Archives for Teens

Halloween at Home

Halloween at Home

There are a lot of decisions having to be made this year that are very personal decisions for a family. Having already made the big decision of full remote learning for our daughter this school year, it became an easier choice to make the smaller decision that neighborhood trick-or-treating is just not what we are doing this year. Instead, we're going to make a full day of at-home Halloween themed fun. Whatever you decide to do, I hope you have a ghoulishly great day! If you do decide in favor of Halloween at Home, I hope the following ideas can
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October 21, 2020 2:16 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: activities, arts & crafts, at home learning, crafts at home, fun, halloween, Halloween Books, Observances and Celebrations, Observances and Holidays, October, Spooktober, and staff recommendations.

Grab&Go Grades 7-12: Pumpkin Garland Kit

Grab&Go Grades 7-12: Pumpkin Garland Kit

As Halloween approaches, I'm sad to miss the annual tradition of decorating mini pumpkins with the teens in the Edge. It's one of my favorite crafts, so I recreated the activity as a Grab&Go kit. We'll draw and color jack-o-lantern faces on construction paper pumpkins. Then we'll attach them to a string for a festive garland to hang on the wall. The kit contains 8 construction paper pumpkins and a string for the garland. You'll need to provide a pen (or markers) and tape. The kits will be available on Monday, October 19th, in the vestibule. Follow along with the
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October 20, 2020 9:10 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: arts & crafts, crafts, crafts at home, Grab&Go Kits, halloween crafts, and The Edge.

How Did I Get Here? Virtual Career Panels

How Did I Get Here? Virtual Career Panels

This October the Library will be hosting three career panels on Zoom. Our first panel on October 1st at 6:00 p.m., will feature New York State Assembly person David Buchwald. He will talk about his career in politics and public service. The next two panels on October 13th and 15th, at 4:00 p.m., will have employees from Verisk Financial, an analytics company in White Plains. Their careers deal with coding, product development, user interface design, and, well, analytics. Our fourth career panel on October 22nd, at 6:00 p.m., will feature Randy Altman, owner of Altman Rentals. His company rents production
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October 17, 2020 10:00 am | by | 2 Comments
Categories: Events, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: career panel, Career Panels, edge events, How Did I Get Here?, and teen events.

STEAM at Home: Flying Dragon

STEAM at Home: Flying Dragon

This week we are going to make a dragon fly and learn about how levers work. Materials: Toilet Paper Roll Construction Paper Marker Pencil Ruler Glue Tape Yarn Getting Started: We are going to start by making our dragon. Cut a piece of construction paper so that it covers your toilet paper roll. Use tape or glue to attach it. Next design the head, wings, and tail of your dragon. Cut them out and attach them using glue or tape. You can use a marker to decorate your dragon and draw eyes and a mouth on it. Prepare For Flight:
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October 12, 2020 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: STEAM, STEAM activities, STEAM at home, STEAM learning, STEM, and videos.

Virtual Teen Volunteering

Virtual Teen Volunteering

Almost everything about the 2020-21 school year is different, and that includes earning community service hours. Usually around this time the fall sessions of the Do Gooders, the Library’s teen community service group, would be well underway. With library services restricted by safety concerns, we’re offering a different opportunity for teens to earn volunteer hours directly through us. We’re collecting book reviews written by teens, to be featured on our website. Teens can submit a book review by filling out this online form; each review is worth one hour, with a cap of 8 hours per person per month. I’d
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October 9, 2020 4:35 pm | by | 2 Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: Do Gooders, teen book review, teen volunteers, and The Edge.

Halloween Reads

Halloween Reads

Are you looking forward to Halloween as much as I am? This year we might be limited in our normal Halloween activities due to COVID, but there are still some fun things to do. You can dress up and take photos with your family! In the past two years, I have had fun dressing up as Wednesday Addams and Punk Eleven from Stranger Things Season 2, Chapter 7: “The Lost Sister.” You can also treat yourself to a movie marathon. Some of my favorites include Beetlejuice, Practical Magic, Shaun of the Dead, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and It’s the Great
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October 7, 2020 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: book recommendations, eBooks, fun, graphic novels, halloween, Halloween Books, juvenile fiction, Observances and Celebrations, October, picture books, Spooktober, staff picks, staff recommendations, and YA Fiction.

STEAM at Home: Fireworks in a Jar

STEAM at Home: Fireworks in a Jar

Today we are going to do a simple project making fireworks in a jar. This is cool and quite fun to watch, and a simple lesson in liquid density. Materials: Glass Jar or Glass (make sure it is clear) Small Dish Cooking Oil Food Dye (3 or 4 colors) Toothpick Water Getting Started: Fill the glass jar with water, but leave some room at the top. Take your little dish and cover the bottom with cooking oil. Add 3-5 drops of food coloring, keeping the drops separate. Take your toothpick and dab the drops of food coloring to break them
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October 5, 2020 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: STEAM, STEAM at home, STEAM learning, STEM, and videos.

Mindfulness Practices for Teens

Mindfulness Practices for Teens

It’s an understatement to say that 2020 has been an unusually stressful year so far. This is the perfect time to draw on Mindfulness Practices, a teen program we’ve previously done both on Zoom and in the library. But with school back in session, we thought another scheduled Zoom meeting might not be the best way to help teens relax. Instead, we’re offering a series of three recorded Mindfulness sessions with yoga and Mindfulness educator Cristina Ortiz. You might know Cristina from her previous work as a teacher in White Plains schools. In addition to her certifications as a yoga
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October 2, 2020 2:09 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: mindfulness, stress management, teens, The Edge, and Wellness.

Wellness from the Edge: Mindfulness Practices

Wellness from the Edge: Mindfulness Practices

It’s an understatement to say that 2020 has been an unusually stressful year so far. This is the perfect time to draw on Mindfulness Practices, including techniques to help teens manage stress and promote wellbeing. On this page, you'll find a series of three recorded Mindfulness sessions with yoga and Mindfulness educator Cristina Ortiz. Teens can watch at a time that’s most helpful to them, whether it’s a way to unwind in the evening, or a much-needed break during a stressful day. Cristina has thoughtfully paired each video with a printable page to help teens continue using what they’ve learned
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October 2, 2020 2:07 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: mindfulness, stress management, teens, The Edge, and Wellness.

STEAM at Home: Human Robot

STEAM at Home: Human Robot

This week’s STEAM At Home project will teach you a little about coding, without needing a computer. Materials: Printable Scratch Blocks (or you can make your own!) Paper Scissors Tape – scotch and masking tape Pen Another Person Background: Scratch.mit is a website used for teaching simple coding and computational thinking. You drag and drop blocks into your work area to create a program, the coding is done in the background. They use visuals, simple language, and a snapping feature to fit your blocks together, making it easy to write a computer program. You need a computer and internet connection
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October 1, 2020 2:17 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: coding, STEAM, STEAM at home, STEAM learning, STEM, and videos.

Mental Illness Awareness Week: YA Fiction

Mental Illness Awareness Week: YA Fiction

The National Alliance on Mental Illness honors Mental Illness Awareness Week during the first week in October. To mark the occasion, I'm highlighting some of the many characters in YA fiction who deal with mental health challenges. I first read I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, by Erika L. Sanchez, a couple of years ago. I considered it when working on last month’s post, and decided to listen to a little bit of the audiobook to refresh my memory… and just kept listening as the story hooked me in all over again. The audiobook was excellent. The narrator really
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September 24, 2020 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: books, Dive into Diversity, Mental Illness Awareness Week, Observances and Celebrations, staff picks, staff recommendations, and teen books.

Summer of Making Recap

Summer of Making Recap

Earlier this year, the Library was very happy to learn that Verisk Analytics would continue supporting our Summer of Making programs during the pandemic. We also received funds from Con Edison to support two weeks of afternoon programming this summer as well. This year we faced a big challenge: how to offer these programs virtually. The Library hired two Edge-ucators to run our virtual programs for teenagers. Carolina Melo grew up in White Plains and graduated from White Plains High School. She recently graduated from Parsons School of Design with an MFA. Michael Brand is a student at Iona College
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September 22, 2020 11:40 am | by | No Comments
Categories: COVID-19, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: Con Edison, STEAM, STEAM learning, STEM, Summer of Making, Verisk Analytics, and White Plains Library Foundation.

STEAM at Home: Cloud in a Jar

STEAM at Home: Cloud in a Jar

This week’s STEAM At Home project is weather science. We will be learning about how clouds are formed and make a cloud in a jar. Materials: Jar with lid (mason jars work really well) Ice Hot Water Pollutant (I used hairspray) Procedure: Heat up ⅓ cup of water. Poor the water into the jar, and swoosh it around the sides carefully so the glass heats up. Take the lid and turn it upside down, and fill it with ice cubes. Place the lid on top of the jar (still upside down so the ice cubes don’t fall into the jar).
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September 21, 2020 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: STEAM, STEAM activities, STEAM at home, STEAM learning, STEM, and videos.

Talk Like a Pirate Day: Swashbuckling Reads

Talk Like a Pirate Day: Swashbuckling Reads

Ahoy, me hearties! Avast! Get yar stern to a comfy couch or deserted isle, prop up yer peg leg and get to reading some of these thar piratical reads!  Before I make ye walk the plank! Saturday, September 19th is International Talk like a Pirate Day. When you're finished reading, try one of these Seafaring Activities or else you'll have to swab the deck ye scurvy dog! Picture Books The Pirate Princess by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen Some princesses may like tea and fancy parties, but Princess Bea would prefer sailing upon the briney deep in this tale of girl power on the
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September 17, 2020 12:10 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: book recommendations, eBooks, fun, Observances and Celebrations, staff recommendations, and Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Talk Like a Pirate Day: Seafaring Activities

Talk Like a Pirate Day: Seafaring Activities

Ahoy, me hearties! Blimey! Saturday, September 19th is International Talk like a Pirate Day! Although pirates were once considered to be dangerous, today they are often parodied in books and films (just think of the Pirates of the Caribbean films). Did you know that many of the words we use today, such as chopsticks, posse, and barbecue were introduced by a pirate named William Damper? In addition to being a pirate, Damper was also an amateur historian and the first person to circumnavigate the world three times. When ye need a bit of a respite from these adventurous activities, take yar
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September 17, 2020 11:51 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: activities, arts & crafts, crafts, eBooks, fun, Observances and Celebrations, staff recommendations, STEAM activities, and Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Hispanic Heritage Month: YA Fiction

Hispanic Heritage Month: YA Fiction

Hispanic Heritage Month is observed between September 15th and October 15th. To celebrate, I had fun putting together a list of books by Hispanic authors. This month, I read American Road Trip by Patrick Flores-Scott. Surprisingly, the road trip itself is a fairly minor part of the storyline, which contains so many layers that it’s difficult to write a spoiler-free summary, but here goes… Teodoro Avila puts no effort into academics, and his family life is tense due to the absence of his older brother Manny, stationed in Iraq. In preparation for Manny’s return, Teodoro and his sister, Xochitl, make
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September 15, 2020 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: books, Dive into Diversity, Hispanic Heritage Month, Observances and Celebrations, staff picks, staff recommendations, and teen books.

STEAM at Home: Styrofoam Glider

STEAM at Home: Styrofoam Glider

This week’s project was to take a piece of styrofoam and make it fly through the air. This is a fun and simple way to learn a little about aeronautics. Supplies: Styrofoam rectangle (you can use a meat tray) Playing card Tape Coins Ruler Marker Exacto Knife Instructions: Make a styrofoam rectangle. I used a meat tray from the supermarket; wash off all of the salmonella and cut off the rounded sides to create a flat piece. Center of Gravity: For an object to fly, the center of gravity (CG) needs to be 75% behind the balancing point. Right now
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September 7, 2020 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: STEAM, STEAM activities, STEAM at home, STEAM learning, STEM, and videos.

She Writes: Graphic Novels

She Writes: Graphic Novels

This week we launch the first collection of titles for our “She Writes” series. First up, we're featuring graphic novels for a variety of ages, all written and illustrated by women. Below you'll find available formats, but we also have a curated list with additional titles in OverDrive that you can checkout here. For Children (and up) Phoebe and her Unicorn series by Dana Simpson Grade 4+ Library Collection OverDrive and Libby “A pink, bubble-gum bonbon of a tale spun of a likable, albeit self-centered, fourth-grader and her magical, self-obsessed, although sometimes-kind, unicorn.”–Kirkus Click series by Kayla Miller Grade 3-7
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August 27, 2020 6:35 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: books by women, comics, female authors, graphic novels, She Writes, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

Homeschooling Reading List

Homeschooling Reading List

Many parents are choosing to homeschool their children this year given the current pandemic. To be clear, choosing to follow a full virtual model provided by your school district is NOT to be confused with homeschooling. Homeschooling is where you are completely responsible for both the curriculum and reporting your child’s progress to the state. Homeschooling is an involved process that must follow certain guidelines.  New homeschooling parents need resources to help them. We at the Library have many items available to make your journey easier.  In addition to physical titles in our Parenting section, we have many eBook and
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August 27, 2020 10:44 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, COVID-19, Featured, Homepage Family CV, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: at home learning, eBooks, Homeschool, homeschooling, parenting, parenting in a pandemic, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

Announcing Project LIT Community Chapter

Announcing Project LIT Community Chapter

Great news! The Library has become a chapter in the Project LIT Community and is in the process of organizing both teen and middle grade Project LIT Book Clubs, contacting community organizations, schools, and authors, and connecting to students in White Plains. Our Project LIT goal will be to “read, discuss and celebrate books that affirm and value all students.” What is Project LIT Community? It is a national grassroots literacy movement that is dedicated to increasing access to culturally sustaining books and promoting a love of reading. Dr. Jarred Amato and his Maplewood High School (Nashville, TN) students founded
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August 27, 2020 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Book Discussion, Events, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: Antiracism, book discussion, book group, Ibram X. Kendi, Jason Reynolds, One Book One White Plains, Project Lit, Project Lit Chapter, and Project Lit Community.