Chiemi Nara, Cataloguer at Rotorua Library, has plenty of new children's books ready for the holidays and is looking forward to activities like the Love Your Bike Cycle Safety Workshop.
Rotorua Library's Get Green! Summer Holiday Activities and Bingo Summer Reading Challenge are underway and proving popular - but it's not too late to sign up and join in the fun.
The start of the programme was marked with two highly successful Wonky Donkey Shows put on by author and
entertainer Craig Smith before Christmas when more than 250 children were captivated by the stories, songs and puppetry antics.
Activities continue until the end of January 2017 and are based on the theme Get Green! Children are encouraged to look after our environment in Rotorua and get out into the great outdoors.
Included in the activity line-up is a Love Your Bike Cycle Safety Workshop for children 8 and over. The workshop is on Tuesday January 10 in Kuirau Park and bookings are being taken now.
Other activities include Lego, recycled art and mystery challenges. The activities are free and children need to be supervised. Numbers are limited and some activities filled up before Christmas. Booking can be done on the library website or by contacting the library.
As well as organised activities, the popular Summer Reading Challenge is also running throughout the school holidays.
This incentive-based programme is designed to keep children up to the age of 13 reading over the summer break and maintaining reading levels which can drop during this period. This year the challenge is based on the game Bingo with a Get Green! twist where children complete challenges by reading books and stories in all sorts of inspiring places.
The challenge runs until Saturday January 21 with prizes given out at a Summer Reading Finale on Wednesday 25 January. Bingo sheets and more information can be collected from the library or downloaded from www.rotorualibrary.govt.nz.
"The Bingo Summer Reading Challenge encourages children to get going, get reading and Get Green! - and rewards them for it," Rotorua Library Youth and Early Learning Specialist Te Aroha Rangi says.
