Have an Adventure at the Museum

Did you know that the library offers tickets and discounts to certain museums and landmarks all year round? With the Museum Adventure Pass you can take a trip to any of 17 places!

Air Classic Inc. Museum of Aviation

Arlington Heights Historical Museum

Bronzeville Children’s Museum

Brookfield Zoo

Cantigny Park

Chicago Botanic Garden

Elgin History Museum

Elgin Public Museum

Illinois Railway Museum

Lake County Discovery Museum

Legoland Discovery Center

Mitchell Museum of the American Indian

Naper Settlement

Oriental Institute Museum

Pleasant Home Foundation

St. Charles Heritage Museum

The Children’s Museum in Oak Lawn

You can find more information on the offers from each location by clicking on this LINK.

All you have to do is bring your library card to the youth department’s front desk and we can check out a pass to you!

(New Lenox Library card holders only. Check with your home library to see if they offer the passes. Only one pass can be checked out per family and you have one week to use it before it expires.)

 

Cinco de Mayo and CultureGrams

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I thought we could talk about a cultural database that the libary subscribes to and that you can get to through our Homework Help page.

CultureGrams has many different options on its homepage. You can go to the World, States, Provinces, or Kids Edition of the website. We will, of course, focus on the kid’s version.

 

Once you’ve clicked on the Kids Edition, it brings you to a map of the world. You can click on any continent and then any country. We’re going to check out the page for Mexico.

There is a ton you can do from here to research this culture. The main page gives you facts, a map, a flag, and even the country’s national anthem. On the boxes to the left, you can follow the links to see what life is like in the country you have chosen — both today and in the past. The column on the right supplies you with lots of tools you can use to figure our even more about the place you’re looking up.

CultureGrams is a great resource for school projects and just finding things out. Since yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, I hope you’ll use your library card to visit the CultureGrams website and learn a little about Mexico and the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla.

Poetry Zone

The Homework Help section of our website isn’t linking to the right place at the moment (we’ll work on fixing that), but Poetry Zone is a great place to read and share your ideas. April is National Poetry Month, after all.

At the Poetry Zone, you can read interviews from poets, check out some great poetry book for kids, and even submit your own poems!

If you need a little help rhyming words watch this video below for some hints from Roger Stevens.

Dazzling Databases!

There are so many dazzling databases at your fingertips when you visit our library. If you are a New Lenox Library card holder they are also at your fingertips at home! From dictionaries to newspaper articles there is endless information to find.

Our dazzling database of the day is Novelist K-8!

Have you ever forgot the name of a book but know the main characters name? Have you ever wished someone could give you a suggestion for a book to read based off of the books you already like? Well, Novelist K-8 is your new best friend!

You can search for books based on interests (like action, fantasy or classics) , age (teen, 9-12, 0-8) or simply browse the suggested books of the day.

You can also search by describing the book you are looking for. For example, if you cannot remember Clifford you can type in big, red dog and there it is! No more having to give up your search because you forgot the title of the book!

Click here to visit Novelist K-8. The link will take you to the New Lenox Library webpage and simply scroll down and click on Novelist K-8!

Grolier is Great

Although it’s great to be able to come to the library and look for books when you have a project that’s due, sometimes it’s just impossible. Just ask me (Miss Caitlin)! I was definitely a procrastinator when it came to book reports or science projects. That’s why it’s so great that the library subscribes to Online Databases!

When you need some information from a reliable source, the Database page on the New Lenox Library’s website can help cut your work in half! We make sure that the links on that page are full of reliable information.

Today, I’d like to talk about one of those Databases that can help with almost any question.
Grolier was one of the top producers of encyclopedias (which, in case you don’t know, are books with lots of facts in them that are organized alphabetically by topic).

Just like these! Also a great tool to use while you’re at the library!

Now, they have a kind of online encyclopedia that you can use if you subscribe to it.

Lucky for you, and for me, the New Lenox Library does! All YOU have to do to look up facts on almost any topic is go to our Homework Help page, look under the General Information section and find Grolier Online. Once you have clicked on the link, you’ll need to log in with your library card.

After that, search all you want! I particularly love the Interactive Maps (which can be found by clicking under the globe on the home page).

Next time you have some homework due, remember to check out the links on our Homework Help page. It’s really great!