Grafton Public Library

Library Updates

Early Childhood Education Seminar for Parents on Benefits of Music and Movement

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If you missed this program on March 6th, check the Apple Tree Arts website page for other dates and locations.
Ideal for Parents/Caregivers of children birth through age 5

Led by Jan Barlow of Apple Tree Arts, attendees of this seminar will participate in developmentally appropriate music activities that help children develop an array of skills including spatial awareness, body part identification, crossing the mid line, listening and learning how to follow directions. These activities also support the development of language, pre-reading skills, pre-math skills, cultural literacy and expression. Attendees will receive songs and exercise activities that help children develop these skills.

Best of all, children will experience joy while singing songs and moving their bodies when parents and care givers learn how to incorporate music and movement into the children’s daily activities.

Objectives for participants:

  • Increase knowledge of why music, movement and music education is essential to children’s development.
  • Increase knowledge of how music is a powerful tool for brain development, creative thinking and communication.
  • Increase knowledge of ways to incorporate music into your families’ daily living and your comfort level with achieving this.

If you could not attend this seminar, Apple Tree Arts will be offering it again soon at other local libraries. Check the Apple Tree Arts website page for the other dates and locations.

Biography of Jan Barlow
The session is presented by Jan Barlow, education director of Apple Tree Arts, a nonprofit community music and theatre arts school based in Grafton. Jan has trained extensively in the MusikGarten curriculum and is Level 2 certified by the Early Childhood Music and Movement Association. She is an alumna in Vocal Performance from Berklee College of Music and has a degree in Business Management from Dean College.

Jan oversees Apple Tree Arts’ early childhood music program. She has a passion for educating young children and their families during the informative early childhood years. She shares this passion through her music training programs for preschool teachers and day care providers and through the classes she teaches for children from birth through age nine.

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Here Comes the Book Wagon!

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BookWagon

The Grafton Public Library, in conjunction with the Friends of the Grafton Public Library, is launching a new program at the Grafton Senior Center. The Book Wagon, with a staff member and a volunteer, will visit the Senior Center on a monthly basis, beginning Thursday, February 20 at 11:00 am.

Subsequent visits will be on the fourth Tuesday of every month, beginning Tuesday, March 25 at 11:00 am.

The Book Wagon will be filled with a variety of materials including books, movies, magazines and music. Seniors will be able to check out whatever they like from the Book Wagon, and return it to the Senior Center the following month.  If someone doesn’t already have a library card, we will be able to sign them up right then and there!

At the same time, staff and volunteers will be able to help any Senior learn to use our catalog to request material, operate a kindle, iPad, or other device, and answer questions about other services the library has to offer.

The Book Wagon initiative utilizes the talents of a National Honor Society (NHS) student volunteer, and fulfills requirements for an NHS Leadership Project.

For more details, please contact Susan Leto, Circulation Librarian, at 508-839-4649 ext. 2  or by email at sleto@cwmars.org.

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Access the Worcester Telegram and Gazette Online with Your Library Card

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Thanks to a regional newspapers access grant from the Massachusetts Library System, the Grafton Public Library now offers free access to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, online! Access at the library, or with your Library card from home, work or school at graftonlibrary.org/research, or direct at http://infoweb.newsbank.com/signin/GraftonPublicLibrary/WTLB.

This newspaper database has 24 years of searchable archives and includes current articles from the most current issue. Browse by issue, or search by keyword! All articles are full text; no graphics or photos are included.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the largest newspaper in Central Massachusetts, covers Worcester County, as well as surrounding areas of the western suburbs of Boston, Western Massachusetts and several towns in northeastern Connecticut.

Other local libraries are partners in the grant, and Grafton residents can also access the T&G in Auburn, Bellingham, Grafton, Holden, Hudson, Marlborough, Millbury, Shrewsbury, Southborough, Sutton, Westborough and West Boylston. The grant covers 75% of the cost in 2014, 50% in 2015, and the Library will budget for it in 2016 and beyond.

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