Kindergarten, Tween Programs Offered at Library

Canton Public Library will offer the following: 

Tuesday, July 21 — Let’s Start School, A Kindergarten Story Time

Starting kindergarten is a very exciting time for youngsters.  To help these youngest students anticipate the challenges and emotions of their first school experience, Canton Public Library will hold a special “Let’s Start School, A Kindergarten Story Time” on Tuesday, Aug. 21 at 10:30 a.m.

Yoga instructor Beth Griffin will be hosting the story time, which is designed to get children feeling happy and excited about starting kindergarten. It will feature stories about starting school, fun yoga poses designed to teach children how to deal with any emotions they may be feeling about entering kindergarten, and a great school bus craft.  

The yoga poses will all be related to emotions that youngsters may be feeling. If they are overexcited, they might do a balance pose to concentrate. If they are scared, they might do a warrior pose to help them feel brave. If they are sad, they can turn their frowns upside down with an inversion pose.  

Beth Griffin is a certified yoga instructor who teaches yoga to children and families. She holds a bachelors degree in communication sciences from the University of Connecticut.

The story time is free; registration is required. Participants should dress in comfortable clothes they can stretch and move around in. 

Wednesday, Aug. 22 — A Performance by “Playing with Words” Tweens and Teens

On Wednesday, Aug. 22, Canton Public Library hosts a presentation at which participants of the “Playing with Words” writing group will read their work aloud.  The reading by the tweens and teens begins at 6:30 PM.

Beginning in June and continuing through July and August, Canton Public Library offered a 12-week long writing workshop for tweens and teens.  Called “Playing with Words” and led by Annie Barrett, the sessions were held on Wednesdays evenings. The series was funded by a technology grant from The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

At the end of the whole series, each participant contributed one "finished" piece to a collaborative book, which will be bound by a "print on demand" service.  One copy will be added to the library collection, and one copy will be given to each participant for their personal use.

A longtime Collinsville resident and herself a poet, Barrett says of the series: “This workshop series for young writers was intended to offer collaboration, encouragement, and lots of new ideas about how to use language to explore feelings and ideas, create unique characters, and tell a story.” 

Barrett is a library assistant at the Canton Public Library and a literature and composition instructor at the University of Hartford and Northwestern CT Community College. Her poems have appeared in journals such as Connecticut River Review, Tiger’s Eye, and Common Ground Review. She has been awarded a residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts and a fellowship grant from the CT Commission on Culture and Tourism, and her collaborative pieces have been exhibited at the bi-annual Word Art shows at the Gallery on the Green in Canton.