Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library
Clarksville, TN – The Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library’s annual summer reading program will kick off June 11th, 2018 with a lineup of events and resources designed to encourage children, teens and adults to exercise their minds by reading through the summer vacation. The theme of this year’s program is “Libraries Rock” with music playing a large role in the programming.
In addition to all of the fun events happening throughout the six-week Summer Reading Program, the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library is pleased to announce that they are hosting a free lunch program for the children of Montgomery County.
Any child under the age of 18 is welcome to come by the library between 11:30am and 1:30pm Monday through Friday during our Summer Reading Program (June 11th-July 20th) and they will receive a free lunch, activity, and snack.
For this program only, children of all ages are allowed to attend without having a parent or caregiver with them.
This has been made possible by a collaboration with Established Hands Ministries, “an organization that provides aid to needy children and group day care homes for the provision of nutritious foods that contribute to the wellness, healthy growth, development of young children, and the health and wellness of older adults and chronically impaired disabled persons.”
The Summer Reading Program is broken up into five age-groups: “Tadpoles and Tagalongs” for babies to four years old, “School Age” for ages five and up, “Tweens” for fourth- through sixth-graders, “Teens” for seventh- through twelfth-graders and “Adults” for adult programming. The complete schedule can be found on the library’s website or Facebook page.
The main Summer Reading program, for school age children, will be on Tuesdays and Fridays with identical programs presented at 10:00am and 2:00pm. Each day will feature a unique performer, like Super Science Tennessee with Mr. Rich on Friday, June 22nd, or Magician Russ Nowack on Friday, June 29th.
Meanwhile, Tadpoles and Tagalongs will have programs on Tuesdays and Fridays at 10:00am and 10:30am, which will be repeated at 2:00pm and 2:30pm. Tickets for these programs are required and can be picked up beginning one hour before it starts.
Tween programs will be on Mondays at 2:00pm, featuring activities like a Musical Instrument Petting Zoo with the APSU Music Department on June 18th. Teens will meet on Thursdays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm, beginning with a Sound Engineering Workshop with Mr. Jariel Lopez on June 11th.
Also included in the Summer Reading program are the Saturday Story Times at 2:00pm every Saturday for the duration of the program, and Sensory Story Time, which is designed for children on the autism spectrum, at 10:30am on June 23rd, July 7th, and July 21st.
There will also be Sensory Friendly Movie Showings on June 24th and July 22nd at 1:30pm, where children are free to move around and make noise without judgement. There is limited space available for Sensory Programming, so parents should call the library to reserve a spot at 931.648.8826.
“When children are not participating in learning activities during the summer they experience a learning loss,” said children’s librarian Jean Nichols. That learning loss is commonly referred to as the summer slide.
“By participating in a Summer Reading program, this loss can be halted,” Nichols said. “Summer Reading provides a fun and entertaining learning atmosphere that promotes reading.”
Children who are exposed to books are more likely to read books. When they read books, they benefit from a higher vocabulary, fluency and comprehension skills. Young children who are read to, also benefit from print awareness, phonemic awareness and letter name, sound and shape awareness. They are ready to learn when they reach kindergarten.
The Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library designs the Summer Reading program as a part of its mission to champion learning and reading, ignite imaginations, and deliver access to information and ideas.
To register for Summer Reading, just visit www.mcgtn.org/library and click on the banner.
About the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library
The Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library champions learning and reading, ignites imaginations, and delivers access to information and ideas. Learn more at www.mcgtn.org/library
The library is located at 230 Pageant Lane, Suite 501, Clarksville, TN.
