ALL OF OUR PROGRAMS ARE ALWAYS FREE!

 

1,000 Books Bonanza
Stop by the Children’s Room to sign up for 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, and get a free canvas bag to kickstart your 1,000 book journey.  Any child who has not yet started Kindergarten can participate. Reading together helps children develop a love of reading, introduces them to new vocabulary, and teaches them important early literacy skills that will help them when they enter school.

 

Music City Strings 2024
New London Community Orchestra is offering a new session of free violin lessons for children in grades 4-9. Instruments will be provided at no charge, and children may take their violin home to practice. Lessons are in small groups with professional teachers. Masks are required. Violin lessons are an excellent experiential enrichments activity that’s been shown to increase educational attainment. Fill out the form below to register:
https://form.jotform.com/61886278899180

 

 

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January 2025

Take Home Craft Kits
Available All Month – First Come First Serve

Snowglobe Handprints: A wintery scene, but hold the water! A chilly craft for all ages. 

Mini Ice Skaters: Scared to ice skate in real life? Try crafting it first! An icy craft for all ages.

Paper Plate Winter Hat: If you’re going outside, you can’t forget your hat! A cozy craft for younger children..

STEAM: Build a Sled: Turns out it’s lovely weather for a sleigh-ride together! A constructive craft for older children.

Interactive Movie Kits
Available All Month – First Come First Serve

Interactive Movie Kits are fun for the whole family! Kits include a list of prompts for your family to do throughout the movie plus props and crafts! Each kit comes with enough supplies for 4 people. DVD’s are available to check out on a first come first serve basis, but kits can be taken with or without the movie if you use a streaming service or have the movie at home. 

January Lineup: 

Winnie the Pooh:  While searching for honey, Pooh and his friends embark on an adventure to find Eeyore’s missing tail and rescue Christopher Robin from an unknown monster called The Backson.

Tangled: The magically long-haired Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but now that a runaway thief has stumbled upon her, she is about to discover the world for the first time, and who she really is.

Make it Mondays: Friendship Bracelets
Mondays 3pm – 5pm
For January and February Make-It Mondays, join us each week to create a different kind of friendship bracelet! Between candy stripes, zig-zags, braids, and more, what will you choose? Your imagination is the limit!

Creative Writing Club for Kids
Tuesdays January 14th & January 28th 5pm – 6pm
Are you interested in writing? Join us for Creative Writing for Kids! We’ll be playing word games and working with writing prompts biweekly to help develop creative writing skills.

This workshop is geared for kids in 3rd grade and up, but strong and ambitious writers are encouraged to stop by! No registration required.

All-Ages Story Time
Wednesdays 10:30am
All ages story time and playgroup! Enjoy stories, songs, and a chance to play! This month, we are introducing story time themes, so check out our schedule to see what’s happening each week!

Best for children ages 4 and under. No registration required!

1/8: New Year, New Me!

1/15: A Winter’s Ball featuring Ann Shapiro

1/22: Read to Traveler

1/29: Chinese New Year

Art Class with Miss Dana
Thursdays 1/2, 1/9, 1/23, 1/30 5pm – 6pm
Do you love creating art? Try coming to the library on Thursday evenings to take an art class with Miss Dana! Each week, we’ll be working on a new project, so be sure to swing by! No registration required.

Baby + Me Playgroup
Fridays 10:30am
Join us for a story time and play group! Baby + Me is designed for babies to socialize and for caregivers to meet each other! We will do a short lap story and then turn on the music and take out the toys for time to socialize. A great opportunity for new parents to meet and babies to play! 

Children’s Board Game Club
Saturdays 12:30pm – 3pm
Do you love playing board games? Join us every Saturday for Board Game Club in the Children’s Room! In addition to chess, we will be including board games like Sorry, Battleship, Trouble, and more! This space can be for both children and their families. All skill levels are welcome!

Snowman Yarn Wrapping
January 3rd 10am – 5pm
Do you want to build a snowman? It doesn’t have to be a snowman! Swing by the Children’s Room to make a snowman made of yarn instead!

Cozy Cottage
January 8th 10am – 5pm
What better way to stay warm this winter than to build your own cozy cottage? Come to the Children’s Room to create your own!

Vision Boards for Kids
January 11th 10am – 5pm
Do you have big ideas, goals, or dreams you want to accomplish in 2025? Help keep track of them by creating a vision board, or a collage of pictures and words of things you want to do and things that inspire you! 

Snowflake Square Collage Project
January 13th – January 19th
For our January community art project, swing by to make you own snowflake square! At the end of the week, we’ll have enough snowflakes to fill up a whole collage and create a wintery scene inside the library!

Autism and Friendship: Respecting Difference and Building Understanding 
January 13th 4pm – 5pm
In this educational presentation on autism (and neurodiversity) designed for younger children and their families, Jeremy Farrell focuses on two things: inspiring curiosity about autism and other things that make other kids seem “different,” and to create a deeper understanding about how neurotypical and neurodivergent children are similar in many ways and that we should respect each other’s differences when we have them.

By using these two focuses, Jeremy Farrell aims to reduce stigma, encourage curiosity, increase understanding about each other, help build new and diverse friendships, and to simply start them thinking about topics that will become more and more relevant as their lives go on. Through talking about autism, we can really explore what friendship means, even when it’s between people who don’t seem to understand each other at first.

This is a great and informative program for children K-4 and their families. No registration required.

Carousel Construction
January 16th 4pm – 6pm
How would you build a carousel figure and what type of animal would you make? The Carousel Museum is here to help you build it! Carousel Construction covers topics such as balance and weight and offers attendees the chance create a carousel figure from Legos!

All supplies included.  All Legos stay with the Museum’s traveling lab program.  Attendees have a photo op with our traveling carousel and their LEGO carousel creation.

Saturday Morning Storytime
January 18th 11:30am – 12pm
Join us for another round of Saturday Morning Storytime with Miss Meghan!

Children’s Book Club: The Secret Garden
January 21st 5pm – 6pm
Do you love reading and talking about books? Join the Children’s Book Club! We meet every 3rd Tuesday of the month during the school year from 5pm – 6pm. 

This month, we’re reading The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett! Books are geared for grades 3-5, but strong readers are encouraged to join! Copies of the monthly book, snacks, and crafts provided.

Storytime with Traveler the NLPD Wellness Dog!
January 22nd 10:30am – 11:30am
Join us to have a special storytime with Traveler and Officer Christina! You can pet Traveler while listening to great stories and learning about the New London Police Department!

#LibraryShelfie Day
January 22nd 10am – 5pm
Every year on the fourth Wednesday of January, libraries and book lovers across social media share selfies with bookshelves using the perfect hashtag—#LibraryShelfie! This tradition was created by the New York Public Library in 2014! 

Come celebrate a love for books in the Children’s Room by taking a polaroid with your favorite book(s) or section of the library and get a spot on our bulletin board display!

Wintergarden Seed Planting
January 23rd 10am – 5pm
Inspired by Wintergarden by Janet Fox, come plant herb seeds to help build your own winter garden!

Bilingual Storytime
January 25th 11:30am – 12pm  
Join us for another Bilingual Storytime with Miss Dana!

Celebrate Chinese New Year!
January 29th – February 5th
Celebrate Chinese New Year with the Children’s Room! Swing by to check out our displays, learn about the holiday, and make a craft related to the Year of the Snake!

 

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February 2025

Take Home Craft Kits
Available All Month – First Come First Serve

Love Birds: A little birdy told me you would love to do this craft! A craft sure to make a little one’s heart flutter.

Black History Month Packet: Learn about those most important to our history this month! An insightful craft for all ages.

Duck For President: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” A presidential craft for younger children, inspired by Duck for President by Doreen Cronin.

STEAM: Groundhog Puppet: Six more weeks of winter, or an early spring? A study of shadows for older children! 

Interactive Movie Kits
Available All Month – First Come First Serve

Interactive Movie Kits are fun for the whole family! Kits include a list of prompts for your family to do throughout the movie plus props and crafts! Each kit comes with enough supplies for 4 people. DVD’s are available to check out on a first come first serve basis, but kits can be taken with or without the movie if you use a streaming service or have the movie at home. 

February Lineup: 

Black Panther: T’Challa, heir to the hidden but advanced kingdom of Wakanda, must step forward to lead his people into a new future and must confront a challenger from his country’s past.

Kung Fu Panda: To everyone’s surprise, including his own, Po, a clumsy panda, is chosen as protector of the Valley of Peace. His suitability will soon be tested as the valley’s arch-enemy is on his way.

Make it Mondays: Friendship Bracelets
Mondays 3pm – 5pm
For January and February Make-It Mondays, join us each week to create a different kind of friendship bracelet! Between candy stripes, zig-zags, braids, and more, what will you choose? Your imagination is the limit!

Creative Writing Club for Kids
Tuesdays February 11th & 25th 5pm – 6pm
Are you interested in writing? Join us for Creative Writing for Kids! We’ll be playing word games and working with writing prompts biweekly to help develop creative writing skills.

This workshop is geared for kids in 3rd grade and up, but strong and ambitious writers are encouraged to stop by! No registration required.

All-Ages Story Time
Wednesdays 10:30am
All ages story time and playgroup! Enjoy stories, songs, and a chance to play! This month, we are introducing story time themes, so check out our schedule to see what’s happening each week!

Best for children ages 4 and under. No registration required!

2/5: Love Your Library!

2/12: Valentine’s Day

2/19: Read to Traveler

2/26: Bee Kind

Art Class with Miss Dana
Thursdays 2/6, 2/13, 2/20, 2/27 5pm – 6pm
Do you love creating art? Try coming to the library on Thursday evenings to take an art class with Miss Dana! Each week, we’ll be working on a new project, so be sure to swing by! No registration required.

Baby + Me Playgroup
Fridays 10:30am
Join us for a story time and play group! Baby + Me is designed for babies to socialize and for caregivers to meet each other! We will do a short lap story and then turn on the music and take out the toys for time to socialize. A great opportunity for new parents to meet and babies to play! 

Children’s Board Game Club
Saturdays 12:30pm – 3pm
Do you love playing board games? Join us every Saturday for Board Game Club in the Children’s Room! In addition to chess, we will be including board games like Sorry, Battleship, Trouble, and more! This space can be for both children and their families. All skill levels are welcome!

Celebrate Chinese New Year!
January 29th – February 5th
Celebrate Chinese New Year with the Children’s Room! Swing by to check out our displays, learn about the holiday, and make a craft related to the Year of the Snake!

Take Your Child to the Library Day
February 1st 10am – 4:30pm
Celebrate Take Your Child to the Library Day with us! We’ll be hosting a scavenger hunt to find different literary characters and have prizes to win, bookmarks and stickers to take, and photo opportunities for families to take advantage of. Best of all, learn all about what our library has to offer, and be sure to visit again soon!

Pizza My Heart
February 5th 10am – 5pm
Did you know National Pizza Day is February 9th? We’re celebrating early by making our own pizza hearts!

Mystery Makerspace Challenge!
February 8th 10am – 5pm
This Saturday, come visit the Children’s Room to make a mystery creation to take home! You will receive a bag of materials, and then you’ll have to figure out what to do with them. Best of all, there’s no right answer! Your imagination is the limit!

Literary Valentine’s Day Card Making
February 10th – February 14th
Swing by to make some Valentine’s Day cards for your friends, family, teachers, or maybe your favorite librarians! We’ll have some literary examples, but feel free to create your own!

Bilingual Storytime with Miss Dana
February 15th 11:30am – 12pm
Join us for another Bilingual Storytime with Miss Dana!

Random Acts of Kindness Day
February 18th 10am – 5pm
Swing by to make your own kindness rock — take a rock, and leave a rock in return for someone else to find!

Children’s Book Club: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
February 18th 5pm – 6pm
Do you love reading and talking about books? Join the Children’s Book Club! We meet every 3rd Tuesday of the month during the school year from 5pm – 6pm. 

This month, we’re reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl! Books are geared for grades 3-5, but strong readers are encouraged to join! Copies of the monthly book, snacks, and crafts provided.

Storytime with Traveler the NLPD Wellness Dog!
February 19th 10:30am – 11:30am
Join us to have a special storytime with Traveler and Officer Christina! You can pet Traveler while listening to great stories and learning about the New London Police Department!

Puzzle Piece Heart Wreath
February 19th 10am – 5pm
Looking for more heart-shaped decor for your room? Make your own wreath out of puzzle piece!

Saturday Morning Storytime
February 22nd 11:30am – 12pm  
Join us for another round of Saturday Morning Storytime with Miss Meghan!

No-Sew Pillows
February 24th 10am – 5pm
Everyone needs a place to rest their heads. Make a pillow for you, a family member, or a friend! 

Pokemon Day Celebration
February 27th 10am – 5pm
Gotta catch ’em all! Come celebrate Pokemon all day in the Children’s Room with a scavenger hunt to find your favorites, and a craft to take one home!

 

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Children’s Room
860-447-1411 ext. 103

Children’s Librarian
Tori Congdon
vcongdon@plnl.org
860-447-1411 ext. 104

Children’s Librarian Assistant
Dana Santillana
dsantillana@plnl.org