Archives for Homepage Teens

STEAM at Home: Magic Foldable Box

This week’s STEAMonday project is a paper folding project. I don’t consider this origami because we use glue at the end, I am a purest with my origami projects. We are going to fold paper to create a box that folds and unfolds like magic. Materials: Paper: Origami paper is best, if you don’t have any then use printer paper or loose leaf paper Glue: Glue sticks, elmer's glue, or something quick drying Scissors – If you are not using origami paper Non-stick surface for gluing How to get started: Collect 10-12 pieces of paper, varying colors are best. Cut
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Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

STEAM at Home: Cereal Box Maze

Today we are going to make a labyrinth or maze out of cereal boxes. “But I don’t eat cereal, Erik.” That’s ok, you can use any type of cardboard for this. Materials: 2 Cereal boxes (or any type of shallow cardboard box) equal in size Lots of straws Glue Tape Extra cardboard Toilet paper or paper towel rolls Something to punch holes with; an awl, drill bit Scissors and/or exacto knife Random stuff from around your home to use as obstacles Small marble or ball of some sort (nothing too light) Marker or colored pencils Decorations: stickers, colorful paper, wrapping
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Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

2020 Summer Reading Game

The Library's 2020 Summer Reading Game kicks off Monday, July 6 and runs through Friday, August 14! With limited access to the library building this summer, we’re taking our Summer Reading Game completely online. Instead of visiting the Trove or the Edge, you’ll track your reading on the READsquared platform. Visit the READsquared website or download the app to create a free account and get started.  See below for more information on getting started with READsquared.  Note: You can register in READsquared now and sign up for the Summer Reading Game, however not all features will be live until July
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Categories: Authors & Books, eNewsletter, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

White Plains Summer Reading Lists

Around this time of year, we’re usually busy buying and unpacking boxes of books to support the summer reading lists from the White Plains Public Schools. This year, we’re not sure when we’ll be able to order or receive those boxes of books. Instead, we’re offering digital versions of this year’s summer reading recommendations. We ask that everyone be mindful of an important difference between physical books and digital books. Paperbacks and eBooks check out the same way: a book can only be checked out to one person at a time. But eBooks are often four–or even six–times more expensive
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Categories: Authors & Books, eNewsletter, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Summer Reading Highlights: YA Fiction

This summer, there is no single required title on the middle and high school reading lists. Instead, teachers and school librarians have collaborated to come up with several great book recommendations for each grade level. It’s clear that they prioritized titles written by a diverse group of authors and featuring a wide range of characters. With such a variety of titles, everyone will be able to find a book they’ll like. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite book from the recommendations for each grade level. In addition to being available through the school system’s Sora app, these titles are also available
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.

STEAM at Home: Paper Bridge Challenge

This week’s STEAM At Home project is the paper bridge challenge. You can use only 1 piece of paper, (printer paper not card stock or construction paper) to build a bridge that will hold 100 pennies. Materials: 1 sheet of paper 100 pennies (or more) 2 objects equal in height (books, tissue boxes, pieces of wood), that are at least 2” high Instructions: Set your 2 objects about 9” apart, you don’t want them too close, that would be cheating. Make a bridge that covers the expanse and start adding pennies. See how many pennies you can add before the
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Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

STEAM at Home: Paper Airplanes

Paper airplanes are fun to make, but have you ever tried to recreate the world record paper airplane for flying the farthest, 226’ 10”? You can follow the instructions by John Collins to fold this amazing paper airplane. This is a mix of origami and aeronautics. Follow the instructions in my video to fold the plane. You can also watch the record breaking flight here. Paper airplanes that fly far are fun, but have you ever made a paper airplane that boomerangs back to you? The second part of my video follows the instructions of YouTuber TriKdanG, who made a
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Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Summer Reading Game Kick Off

The Library’s annual Summer Reading game starts today, Monday, July 6 and will run through Friday, August 14! Due to the impact of COVID-19 on services, the Summer Reading Game will be completely online this year via the READsquared platform, the READsquared website, or the READsquared app, available for iOS and Android. Get Started! Register and login to READsquared. Individual youth participants can register as themselves, or parents and caregivers can register all of their children at one time. This allows for the adult to also log reading and activities. Once registered, choose and join the appropriate Summer Reading Game
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Categories: eNewsletter, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

STEAM at Home: How Much Candy Do You Eat?

Have your parents ever asked you how much candy you’ve eaten after seeing you empty a bag? Today you will learn how to calculate that amount into cubic centimeters, which should be enough to confuse them and get them off of your back. Materials: Bag of M&Ms Measuring cup in milliliters (mL) Clay or bread Ruler with centimeters (CM) Paper, pencil, and calculator Measure Volume: We are going to take three measurements to find the Volume. 1st Measurement: Water Count out 100 M&Ms. Fill your measuring cup to 100mL with water. Poor your M&Ms into the water and write down
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Categories: eNewsletter, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

International Day of Friendship: YA Fiction

In honor of the International Day of Friendship on July 30, I read When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk, a new release that I’d been looking for an excuse to read. Somewhat ironically, the friendship at the heart of this book actually goes up in flames… but its true value becomes painfully clear through its absence. High school sophomores Cleo and Layla have been best friends for years. But when Layla realizes her dream of joining the school choir and gains a new group of friends, Cleo’s left behind. Flashbacks reveal the initially subtle rift in the girls’ friendship
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Categories: Authors & Books, eNewsletter, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.

STEAM at Home: Pop-Up Card

This week for STEAMonday we made a pop-up card for a belated Father’s Day Gift. But you can make these for any occasion. Here’s what you need: 2 or 3 pieces of paper – preferably thicker paper than regular printer paper or notebook paper. Glue Stick Scissors Markers Other decorations You can make your own pop-up designs or use the ones I found here. Getting started: Take a piece of paper and fold it horizontally (landscape). At the fold side cut 3 tabs. Cut in six, 1.5”, slits along the fold. Then open the paper and fold your tabs into
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Categories: eNewsletter, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

STEAM at Home: Paper Kite

Learn how to build and fly a paper kite. Materials: Paper (colorful so you can see it in the sky) String Masking Tape Thick/wide Ribbon Light Sticks Pencil Ruler Spindle (or small piece of cardboard) Instructions: Hold the piece of paper horizontally (landscape) and fold it in half. Keep the crease to the left side. Measure 1” along the top from the crease and make a mark. Measure 3” along the bottom, from the crease, and make a mark. Line up the ruler on the right side of the 2 marks and fold the paper over the ruler. Flip your
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Categories: eNewsletter, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

WLS on Systemic Injustice

WLS Stands with NYBLC and BCALA in condemning violence and racism towards Black people and all People of Color. The Westchester Library System condemns both the recent violence and the systemic injustice against Black people and people of color in the United States. We are committed to anti-racist practice and will use our skills and resources to advance the production of knowledge for social justice. We stand in solidarity with the New York Black Librarians Caucus (NYBLC) and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA). Read the NYBLC statement and BCALA statement to learn more.
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Categories: Director's Corner, eNewsletter, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Summer Programs and Events for Kids, Teens, and Families

While we might not be able to hold them in the Library, that doesn’t mean we’re not offering a lot of great programs in July and August! For full details on each program, and to get Zoom links, visit our Online Calendar. Of course, we also have our annual Summer Reading Game to take part in, and tons of fantastic reading recommendations in our Reading Lists! Family Fun Fridays – Fridays, July 10-August 14, 11:00 a.m. A great performance for children and families every Friday. More information here. Illusionist Leon Etienne – Wednesday, July 22, 6:30 p.m. World-class magician Leon
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Categories: Authors & Books, eNewsletter, Events, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Summer of Making

The Library will be holding our free summer camps virtually this year. Thanks to a generous grant from Verisk Analytics to the White Plains Library Foundation we will continue with another Summer of Making. Starting on June 29th and going through August 6th, there will be 6 1-week mini-camps held on Zoom for teens in grades 7-12. Registration is required, and you must be able to attend all programs in the week you register for. This year we have Carolina Melo and Michael Brand teaching our camps. Carolina Melo is an artist and interdisciplinary designer based in New York. She
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Categories: eNewsletter, Events, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.

July & August Tabletop Games

Join librarians Ashley and Erik from the Trove and the Edge to play fun virtual table top games this summer! We use the platform boardgamearena.com to play the games while we have a conversation on Zoom. Kids and teens that haven’t come to the program before will need to create a free account on boardgamearena.com. Note: Boardgamearena.com does have a for-pay premium service. Please take care when creating your account to not incur any unwanted charges. On the day and time of each program, simply login to your boardgamesarena.com account and join us on Zoom using the links for the
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Categories: eNewsletter, Events, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Juneteenth: YA Fiction

I didn’t expect to have much trouble gathering some historical fiction titles telling celebratory stories about emancipation. I found one promising book that turned out to be narrated by the daughter of a Texas plantation owner complicit in concealing the news of emancipation—not at all what I was looking for. I continued searching. I found books about slavery during the Revolutionary War, time travel mysteries, and one alternate history featuring Civil War zombies, but I had a hard time finding a perfect fit for Juneteenth. I ended up reading Jefferson’s Sons by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. It’s told over the span
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Categories: Authors & Books, eNewsletter, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.

STEAM at Home: Roto Copter

Learn how to build and fly a roto copter. Materials: Paper template Scissors Paper clip Masking tape Rubberband Spindle Instructions: Cut out the template, then cut along the line between boxes 2-3. Fold up along the dashed line over box one. Take a paperclip and slip it over the fold of box one, and tape the top of the paperclip, so that the bottom of the paperclip makes a loop. Next fold boxes 2 and 3 along the dashed line to make a small rectangle with a loop of the paperclip sticking out the bottom. Next cut ¼” below the
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Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Antiracism YA Fiction

Typically, when choosing books for my Dive into Diversity posts, I mostly try to avoid titles that focus on racism, police or gun violence, or other trauma. Instead, I prefer to highlight books that show a diverse range of teens dealing with everyday life. In this moment, though, it's time to feature books that demonstrate the impact of violence and oppression on teens. These stories are heavy, but they are important. Especially if you don’t identify with the protagonist, I challenge you to read and consider the character’s situation with an open mind. Let these stories be windows into another
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.