Summer of Learning: Make a Splash! With The Seattle Public Library
release date: June 15, 2018
Make a splash this summer with free activities for kids and teens at The Seattle Public Library’s Summer of Learning, which starts today. The 99th annual program for youth and families, which continues through Tuesday, Sept. 4, is designed to keep students reading and learning while school is out. This year’s program features the theme "Make a Splash! Adventures with Water" and encourages reading and activities around science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
The Library is offering hundreds of free programs all summer long for families, children and teens. All programs are free and open to the public. Visit www.spl.org/summeroflearning for more information.
Children and teens can learn to program robots, build helicopters, create vlogs on YouTube, play a ukulele, take photos, make paper quilling beads, write a song, design sound effects and more. Some classes require registration, which will open up online two weeks before the first class begins at each Library location.
Children who take part in Summer of Learning will receive a free Action Guide packed with fun water-related learning activities. For every 10 activities finished, participants will receive a prize.
Teens who take part in Summer of Learning will receive a free Teen Book Bingo card. Participants who get a bingo are entered in a grand prize drawing, and blackout bingos receive a second chance to win. Examples of Book Bingo squares include: book you judged by its cover, turned into a movie, read it outdoors, and a comic or graphic novel.
Families with young children ages birth to 5 years old can pick up a fun Action Guide filled with reading and learning activities to do together with babies, toddlers and preschoolers. For every activity completed, kids will get a special sticker from the Library. The Early Learner Action Guide will be printed in English, and a printable versions will be available online in Amharic, Chinese (simplified), English, Oromo, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya and Vietnamese.
The Library offers summer programming because research shows that during the summer young people can forget a certain amount of what they learned during the school year. Educators call that the "summer slide." The Summer of Learning program mitigates the summer slide and teaches children and teens 21st century learning skills, such as teamwork, critical thinking and digital skills.
The Library has partnered with the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture to offer free family admission, for up to two adults and four children, from July 1 to October 31, 2018. Just clip and bring in the pass from a Summer Action Guide or Teen Book Bingo card.
The 2018 Summer of Learning is sponsored by The Seattle Public Library Foundation.