{"id":1872,"date":"2010-10-28T17:08:48","date_gmt":"2010-10-28T21:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=1872"},"modified":"2010-12-14T19:48:34","modified_gmt":"2010-12-15T00:48:34","slug":"creative-play-at-the-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/creative-play-at-the-library\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative Play at the Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of course our Children’s Department has books.\u00a0 We also have early literacy computers, internet computers, CDs, and DVDs.\u00a0 But one of my favorite things that we have in my department is a wooden box filled with foam blocks.<\/p>\n

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What I love about these blocks is that they inspire kids to be creative.\u00a0 Almost every day, I walk past castles, cities, towers, and other wonderful creations.<\/p>\n

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I’m not even sure where we got these blocks – they’ve been there longer than I have – but they’re nice because they’re lightweight enough not to hurt when someone inevitably uses one as a sword or throws one at her brother (behavior to which we quickly put a stop).\u00a0 They’re not easy to clean and they tend to invite biting, but they are sturdy enough to hold up to moderately heavy use.<\/p>\n

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And they’re different colors and different shapes.\u00a0 Working with different shapes and discussing how they’re similar and different helps kids with letter recognition down the line.\u00a0 And I can only imagine the happy time a child had corralling all the squares:<\/p>\n

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As I pick up the blocks for the millionth time, I remind myself of all the good they do in our department.\u00a0 They give kids a chance to use their imaginations and create something unique.\u00a0 And now I wonder, what do you have in your library that allows kids to be creative or express themselves?<\/p>\n

— Abby Johnson
\nChildren’s Manager
\nNew Albany-Floyd County Public Library
\nNew Albany, IN
\nhttp:\/\/www.abbythelibrarian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of course our Children’s Department has books.\u00a0 We also have early literacy computers, internet computers, CDs, and DVDs.\u00a0 But one of my favorite things that we have in my department is a wooden box filled with foam blocks. What I love about these blocks is that they inspire kids to be creative.\u00a0 Almost every day, I walk past castles, cities, towers, and other wonderful creations. I’m not even sure where we got these blocks – they’ve been there longer than I have – but they’re nice because they’re lightweight enough not to hurt when someone inevitably uses one as a sword or throws one at her brother (behavior to which we quickly put a stop).\u00a0 They’re not easy to clean and they tend to invite biting, but they are sturdy enough to hold up to moderately heavy use. And they’re different colors and different shapes.\u00a0 Working with different shapes and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[101,42,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alsc-blogger-abby-johnson","category-library-design-and-accessibility","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}