Ending a summer filled with imagination

Shannon LeClair 

Times Reporter

 

Every summer the Strathmore Municipal Library hosts a summer reading program. It’s meant to be a chance to get kids out reading while having fun during their summer holidays. Each year there is a different theme to the program. This year’s theme was ‘Imagine.’ 

“The program was huge this year, I think the theme has a lot to do with it…our co-coordinators had really cooked up a great program for the kids,” said Carmen Erison, assistant director of library services. 

“With a theme like imagination, the sky was the limit and honestly it was wonderful.”

The co-coordinators were Janine Owl Child and Kristine Deisman. Libraries across Canada used the theme ‘Imagine’ this year. The TD Summer Reading Program picks the theme for the program every year.  

“Weekly themes on the other hand were chosen by us, under the ‘Imagine’ umbrella, and those we chose based on what we thought would work, suggestions made by TD, and also based on some pre-planning phase reading that we did,” said Deisman. 

“We loved Superhero Week. During this week participants learned about the histories of popular comic book characters, created their own superhero personas, participated in superhero training, faced superhero challenges, and became certified superheroes, with a ceremony and certificates and everything,” said Owl Child. 

During superhero week the kids were also taught about real people with super-human abilities, such as a man immune to the effects of electricity and abnormally strong babies. 

Owl Child said she received a lot of positive feedback from parents about the ‘teaching’ element that was implemented this year. 

“Every program we ran we showed kids a PowerPoint or a Prezi.com presentation that we created ourselves to teach them about something related to the theme of the week,” said Owl Child. 

“So we taught about superheroes, real pirates and princesses, different ways to tell stories, mythological creatures, fairies, gnomes and dwarfs,” said Deisman. 

The kids also learned about them from a first nations traditional perspective as well, and about influential people in the world.  

Fridays were often filled with scheduled ‘field trips’ such as one to the Strathmore Fire Department, Wheatland EMS and more. August 24 marked the end of this year’s summer reading program, which was a hit with everyone.