SaddleBrooke Community Outreach Grant Supports Summer Reading at Miami Memorial Library | Community

Little Lucy was not yet talking when her mother started bringing her to the Miami Memorial Library’s “Color the World” Summer Reading program, but clearly, she loved the picture books and activities. So much so, that her mom reported that her first word was not “Mama” or “Papa” but “Library,” which she frequently employed as a request to get new books.

A SaddleBrooke Community Outreach grant funded this seven-week summer reading and art program at the public library in Miami, Arizona. Children of all ages were invited to engage in learning and reading opportunities, all with a theme related to art.

The program began with the registration kickoff at a local park where the children created a group art project that was displayed at the library for the duration of the summer. Families listened to live performances and books being read, and also had the opportunity to create individual pieces of art. The registration kickoff even gave children the opportunity to visit other agencies, such as the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension office, so it was a great opportunity to merge art and education.

Each week, during the seven-week program, children came to the library to pick out books, gather for story hour, and engage in the science and art education experiences. The art experiences included drawing, fiber arts, photography, 3-D art, writing and storytelling, performance art and water color.

Science demonstrations included “Salt Vibrations” and “Exploding Pumpkins”—both sensational and designed to stimulate an interest in science.

The salt vibrations experiment is created by pouring salt (or sand) onto a taut membrane, such as saran wrap pulled tight over a bowl, then playing music and watching the salt move, making the vibration of sound waves visible to all. The exploding pumpkins experiment is a fun and dramatic demonstration of the effects of force by putting rubber bands around a pumpkin until it explodes.

Children were also given the opportunity to pick out books to take home and keep, to ensure students stayed connected to reading, even while at home.

At the end of summer celebration, students not only enjoyed cupcakes and prizes but were excited by the awards given out to acknowledge the reading completed.

Susan Pontel, Miami Memorial Library Manager, is enthusiastic about the program and reports that this summer was their best summer ever—with more students actively participating in the program. Program logs maintained by the children showed a 24 percent total increase over the previous summer in time spent reading by the students.

At the end of the program, all of the school-age children indicated that they read more often and enjoyed reading more; the majority of their caregivers not only concurred but stated that their children were more confident readers and either maintained or increased their reading skills over the summer.