In June, the school year ends in Lithuania, and then everyone is happy about the summer vacation that has finally arrived. And what is a summer without entertainment!
Panevėžys Elena Mezginaitė Public Library has five branches that offered children various entertainment, meetings, educations, and trips in day camps that lasted 2-3 weeks. The camps were partially sponsored by the municipality of Panevėžys.
The fun weeks started with a fun, noisy, and colorful meeting with Pippi Longstocking, White Bear, and Uncle Bubbles. Children danced, sang, joked, and watched magical experiments.
Representatives of various professions came to the libraries to meet the children: policemen, environmental specialists, soldiers, a herbalist, film educators, and artists. All of them told and reminded the children how to behave safely on the street, how to properly sort waste, talked about the need for every citizen to know the rules of civil safety, invited the children to the meadow to identify plants, revealed the rules for weeding. The film educator presented the history of film and revealed the secret of film magic, the artists taught new creative techniques – ebru, graphics, and plant application.
Not all classes took place on library premises. It was also fun to visit games and sensory rooms, other city libraries, and the local history museum. Colleagues invited the campers to participate in the educational activity “Stone Soup” and “Stone Age Detective”. In the game room, the children danced to the music, making noise, and in the sensory room, the children were invited to concentrate, calm down, and relax.
Animals always get attention. And especially cute ones like alpacas, horses, and ponies. The children met the beautiful animals when they went to the alpaca farm and the Salų dvaras (Salos Manor in Rokiškis district municipality), where not only do these gentle and friendly animals raise their heads but also ostriches walk proudly.
Sweet, fragrant, and full of healing powers, the summer miracle is honey created by bees. Our camp sponsors donated fresh honey, and we treated the children to a delicious dessert – honey with fresh cucumbers.
The library campers had quite a few interesting field trips. One such child learned to make caramel. The educator told us about the products from which caramel is made, showed us the entire production process, and invited us to taste freshly made hot caramel. It was so delicious that the kids licked all the spoons and pots!
Of course, trips are not only entertaining but also educational, during which children have the opportunity to get to know the nature of their region. The interactive exposition in the visitor center of the Krekenava regional park impressed both the children and their leaders.
On a hot summer day, you want to refresh yourself, swim in a river or a lake. Or maybe in the pool? This is the opportunity our campers had: they swam in the pool and splashed with soap foam. They came home wet but happy.
Our story did not fit all the entertainment, and there was still quite a lot of it…
But next year, we will invite children to summer day camps again!
Text by librarian Anžela Vasiliauskienė
Photos by Vaida Žalienė, Lina Kučinskienė, Smėlynė library, Šiaurinė library
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