Stuff for Kids

These green shamrock-shaped pancakes are perfect for a Saint Patrick's Day breakfast or lunch. Let the kids help you prepare this delicious meal.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons (plus more if needed )vegetable oil                        3/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour                                                        1 cup milk
2 tablespoons sugar                                                                   1 egg slightly beaten
2 teaspoons baking powder                                                       Green food coloring
                                                                                                 Syrup
     Preheat your griddle or skillet and grease it lightly with oil.  In a large bowl, have your child mix the flour, sugar, baking powder,and salt with a fork, then add the milk, egg, a few drops of food coloring, and 3 tablespoons of oil.  Have them stir the batter just until the dry ingredients are moistened.
     Pour the batter in the pan to make shamrock-shaped pancakes.  (For each pancake, pour 3 small  circles close enough to touch each other, but not so close that they run together into one indistinguishable shape.)
Turn each pancake when its top begins to bubble and cook the other side until it is golden brown.  Serve the pancakes with syrup.
     Enjoy!!!  Happy St. Patrick's Day

Help your child make a memory box where they can store their special momentos and childhood treasures.
You will need:
Cardboard box with lid
Magazines, photos, paint, markers, and /or stickers
Clear contact paper

Have your child decorate a cardboard box and its lid.  They can use real family photos or cut pictures from magazines.  They can even use markers to draw and use their favorite stickers.  If you want to preserve the box, they can use clear contact paper.  This is a fun activity and can be used when your child is ill and in bed, on rainy days, or when there's just "nothing to do."

Kids, are you looking for a great Valentine project that will also provide you with a new shirt to wear?  Look no further and read how to make this delicate, sweet, easy and quick Adoily-able T-shirt!!

This is what you need:

1. Newspaper
2. Glue stick
3. Fabric paint
4. Heart-shaped paper doilys
5. Styrofoam tray to put paint
6. Pre-washed T-shirt
7. Foam stencil brush

This is what you do:

1. Place a newspaper inside a pre-washed t-shirt so that the paint won't bleed through.
2. Coat the center of the back of a heart-shaped doily with glue stick.  This should be a thin layer.
3. Place the doily on the t-shirt with the sticky side down.
4. Pour some fabric paint in the Styrofoam tray.
5. Use the foam stencil brush to dab paint all over the lacy part of the doily.
6. Carefully peel the doily from the shirt and then let the paint dry.
7. Set the paint according to the directions on the fabric paint.

All you have left to do is wear your adoily-able t-shirt!!

You will need:
3 or more players
tiny heart stickers

1.  Have your child and her friends sit on the floor.
2.  Choose one child to be it and give that player a tiny heart sticker.
3.  Ask" it" to leave the room and hide the heart sticker somewhere on himself or herself, such as under a    shoe, behind the ear, or on the back of the elbow.
4.  When "it" returns to the room, have the other players try to guess where the heart sticker is hidden.
5.  Let the first player to guess correctly be the next "it", and give that child a new heart sticker to hide.

In a couple of weeks it will be February 14!  Yes, soon it will be Valentine's Day!!  Now is the time to start thinking about how you can let friends and family know how much you care about them.  This book, Crafts for Valentine's Day by Kathy Ross if filled with ideas of fun-filled crafts that you can make with just a few low cost items.

One of my favorite craft ideas in this book is on pages 42-43.  Here you will find instructions on how to make a Heart Photo Locket.  Make your Mom a surprise locket.  The surprise is a picture of you!

Here is what you need:

• two pry-off bottle caps
• red and pink felt scraps
• red yarn
• red nail polish
• a picture of your face small enough to fit inside a bottle cap
• white glue
• scissors
• Styrofoam tray to work on

Here is what you do:

1. Paint both sides of both bottle caps with red nail polish.  Let the polish dry completely before continuing.
2. Cut a small strip of red felt.  Glue one end inside each cap to form a hinge that will allow the caps to close to form a locket.
3. Glue a circle of red felt inside one cap and a picture of you, cut to fit, inside the other cap.  Close the locket and glue a tiny heart cut from pink felt to the outside.
4. When the glue has dried, tie a piece of red yarn around the hinge of the locket.  Then tie the two ends together to form a necklace.  

When someone asks your Mom who made her pretty necklace, she can open it up and show them.

This book can be found in the Juvenile Non-Fiction section of the Bartlesville Public Library.  Check it out!!
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Groundhog Day stems from an American legend started in Pennsylvania Germans.  The tradition says that if the groundhog sees its shadow when it emerges from its burrow on Feb.  2nd , it will be frightened and crawl back into its hole, and winter weather will continue for six more weeks.  If the day is cloudy and the groundhog doesn't see its shadow, winter is supposed to end soon.
Have a little fun to celebrate this day.  Let your child make their own burrow to play in.  You can cover a card table with a blanket or use a cardboard box.  A flashlight can be used to make a shadow!  Fun times.

The Fight for Human Rights

In 1983 the U.S. government declared January 15, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, a national holiday.  This year this day will be honored on January 16 because the 15th falls on a Sunday.  As this day approaches, I hope we all spend some time remembering Martin Luther King and his courageous fight for human rights.

One way to remember him and refresh your memory on what this man accomplished is by reading some books about him found at the Bartlesville Public Library.  This book, Martin Luther King, is found in the Juvenile Non-Fiction Biography section of the BPL and is an inspiring book both to read and look at.

This biography goes into detail about his life and how he worked to change the way black people were treated unfairly.  He greatly desired equal rights for black Americans.  But he was not only concerned about the black people, he desired for all people to live together in peace.  Martin considered himself a citizen of the world and he cared for all people.  He often spoke out against violence wherever it occurred, and nothing he believed was more violent than an unfair war.

By reading this book, you will not only learn of the life of Martin Luther King; but you will be inspired by the wonderful folk art paintings by Malcah Zeldis, who is an internationally known folk artist.  Rosemary L. Bray is the author and did an outstanding job of portraying his life with fact-filled text. 

This book is now on display in the center of the BPL along with other books about Martin Luther King.  Let's honor the life of this man by reading some of these awesome books!!

Happy New Year to all our patrons.  We hope you have a wonderful year in 2012!  We will be closed December 31st-Jan. 2nd.

Want to do something fun with the kids on the Christmas break?  Here is a simple cooking experience.
                                                        Banana Christmas Candle
4 lettuce leaves
2 bananas
4 slices canned pineapple
4 red maraschino cherry halves

Place the lettuce leaves on four salad plates.  Put a pineapple slice in the center of each lettuce leaf.  Peel the bananas, and cut them in half.  Stand the flat end of each banana in the middle of each pineapple slice for the candle.  Cut off the tip of the banana, and place a cherry half on top for the flame.  Serves 4.