SRP KickOff Party
Monday June 9 | 11am – 1pm
Celebrate the start of Summer Reading with a visit top our SRP Kick-Off Party! Meet local sidewalk chalk artist Ryan Holmes and watch as he creates colorful Sidewalk Coloring Book for kids to color! Stop in to pick up a kick off starter kit with your reading log and colorful surprises inside*, make a colorful fan* and a flag craft* or Ribbon Dancer toy*; decorate a wind ribbon, play our Sidewalk Action Game, register to win a Colorful Creations Art supplies kit and enjoy a tasty treat too! It’s the start of a Colorful Summer of Reading Fun!
*while supplies last!

Minecraft Mania
Tuesday June 10 | 6pm – 8pm
We’ll have our Minecraft server set up and the laptops ready to go. No experience needed — all levels of players/builders welcome.

Adult Bingo
Wednesday June 11 | 2:30pm – 4pm | Adults
Join us for a fun and engaging afternoon of Bingo complete with light refreshments and prizes for the lucky winners! No registration required, just show up ready to have fun!

Explore the Colors of Nature: STEAM activity for kids!
Wednesday June 11 | 6pm – 7pm | Ages 6 – 12
Join the wildlife educators from Nature Discovery for this STEAM activity to learn about the colorful natural world around us. From birds to chipmunks; turtles, frogs and snakes, to insects, moths and butterflies– it’s a colorful world out there! Weather permitting, we’ll take a “Color Discovery” walk to see the colorful nature around us. Presented by Nature Discovery.

Nerf Battle Returns! (Registration Req.]
Thursday June 12 | 6pm – 7pm | Ages 6+
Nerf Battles! Players will run, dodge, and dive as they try to out-wit and out-blast the competition during NERF Mobile Games! From ‘Capture the Flag’ to ‘Eliminator’ to ‘Zombies Vs. Humans,’ players will put their physical and mental skills to the test with several game styles perfect for colorful summer Fun, indoors or out.

Earn Fun Prizes!

Instant Prizes – Turn in each completed Reading Log to instantly win prizes like jump ropes, tie-dye spintops, punch balls, mini dominos, themed rubber duckies, plus ice cream, pizza, and other treats!

Complete all Five Logs! Choose your own book to keep from our take home shelf.

Grand Prizes – Each Reading Log completed is also an entry for a chance to win the Grand Prize for each grade group. Grand Prize packages for all ages stuffed with goodies– gift cards, tote bags, games, and much, much  more!! 

Visit GLADL to pick up your prizes (courtesy of our local businesses and the Friends of the Library). Bring in your paper logs to turn in—GLADL will confirm your ReadSquared logs digitally.

Get Your Printable Reading Logs Here!

(Logs are also available inside the library)

Fill Your Summer with Art!

Colorful Wind Ribbons
June 1 – September 15
Decorate a Wind Ribbon! Choose a color and write your name, a message, part of a song, the name of someone you love… anything goes! We’ll tie your colorful wind ribbon to our fence to let your colors fly all summer long!

Take Home Crafts
Make fun crafts or flex your science muscles with the following activities: 6/6 Paint Like Alma Woodsey Thomas; 6/20 Yarn Art of Xenobia Bailey; 7/3 Silver Leaf Art like Fra Giovanni Angelico; 7/18 Texture Paint Like Berthe Morisot; 8/1 Claude Monet Water Lilies; 8/15 Smorey Craft

Chalk Our Walk!
Starting June 6! Have some Colorful Fun this summer — Grab some chalk inside the library and create on our sidewalk outdoors

Katherine Applegate “Color Our World” Writing Contest
Parents may enter their child’s prompt-inspired writing this June-July to win great books and prizes. Details on our website Event Calendar, ages 8 – 12.

Fiero Code Cosmic Art Competition
Get ready to blast off into creativity! Our library is hosting the Cosmic Art Gallery coding competition from June 1 – July 31. Show off your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills by building a gallery website that showcases photos and artwork of stars and planets. This free, online challenge ties in perfectly with the “Color Our World” theme. Ready to launch? Enroll now with the link gladl.org/project/learncoding and start coding toward the stars! Make sure to join us at the library every Wednesday at 6pm for Code Club!

Bookmark Coloring Contest
Want to get your art made into a professional bookmark that will be available for patrons to take home with them in the Fall? In our SRP Kickoff Kits, and inside the library we will have Blank Bookmark Templates that you can color and turn in for a chance to get your artwork featured here in the library! The contest runs June 1 – July 31, and multiple winners will be selected. See our Bookmark Coloring Template for full details. We can’t wait to see what you create!

Tiny Art Show – Paint and Scuplt
Our Tiny Art Show is back this Summer, and we want you to help us fill the library up with art! We have two themes this year – “My Favorite Painter” (Canvas) and “Colorful Cats” (Clay).

Tiny Art Kits (Canvas or Clay) can be picked up at the front desk starting June 1, and are first come first served, while supplies last. One kit per person, please, ages 5+. Bring in your finished art by June 27 for display and People’s Choice voting in July. Prizes await for the winners in each age category! See the instruction sheet inside the kit for complete details. Participants will be able to take their art home after our Summer Reading Finale in August.

Volunteering at GLADL this Summer

The Grand Ledge Area District Library is in need of volunteers for the summer. We welcome anyone 13 or over who would like to help with programs, our carnival, or just sit at the library and prepare crafts. You can find our volunteer form on our website and once it is filled out and returned to the library, we will send you our Sign Up Genius. We have day and evening times available and you pick what you would like to help with.

To begin volunteering, please print off our Volunteer Information Form and return it to the library or email it to admin@gladl.org

For more information about volunteer opportunities, please contact us at outreach@gladl.org.

Why IS Summer Reading Important?

Sure, the GLADL Summer Reading Program is lots of fun—but it’s more than fun. Reading over the summer helps your imagination take flight, and is incredibly important for students and their academic achievement, from preschool to grade three and beyond:

• Children who don’t read over the summer experience summer learning loss, forgetting some of what they’ve learned during the school year. Worse, the effect is cumulative– children who lose reading skills over the summer may be up to two years behind their classmates by the end of 6th grade. Children actively participating in a library Summer Reading Program gain reading skills and increase literacy.
• The Summer Reading Program encourages kids to read whatever they want, to enjoy reading for recreation. Studies show children who read for fun often academically out-perform children who don’t.
• When families engage in summer reading together, they have meaningful conversations, share adventures and experiences while also making an impact on their child’s learning.
• The Summer Reading Program and all of its associated activities are FREE– safe, engaging, educational opportunities for all ages, all summer long!

For more about the importance of summer reading for our children, follow the link to an article from School Library Journal. Thanks to the Madison Public Library and ed.gov for contributed material.