WPK Firehouse

Happy Origami tree!

2011-12-20T14:14:00.003-05:00

Thank you to Rod Nice, of the Origami Squadron! and to everyone who participated and made the ornaments for our origami tree. Origami on trees, and goodwill to all.

Best Hallowe'en ever!

2011-11-02T10:05:00.002-04:00

A very brief explanation of photosynthesis

2011-10-14T17:09:00.001-04:00

A very very brief moment in the life of a plant
as enacted by Starlyn.

Proper Gentlemen's Newspaper Club

2011-10-06T14:14:00.001-04:00

What is the Proper Gentlemen's Newspaper Club? Who are they?

They pull their chairs up close to the circulation desk.
Newspapers cover their faces. But polite? Certainly.
They're not in the way; they never speak.
They don't check out books or movies.
We hope they'll introduce themselves one day.

Clown- librarian; librarian-clown. A librarian's misadventure.

2011-09-22T18:12:00.000-04:00

Part 2 in our series of short movies about libraries and librarians. Plot: a librarian appears on the late night talk show, "Talkin' 'Bout Books With Policeman Bob."

Cake report

2011-09-21T11:47:00.007-04:00

If you had been wondering what happened with the cake and electronic and experimental music event, we did document the cake. Here you go: the image is of a dentist with a dental tool in his hand. The patient has his mouth open, and the caption reads "Cake: the dentist's friend." For good measure, we had the cake decorators add "I love the library."

The music was a total hit with us and our neighbors, and we hope to do a whole bunch of outdoor music next spring. Thanks to the awesome musician friends who did it for the library!

See you soon! And don't forget the math part from the other post: math homework help is up and running.

A short library drama

2011-09-13T14:35:00.002-04:00

We hope you enjoy this short yet extremely moving human library movie. Plot: a chance meeting on a street corner leads to library drama.

Cake! and Pizza! Chess club! Music! Math!

2011-09-07T17:02:00.004-04:00

Cake! Cale alone is very exciting for us, but when you add in pizza, chess club, and 3 music performances in one go, the excitement may be too much and the ship may sink. This Thursday! at 5:30, come one, come all!

So how is math homework going? Everyone forgot almost everything about math over the summer, but it's all coming back to us. Washington Park Library is the math homework capitol of Rhode Island, so come on in with your math. Even our security guard, Julio, is fond of math. Our goal is for everyone to do their math homework every day. We may have to hold a math contest by the end of the year. Plus, we've added a lot of math books that you can check out of the library and take home. If you don't have a textbook, and just have a worksheet, you definitely should think about checking out a math book that has some examples and an explanation of the kind of math problem you're working on.

It's hard to know which is better: math? cake? pizza? Math will help you more in the long run, but pizza definitely tastes much, much, better.

What's up this fall?

2011-08-24T10:27:00.012-04:00

Welcome back to school, and back to the library to all our neighborhood students who've been away. What's up this fall? Homework help every day after school, both in English and Spanish. And our regulars know we are all about helping with math, writing, science fair, and all kinds of school projects and papers.

We have some completely great after-school activities coming up too- our ongoing learn-to-draw-and-write Comics class, for one- here's a couple of comics kids did.
The Comics Consortium (that's the group of all the artists who participate) has an anthology coming out, put together by awesome instructors / artists Walker Mettling and Andrew Oesch. This will be both the kids' work and work by other artists inspired by their work.
We're adding Cyberkids, super fun computer classes for upper elementary kids, and maybe a hip hop / creative writing/ poetry class. We definitely will have a photography project too.
Chess club has changed to 5:30pm every Thursday with Sam still coaching. And Fridays are still super excellent movie and game day, with great movies that are kid friendly. If you want to see a particular movie, talk to Lyndsy and Sara.
See you soon!

The Professor!

2011-04-26T14:37:00.001-04:00

Who is the mysterious Professor?

He was a 14" tall hollow chocolate bunny; oddly he was holding a book and had been given the name "The Professor." No one knows why. We acquired him from the Family Dollar Store about a month before Easter.
No one could stand the waiting before eating him... almost daily, Sean asked: "When will we eat the Professor?"
Finally on Friday the 22nd, we did the deed.

Fire on O'Connor Street

2011-04-25T10:08:00.001-04:00

Late late late last Thursday night, the 21st, the house on the corner of Jillson and O'Connor Streets burned down- right behind our library. Fortunately everyone got out quickly and everyone's OK. Most amazingly, the demolition started almost immediately on Friday morning- right after the fire marshal came, at about 11:00 am.

And by Saturday afternoon, there was only a vacant lot.

It's National Poetry Month, Fool!

2011-04-21T19:44:00.001-04:00

It's National Poetry Month, and we had the great good luck to be visited by the following members of Ocean State Poets: Margie Flanders, Larry Krips, and Lynnie Gobeille. A couple of our own library users read as well: Sam LaFortune, and Asia Perry. Some audience members also took turns reading poems by our visiting poets, and a couple of us just read our favorite poems.
Below, Sam LaFortune reading from his phone. And below that, our visiting poets.

Domino Club and Telekinesis

2011-03-03T17:34:00.002-05:00

Below, you can see the physical evidence of a strange new WPK phenomenon which we call "dominoes and telekinesis." Domino club, which is a bit of an unfixed floating club, but formally meets Wednesday at 4pm, is a huge hit and the level of concentration and competition is unparalleled in WPK's history.
In order to gain that extra advantage, some players appear to have begun using telekinesis with spectator partners feeding them the tiles in the other players' hands. Or, at least that's what we think they're doing. Or might be doing, or something. You be the judge.

Incidents in the life of sugar addicts

2011-02-23T16:15:00.001-05:00

One rather alarming moment in the life of sugar addicts appears below. Because you can't eat in the library, kids often end up in the front foyer having a snack when the weather is cold. Our desk is separated from the foyer by only a large pane of glass, which gave us the opportunity to catch Branden eating a lollipop while holding the giant chocolate rabbit from which Starlyn had rather cruelly bitten the ears off. That's Starlyn on the right, giving it two thumbs up.

Onward with pictures of sugar overindulgence. Below, left to right, Brianna, our homework helper from Johnson and Wales, Yisel, and Brenlee, in the middle of our Valentine cookie decorating party, which involved 3 tubs of icing. This isn't the picture in which Yisel looks alarmingly sick.

Valentine head, valentine tree

2011-02-07T11:49:00.003-05:00

A visit from Valentinehead, possibly an escaped cartoon or comics character who leaked out from the TV? Milly N in background: not scared of valentine head exactly, but half amused and half wary.
Closely followed by the images below of our valentine tree, and an awesome closeup of the decorations.

WPK party central for valentine's day!

2011-01-20T19:39:00.000-05:00

the VIDEO GAMES are coming!!! the video games are coming!!!!

2011-01-07T13:39:00.002-05:00

the VIDEO GAMES are coming!!!

the VIDEO GAMES are coming!!!
the VIDEO GAMES are coming!!!
the VIDEO GAMES are coming!!!
It's almost too exciting to say much more- but soon, people of Washington Park, the video games will be on the shelf!

WPK Library is adding about 30 video games and if things go well, we will keep adding them. Once we have them, they will go out for one week, with overdue fines of 25¢ a day. Like our DVDs, you won't be able to renew them.

So... our first purchase went like this. Sir Tim of Gamestop (I call him that, but I'm guessing other people call him Tim) put together a package of games from lists different kids had made, according to our budget. We decided to only buy games rated Everyone through Teen so that pretty much everyone who wants these games can play all of them at a good comfort level.

We will not reveal the full list of games here and now, but I will say that someone named Mario appears more than once.

It's snowing!

2010-12-22T17:49:00.003-05:00

It's snowing and we've got our holiday spirit going on-
check it out!

Silvio, our Foster Grandparent,
with Santa!

The all silver tree!

Leilani, with Santa!

Julio, our security guard, with Santa!?!

Brenlee and her
close personal friend, Santa!

3D at WPK

2010-12-09T14:18:00.002-05:00

Sometimes, after school on a not very beautiful afternoon, there's nothing much better than sharing some 3D glasses and a movie at the library.

Non-Violence

2010-11-15T21:00:00.002-05:00

Many people will speak about non-violence. I think that very few people explain it, if you're just used to more violent thinking. The fact is: you, yourself, don't have to be part of that.
On the left: Malcolm X. He struggled personally, and went through early life as a petty thief, and through a period of deep anger when he worked to secure equal rights for black americans during the violence of the American civil rights era. As he engaged in the struggle for black rights, he became a person who worked to define those rights, and he made a deeply felt commitment to achieving change through non-violent actions.
It would be fair to say that as Malcolm X travelled widely, and spoke to more people from more cultures who had increasingly wider ideas, Malcolm became increasingly inclined towards peace. Unfortunately Malcolm's life was cut short, as was Doctor King's. Let's all take a moment to think on what the ideas of peace and non-violence mean.

Dr. Spock wants you to join Chess Club

2010-11-10T11:56:00.006-05:00

Chess Club is back, every Thursday afternoon from 4-5:30 pm. ( But not this week; we're closed in honor of Veterans Day.) The usual suspects will be coaching: Sam L and Jorge B, and also continuing their ongoing grudge match.
Nuno and Starlyn are willing to instruct beginners. Join us next Thursday, November 18th, when we will celebrate Chess Club with pizza, which makes everything great.

Upcoming: a visit from Jeff Knight, the inventor of Plunder Chess, who'll show us an awesome variation of chess, described below:

"Imagine what would happen in a game of chess, if your chessmen could acquire additional moving capabilities as they played? What if your queen could move as a queen or a knight and your pawn could move as a pawn or a bishop? How about escaping check by letting your king move as a rook?"

All ages and skill levels are welcome- come to play, learn to play, or come to watch. We'll see you then!

Comics Consortium!

2010-10-22T10:24:00.001-04:00

Hey! Picture of Walker Mettling with his students in the Comics Consortium, at Washington Park Library below. And in the spirit of comics, colored for your viewing pleasure.Some of the characters students in the Consortium have created include Monster Arms, who loves fake noses; Queeny, who can freeze you, wants chocolate, and fears lions; Sharp Tooth, who wants to save people and still fight- his enemy is Chinman; and Fat Chicken, who wants money and has the enemy of Skinny Chicken.
So stay tuned, for these adventures and more!

Comics comics comics!

2010-10-04T11:40:00.003-04:00

Washington Park Library is very excited to be offering this Learn To Draw Comics! program. We'd like to thank the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts for making this possible.
What makes comics so exciting, anyway? And not just the characters - Spiderman! or Ironman! or the Hulk!
ALTHOUGH they're admittedly very exciting- but it's all about the visual PUNCH*%#!!! of the artwork.
It's not just DC and Marvel -check out Golden Age Comics to see some of the forgotten series and superheroes, and other publishers: Fawcett Comics, Avon Comics, Harvey Comics and many many others - and superheroes and other protagonists such as Zaza the Mystic, Nature Boy, Bob Colt, Mary Marvel, Airboy, and the Blue Beetle.
Ask at your neighborhood library to sign up for this class- Washington Park, Olneyville, Wanskuck, Knight Memorial, and Rochambeau are all offering this beginning next week! Spaces are for kids and teens ages only- and space is limited! Call today!

Congratulations to Providence Community Library - us!

2010-09-20T22:10:00.002-04:00

Washington Park Library, home of some of the best library users on the planet, is celebrating our first formal year as part of Providence Community Library. Our organization just filed our first annual report, and in the lovely Aldermen's Chamber at City Hall - which is worth a visit just to see Bob Dodge's immaculate restoration work.
Washington Park Library used to be a branch of Providence Public Library, but when PPL was about to close 5 branches, concerned citizens stopped it, and several of those citizens went on to become our current board members. To find out more about Providence Community Library, visit our website, or read the Providence Journal articles about our growth as an organization.
So Washington Park Library would like to thank the people who fought to keep us and all of our neighborhood libraries open:
Ellen Schwartz and Patricia Raub, Karen MacAninch, Marcus Mitchell and Linda Kushner, Mark McKenney, Mayor Ciccilline, and every staff member, and many many other people - but no one wants to read a really long list. So most of all, thank you to everyone who uses our libraries, and to all of our neighbors and community partner organizations.

Back To School with Spongebob!

2010-09-13T19:08:00.003-04:00

Kids, parents and television:

Parents rightly have varying attitudes towards kids and television. When I was a kid, TV was either family time, or a last resort.

The fact is that your kid is constantly exposed to television advertising and merchandising at school, even if s/he isn't that interested. And even in elementary school, this can define popularity aka coolness.

Fight back!

Your kid can still watch less TV, but be tuned in. Here's a partial list of TV shows that come from good books, or have good associated books:

The Max and Ruby series- Rosemary Wells. Wells' Max and Ruby books are usually very good for preK and K-1- but she also has the Edward the Unready series, the Felix series, the Yoko series, and more titles. If your kid talks about Max and Ruby, this is a great chance to introduce other, more advanced picture books Wells has written and illustrated.

Spongebob- a universal icon of ridiculous fun: introducing Spongebob easy readers and early chapter books can get elementary school boys who "don't like reading" to get interested. With kids who don't like reading, if reading is a family time, they might be more motivated. Get out the popcorn and get out the books, for everyone, adults and kids. For truly reluctant readers, try the Spongebob graphic novels for elementary school kids.

Olivia- Ian Falconer.

Curious George- HA Rey.

With both Falconer and Rey, the original work is much better illustration, and a parent might notice that. But as long as your kids are reading with enthusiasm, remember that kids are less visually acute than adults. Just introduce them to the originals, and let them know that you like the original author / illustrator's work best, and why. And that's a great start on a great visual education.

Dora y Diego

Providence has a huge Hispanic population, and the demand for books about Dora and Diego is so high they're hard to keep on the shelves. Both TV shows focus on the environment and animal life, which is a great opportunity to check out the non-fiction areas at your library. If your kid wants to know more about animals, environments / biomes, and natural history, your neighborhood library has got those books!

Happy reading!

Homework- who, where, why, when ... what?

2010-09-07T21:31:00.006-04:00

courtesy: FOUND Magazine

Homework: kids, you know you have to!
The US Department of Education has a great downloadable PDF called "Helping Your Child With Homework." This is a 23 page booklet, that walks parents through everything they can do to give their kids the right space, tools, and encouragement to do homework without pressure and with less confusion. This is also a great tool for parents who want to talk to their kids about why homework matters, because it uses really reasonable, logical language to talk about how doing homework helps kids do better in school and enjoy school more.
For homework help on a walk-in basis, call any of the 9 neighborhood libraries that are Providence Community Library during any of our open hours. We'll tell you when we have tutors on site, and we can also answer some questions right over the phone, or send you an e-mail link. And ask our librarians if there are any neighborhood resources- there usually are!
In Rhode Island, we've got Homework Help through AskRI.org. Our librarians will usually recommend this for high school kids and some middle school kids, because it's online, but if you work with a younger kid to use the encyclopedia and kid-friendly databases, it's a great learning opportunity.
Parents should also check out VIPS, Volunteers in Public Schools- they're changing their name to Inspiring Minds, and still offering free after-school and Saturday tutoring. VIPS also can connecting parents with resources for their kids both in and out of school. Parents can call 401274.3240.
The Learning Coach is a newer name, offering free after-school tutoring and free transportation. Interested parents should call 401 272. 2037.
Stay tuned!

Keeping Healthy For School

2010-08-31T16:25:00.004-04:00

Washington Park Library wishes every one a great school year!
Click for a downloadable flyer for parents about ways your children can stay healthy:
healthy sleep, nutrition, and a few safety reminders.

Back to School, part 2!

2010-08-30T11:12:00.010-04:00

Parents!
One great way to get your kids ready for school is to make sure they're eating healthy meals that will give them energy for school. The Meals Matter website has meal planners, recipes, and nutrition information. And try BAM! Body and Mind , a very flashy, fun looking web site where kids can learn about fitness, food and nutrition, exercise, and safety by taking a quiz or playing a game.

To make school fun, incorporate learning into kids' game time. I love math, but math is NOT the most popular subject in school for most kids, so introduce them to math games and play with them. The American Library Association has a whole list of kid-friendly math sites. And check out Danica McKellar's very fun how-to math books for kids and adults. Not every parent will love this style of teaching math, but chances are their kids will.

And also look for How To Help Your Kids With Math, published by Dorling Kindersley, which we're adding to our collection right now.

See you next time!

Go Back To School with WPK Library!

2010-08-25T20:19:00.008-04:00

WPK Library slogan of the month: back to school!

For kids and teens:

First, we have a whole batch of brand new books for guys who don't usually like to read. We've been getting more Scholastic books so if you see it at the school book fair, we can probably get it for you. We constantly have great books for teens- ask Sara, Lyndsy, or Lanham what we think you might like.

For adults:

We have a whole lot of nueves libros bilingues en Espanol / Ingles and will be adding livres en Francais. (Aussi, L'Alliance Française de Providence, a 928 Smith Street, 401 272-6243, a commencé une bibliothèque nouvelle de la langue française, et offre un grand nombre de classes.)

We have a lot of new resources for adult students and test-takers. We also have new Triple Crown and Strebor books, y estamos comenzado un club de lecturas en espanol! Check in por mas informaciones con Carolina Briones - llamada a Washington Park Library, 781.3136.

What's new this fall?

The Sketchbook Project: anyone who likes to draw will get a sketchbook and can use our drawing materials. They'll keep the sketchbook behind the desk with Lyndsy and Sara when they're not using it. Then, when we celebrate Youth Art Month, we'll have a party and invite people to come check out our drawings.

Teen Book Club- hey, we're just starting and we didn't like our first book, but Tanisha chose "To Kill A Mockingbird" as our next book, and after we read it, we'll watch the incredibly good film version.

We're going to restart Homework Help, and Jackie should be back. Julio, WPK's security guard, is looking forward to coming back too. Chess Club is starting back up with a visit from the guy who invented Plunder Chess, and Sam and Jorge should be on board. Math Table will definitely start up again.

See you then!

Party! Oh yeah.. pizza, cheese doodle things, movies, and a room full of books!

2010-08-19T00:38:00.005-04:00

Props to Tanisha, Ibrahim and Angel for inspiring WPK staff during our summer reading program and out reading everyone except alien interplanetary readers!

Thanks to all our new families who joined us this summer, and to the Perez / Lugo family, and the Nunezes, except we missed them when they were at camp over and over.

And it's completely awesome to read in the bathtub, but don't fall in.

Thanks to TaRronce and Alex for most excellent snack selection, and shopping cart assistance.

And most special thanks to Cheryl Space, Tech Services, Richard at OSL, and Providence Public School Department.

- from everyone at WPK Library

Saturn

2010-08-02T10:46:00.004-04:00

Saturn

Saturn your rings are so bright
that they shine almost as bright as light.
Your colorful rings glisten in the dark
like the rainbow above Noah's Ark.
Your spectacular shape makes me think
of a person's head but not an egg.
Your rotate as if you're trying to get dizzy
but in your mind you're just being very busy.
You even revolve around the sun,
but when you're far way I don't think
it's that much fun.
If you went faster
in your rotation
there'd be a big disaster
You make our planets nine
which makes our solar system look very fine.

- Muktar S.

the WPK Flood of 7.14.2010

2010-07-14T16:31:00.008-04:00

Who Picked This Book? Book CLUB!!!!

2010-07-13T20:31:00.006-04:00

Our friend Taneasha suggested this book and she is so completely right. Taneasha is at Brown summer school, which makes her crazy with homework, but is so worth it.

This is truly a great book, because Sherman Alexie, who knows a lot about American Indian reservation life, and is a good poet and short story writer, tells a story that is a triumph for any kid who ever felt like if you were playing dodgeball, the dodgeball would hit you in the head. Which, didn't happen to me, but it was like that.

So that's our "Who Picked This Book Club?" book. Check in soon for our other recommendations.

Congratulations PCL!

2010-07-08T12:23:00.015-04:00

Washington Park celebrated Providence Community
Library's very successful 1st year
with cake, and compliment eggs.
A compliment egg is a left-over plastic easter egg
which has been stuffed with a compliment such as
"You're really smart!" or "I love your shoes" or
"The Incredible Hulk is scared of you."

Below, Bob Medeiros from our friends group
does the honors with the cake. And Lyndsy
and John model commemorative Sears-Roebuck-catalog-like
his-and-hers attire.

Summer Reading Isn't Killing Me!

2010-06-30T14:28:00.010-04:00

Summer Reading! What even is it and who does it?
Everybody, including my cat Petunia, should read every summer, because: it's too sweaty to jump rope or lift weights, TV is boring after a while, and also it gives kids a huge giant edge when they go back to school. Studies consistently show that kids who read over the summer are more ready for school and are likely to perform better in school in the coming year.
Parents should know that Providence Schools have a summer reading list for all grades. Your public librarian can show you what your child needs to read over the summer to be ready for school in the fall. High school kids should be doing summer reading too.
But will summer reading be boring??? No, the book lists have a lot of choices, including some really popular fun books, and anyone can find a great story on their summer reading list. Also- at WPK Library- you get a prize at the end of the year- at our party August 19th!!!
So come in to our library and get started! Sign-up has already started, and we've got book clubs and story hours coming up too!
For parents: click on this link to get more information about how parents can help kids become great readers.

Meet the WPK Library workers

2010-06-03T12:18:00.010-04:00

There is a cool library called WPK Library. There are 3 librarians, Sara, Lyndsy and Lanham. They are the best 3 librarians I’ve ever known. They have the best activities ever and cool ideas and they rock. Do you think this is the best library? Come and see and explore the coolest library ever. Come and ask for books. I think that books are good for kids and education because that helps them read better and know their vocabulary and makes kids smarter. Kids should spend more time on reading and doing their homework because that makes them smarter and more educated to learn outside of school and inside of school.
Sara works and she is one of the employees of Washington Park Library, she stays in front of the desk and takes care of the customers. Sara has a dog named Tobey. She wears glasses. She loves dogs because she thinks that dogs are cool and adorable. She drinks water from a pickle jar because she respects recycling and likes to reuse things. She plays the accordion.
Lyndsy is funny she is also one of the employees. She helps on social studies and Lyndsy is the sauté station. She likes to help at many things because she is interested in them and she thinks they’re cool. She likes to read and watch movies and hang out with her cat. She also likes to garden a lot and she likes to decorate her house.

Lanham is a cool librarian and the head chef of the library. Lanham has a cool personality she is nice and cool and she is good at math and loves math. She rocks. She also wears glasses too. She also likes to read a lot and loves her job. She has 1 bird in her house plus her cat and she likes animals too. She thinks they’re awesome and cool. She has been working for WPK library for 3 years.
Julio is our security guard here. Before he worked for security, he worked for a company named American Power. He has a dog named Bianca and he has two kids named Michael and Joanne. He loves working at the Washington Park library as a security guard.
WPK Library has been here for 50 years. In 2006 the library closed and re-opened on March 22, 2009.I can’t believe this library is still here today. Before it was a library it was a fire station. My whole family is famous at the library because we come here every day to go on the computers, read books and chill with the librarians.

reported by Jesus N

2010-05-13T21:53:00.003-04:00

What's up at Poetry club?

This week, we looked at poetry by Gary Soto which talks about his neighborhood. We started by choosing a favorite place and drawing it so we'd be ready to describe it in our poems.

We talked about how you choose your favorite place and how you visualize it, as well as what form the poem might take. We're not done yet, so we'll post them next week.

Last week, at WPK's birthday party, we gave our friends and neighbors our first book of poems, which were about our library. We'll work on getting those posted, too.

300 Cupcakes and Why They Lead To Math

2010-05-04T19:45:00.011-04:00

It's shocking but true!!!

Washington Park Library will be hosting the

one-time only 300 Cupcake Event! Will they be beautiful and delicious? Yes. Will poetry or stories be read while others have their mouths full of cupcake? Yes. And who is making and giving us beautiful cupcakes because they can? The fabulous people of Johnson and Wales! Thank you, beautiful bakers!

Here is what's still unknown: what do 300 cupcakes look like?

Because Muktar was working on mixed fractions, which meant we had to talk about math, we started talking about how you can check your math homework by estimating whether your answer was right. And at the same time I was so thinking about our cupcake future. So let's estimate with cupcakes and start looking at estimation.

Start with one beautiful cupcake- then imagine 2- then imagine rows of 2 by 2 by 2 by 2 by 2, rows that are 8 cupcakes across.

Then, imagine you've got those rows that have 8 across, and they're 4 of them. If you can picture the way that looks, that's 8 times 4, which is 32. Now you need almost 10 of that amount, because 10 times 32 is 320. So get rid of some rows, because your estimate is too high. But you're in the zone.

Check out the book Greater Estimations, by Bruce Goldstone- someone from ASF Broad has it right now, but it has pictures that completely explain how to use visual ideas to estimate.

ASF Broad Elementary School: Science Fair! The Slideshow!

2010-04-20T17:17:00.006-04:00

The ASF Broad Street Elementary School Science Fair was absolutely the best science fair ever. Some of our favorites included "Magnetic Money," "Penny Sauce," and "Does Dish Detergent Affect Plant Growth?"

Why Magnetic Money? It turns out there is magnetic ink involved in money. We were surprised to learn about this because a lot of people thought there were magnetic strips in the paper.

Penny Sauce: what will take the tarnish off pennies? Can hot sauce do it, and if so, which hot sauce ingredients will do this? These scientists did an excellent job of isolating the ingredients one by one to see if an individual agent would clean copper, or if it required a combination of ingredients to clean copper. The combination of tomato and salt won.

Will Dish Detergent Affect Plant Growth? Yes. Do not put soap on your plants unless it is in a mild solution to kill bad bugs.

Lyndsy, Sara, and Lanham enjoyed the ASF Broad Science Fair more than they imagined possible. Thank you to everyone at ASF Broad Elementary- students, teachers, and guest scientist judges!

Dawn Dish Detergent - the Scandal.

2010-04-14T21:24:00.001-04:00

In investigating what happens to plants when you put dish detergent into their water, Jesus N and Lanham tried to find the ingredients for Dawn dish detergent. We found that if you go on the Dawn website, they say that every batch is different, then, they tell you to go to the website for Soap and Detergent Association and find out what is usually in a dish detergent.

Then we looked at that and it did not tell us anything helpful. Next we looked at the Material Data and Handling Sheet. It is true, we think, that Dawn has ingredients that are not safe.

Jesus and Richard, his science fair partner, took photographs of what happened to Plant A, which got only water, and Plant B, which got water mixed with Dawn. Plant B started leaning over, and started dying, and turned pink. Richard and Jesus' photographs of this will be at the ASF Broad Elementary School Science Fair tomorrow.

reported by Jesus N and Lanham

Science Fair FEVER

2010-04-12T20:34:00.000-04:00

What can we expect at the upcoming Alan Shawn Feinstein Broad Street Elementary School Science Fair? Here's a photo from a science fair in Iowa, with everyone's privacy shielded. Unfortunately, everybody looks like a blockhead.

Our science fair at ASF Broad St Elementary is also an experiment, because it is the first time this school has had a science fair. The teachers for our 4th and 5th graders are working to make sure every student who participates will have a very clean organized presentation, with the title, hypothesis, problem, method, and findings (conclusion) clearly set out on a trifold board.

Some scientists will have photographs. Some will make use of graphs. Some scientists will find out that their project will prove what they set out to prove when they wrote their hypothesis. But some scientists, like Brenlee N, will have their hypothesis go CRAZZZY.

Brenlee and her partner put one plant in sunlight for 5 days, and one in a closet for 5 days. Neither plant got any water. While we know sunlight is like food for plants, it turns out the plant in the closet grew a lot and the one in the sunlight just sat there. Tomorrow we will look at how this could happen.

WPK Science Fair news!!!!!

2010-04-06T20:43:00.001-04:00

As promised, here's the update on Danny and Damien's investigation into temperature and mass, which they're studying for the 4th to 5th grade Science Fair at ASF Broad Street Elementary, on Broad Street.

Danny and Damien used a simple set-up involving water, a baby food jar, a straw, clay, food coloring, and a freezer. They had read enough to think that water would expand when it was frozen. When they did the experiment, they could clearly see it happen, because the food coloring made everything blue and easy to see. What they found out was that the molecules behave differently at different temperatures. Danny and Damien wrote that water molecules aren't like flat boxes, and that water molecules stack up more flexibly and use less space when the molecules are warm. Then, when the same molecules are frozen, they get stiff, or rigid. That means the molecules can't fold themselves into smaller spaces, so they end up taking up more room.

This is a true and excellent job of describing the situation by Danny and Damien.

Next up: what happens to plants when you put dish detergent in their water?

Wisdom deliveries now available

2010-04-06T17:51:00.000-04:00

We were pleasantly surprised to find out that wisdom deliveries were possible in the 02905 zip code.

The Historic Bench Fire of 2010

2010-03-26T13:30:00.000-04:00

above: dramatic photoshop recreation of bench fire

It was a very good sunny day at WPK Library. 2 old guys were
sitting on one of the WPK benches. The other guy was smoking
a cigarette and he was almost finished with his cigarette. Then,
he thought he was finished with his cigarette. He threw the
cigarette to the side of the bench into a big pile of dried leaves
boom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The fire started! Stephanie burst into
the library and yelled "The bench is on fire!" She said "How could
that bench get on fire?"
The librarians Sara and Lanham were running in and out of the
library with buckets of water trying to put out the fire. Lyndsy
couldn't because she had to watch the people- if not, people could
just burst behind the desk.
5 minutes later the firefighters came and dragged the hose to the
bench. One of them had an axe in his hand. He wasn't hitting the
bench but he was ready to.
The crowd was gathering around: Jesus, Sara, Lanham and the kids
were looking at the fire being put out.
That was the Great Bench Fire of 2010, it was cool!!!!!!!

reported by Jesus N

Historic first chess club meeting

2010-03-26T13:02:00.001-04:00

Breaking news from WPK library!

2010-03-25T22:01:00.000-04:00

Breaking news!

Sam and Jorge B caught in unbearable chess staredown at chess club tonight.

Ace reporter Jesus N is refining his startling investigation into the Great Bench Fire of 2010. Jesus is also working on a biography of the library staff.

Bergina in on vacation from Wheeler School and prepping our new Bedtime Stories section for the parenting collection. She'll definitely be playing softball this year.

Stephanie, who attends Cooley Health and Sciences, is getting ready to run her first art class at WPK. She's going to introduce pastels as the first medium.

Leilani has a new beagle puppy.

Upcoming Science Fair at Alan Shawn Feinstein Broad Street Elementary School

Danny and Damian are leading the pack in their investigation into how water changes when it's frozen. Their investigation is well organized and their scientific method is thoroughly discussed in the first draft of their question, method and hypothesis. Watch this page to find out exactly what happens to water molecules when they freeze.

New Playground coming to WPK Community Center

Nuno and Jesus attended the open kids' meeting at WPKCC to give input on the design for the new playground going in on June at our community center. We'll post the date when the community comes together to build it. Call Fran at the Washington Park Community Center for more details.

Library workers news

Lanham has some art in the library fundraiser and also has not been cleaning her house enough. Jackie went home early this week to go pick up her family's new puppy Milo.