you to Have Fun with Books (or substitute the underlined with any of the other 6 by 6 skills numbered below)”
Then, pick one of the suggested actions to demonstrate/act out. For instance, if you choose the skill: Have Fun with Books, you could hold up your Library card and maybe say, “This isn’t just a Library Card. It’s a passport to unimaginable realms!”
OR
Flip through the pages of a wordless picture book and narrate it.
OR
Give a book as a gift to a friend.

Just be sure to take a video of whatever you do.

Then, upload it to your favorite social media site: (Facebook, twitter, YouTube) and use the hashtag #6by6      

1. Have Fun with Books
Suggestions:

  • Get a library card
  • Visit a library.
  • Let a child help you select books
  • Check-out books
  • “Read” a picture book
  • Take books wherever you go: doctor’s office, in the car, at the grocery store, in the park
  • Give books as gifts

2. Look for Letters Everywhere
Suggestions:

  • Look at the picture of the 6 by 6 peacock and find the letters
  • Cut sandpaper letters to use for rubbings. Put printer paper on top of the letters and rub over it with the long side of a crayon
  • Hold up a letter and point to an object that begins with that letter - “D” point to toy dinosaur
  • Point out shapes that look like letters
  • Make a letter collage
  • Say a sentence with words that all begin with the same letter sound (alliteration) like: the baby bounced bravely by broadway boulevard by Boddington Bay
  • Make “alphabet soup” by gluing letters on to paper
  • Make letter shapes and letters out of clay, in shaving cream, in fingerpaint

3. Notice Print All Around You
Suggestions:

  • Put together a puzzle that has pictures and letters or words
  • Let a child help you make a shopping list
  • Write, and announce what letter you’re creating
  • Have children help read a recipe
  • Identify print on t-shirts, boxes and signs
  • Hand a book to your child upside down, and see if she turns it around

4. Take Time to Rhyme
Suggestions:

  • Name as many words that rhyme with “goat” as you can.
  • Sing a rhyming song
  • Make silly words that sound alike: Michael Motorcycle, Emily Bemily
  • Use these word endings to create rhymes: _ed (red, bed, fed) _at (bat, cat, mat) _ing (bring, sing, ring) _ight (sight, light, fight)

5. Talk, Talk, Talk
Suggestions:

  • Talk about the pictures in a book
  • Find a real-life item of of something depicted in a book
  • Label items in your home or car: doors, chairs, windows, etc. (use sticky notes?)
  • Have a child describe the illustrations in a book
  • Pick a word and give it’s definition

6. Tell Stories About Everything
Suggestions:

  • Put your day into a story!
  • Sort items (buttons, blocks, etc.) by size, shape and color
  • Ask a child to tell you about his or her day
  • Have your child draw a picture. Then let them tell you what is happening in the picture.
  • Count common things you see (like clouds)

Throwback Thursday

In its heyday, Life magazine was a popular weekly publication with some fantastic photography. What do you like to read with your friends? If you need suggestions, we have a number of eMagazine and eNewspaper options for you and your crew to pursue.

For even more local history visit jocohistory.org or follow our hashtag on Twitter.

Voter Registration

Do you have questions about the upcoming election? The Johnson County League of Women Voters will be on hand to register new voters, help registered voters update your names and addresses, distribute absentee ballot applications and answer your general voting questions. See the schedule »

Oak Park Library's READ Poster Winner

Each of our locations draws a name from the pool of kids who participated in Summer Reading to win a READ poster photoshoot. Here is Oak Park Library's winner! You can enjoy the adorable-ness of current and past READ poster winners at each of our Libraries.

Oak Park Library hosts Español a la Carta, ELL Conversation Group, and more »