It was wonderful to once again have our libraries filled with children, teens, parents and grandparents during the Winter school holidays.
Our calendar was jam-packed full of events with something for everyone. Let’s take a look at the fun that we got up to.
Craft events
We had crafty messy fun creating Bluey, unicorn, and monster craft. We also got creative with Lisa D in Foster, making beautiful tie-dye bags and tissue paper paintings. Programs officer Jenny hosted events for the community at the Neerim South branch, creating magnificent castles from cardboard and beautiful flowers from recycled bottles. Our StoryTime kids at Phillip Island painted a magnificent whales’ tail and made whale-inspired craft for the Phillip Island Whale Festival.
Learning
Our programs officer Tim brought in his terrific collection of gems and rocks, and the kids at Wonthaggi had a wonderful time on the prospecting table hunting for precious stones. Despite the chilly weather, the kids didn’t feel the cold as they raced around Civic Park in Warragul, flying the kites they made with our team. Many of our branches also hosted events for our Sphero Robots. The challenge was to program the robots to get through an obstacle course, and the sessions were finished off with a delicious slice of pizza! Green Hat Workshop joined us for some Plank Building STEM events. The participants created some impressive structures using the planks, and we think the grown-ups had as much fun as the kids!
Special Guests
Damo from Damo’s Music for Kids visited our Warragul branch earlier this year, and we had repeated requests for him to come back! Happy to oblige, Damo entertained the crowds at Warragul and Wonthaggi with songs, stories and some silly dancing. CJ and his musical Puppets visited for some marvellous puppet shows that explained the origins of folk music from different countries. Kenny Chan led an excellent Manga drawing class, teaching those who attended ways to improve their drawing skills and providing plenty of creative inspiration!
MeetUp and Youth Week
Over the first week of the school holidays, we hosted a range of Meetup events during Youth Week. Victorian Youth Week 2021 is a statewide celebration of the talents, achievements and contributions of young people. West Gippsland Libraries received a Victorian Youth Week grant from the Victorian State Government to enable us to assist young people in expressing their ideas and creativity and provide opportunities to have their voices heard within the community.
We are so proud of our Programming staff who came up with a diverse and exciting calendar of events during Youth Week. We conducted an upcycled fashion event with fashion designer Denise Stringer, and flew drones with Michael from Drift Media in a comprehensive 3-hour workshop. We hosted an aerosol art workshop at our Drouin branch, and visitors to our Mirboo North branch enjoyed the ‘Holding Up the Shelves’ art show.
The African Drumming workshops were absolutely incredible and our participants went away buzzing with excitement. With feedback like this – “I felt like my soul was woken back up. I could feel myself coming back to life!” – we’ll definitely host more workshops in future!
We were very grateful to the 3 authors that generously shared their time, knowledge and insights during our writing workshops. A huge thank you to authors Narelle M Harris, Sharon Postlewhite and Michael Hyde for attending.
The participants at our Minecraft party not only got to hang out at the library playing Minecraft, but they also snacked on some delicious cookies baked by local company Treat It. They looked absolutely amazing and tasted even better!
Online events
We also kept the kids entertained with online videos from our team. Heather created a handy origami monster bookmark, Jenny spent some time making a functional paper mache bowl, and Shannyn got creative with alternative ways to paint without a paintbrush. We hosted an online webinar on game development and coding with Genevieve from Roblox. We’ll share the video of that session soon!
Thank you to everyone who attended our events. Your enthusiasm, feedback and ideas for upcoming events were terrific, and we can’t wait to do it all again during the next school holidays!
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