Museum Passes

 Use your library card to check out local museum passes!

Do you qualify?

·         Do you live in the city limits of McMinnville?

·         Do you have a McMinnville Library card?

·         Are your fines less than $5.00?

YES to all three and you qualify!

Make a reservation in person or call the children’s desk at (503) 435-5559 to reserve your pass.

Passes are good for 24-hours.

Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville website

2 passes available

Each pass qualifies one free entry for two people. Children 4 and under are free.

A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village (Children’s Museum) in Salem website

1 pass available

Qualifies 2 parents and up to 5 kids

Yamhill Valley Heritage Center in McMinnville website

No pass needed, donations accepted for admission.
We're always looking up tractor books for kids so we know that the fascination exists. How cool to see big tractors and farm machines in person?
 Open Saturdays 10 –3 

What's the Word? Resolve

We read Pickle Impossible by Eli Stutz, published in 2010. In chapter four, "The Wet Prisoner," we came across a new word, resolved.

I resolved to go to sleep right then and there and to forget about the whole thing.

to resolve: to make a definite and serious decision to do something

More words that we encountered: hovel,wily,  inscription, gingerly, commotion
Continue reading and build your vocabulary! Check it out!

Research shows that reading 20 minutes a day expands one’s vocabulary. Every week we’ll point out a word that we’ve discovered in our books.

We used http://www.merriam-webster.com to provide this definition.

What's The Word? Dejected

We found the word dejected in Charlotte's Web by E.B.White in chapter 4.

Friendless, dejected, and hungry, he threw himself down in the manure and sobbed.

dejected: cast down in spirits; depressed

This book is full of so many more vocabulary words: injustice, holler, cellar, eaves, trough. We highly recommend reading it with your children! 

Research shows that reading 20 minutes a day expands one’s vocabulary. Every week we’ll point out a word that we’ve discovered in our books.

We used http://www.merriam-webster.com to provide this definition.

What's the Word?

"Amy and Dan moved quickly through the train, adapting their gait to the gentle swaying motion."Page18 A King’s Ransom, Cahills vs. Vespers The 39 Clues by Jude Watson.

Gait: : a particular way of walking

        :a manner or rate of movement or progress

How to use it on your own: 

• I knew all those girls ahead of me must be BFFs because their gait was so in sync.
• Charlie pulled strongly on the leash, nearly knocking me down. Apparently my gait was too slow for him.

Research says that reading 20 minutes every day increases one's vocabulary.

Every week we’ll point out a word that we’ve discovered in our books.

We used http://www.merriam-webster.com to provide the definition.

Singing

 

Singing is an easy and enriching activity to do with your children.

Some of the best ways to make singing natural is to make up songs to familiar tunes. Frere Jaques, Farmer in the Dell, I'm a Little Teapot.

I hardly remember the French version of Frere Jaques but instead always think of  "Where is Thumbkin?"

Frere Jaques/Where is Thumbkin

  Where are mommy's keys?

  Where are mommy's keys?

  They should be in her purse!

  They should be in her purse!

  Have you been playing with them?

  Have you been playing with them?

  Where are my keys?

  Where are my keys?

 

Or the more appropriate for zoned-out tech kids:

  Where is Hannah?

  Where is Hannah?

  Are you there?

  Are you there?

  I am talking to you.

  Please look at me-ee.

  And turn off the computer.

  Get off the Ipad.

 

Farmer in the Dell:

We are grocery shopping!

We are grocery shopping!

Hi ho the dairy-o!

We are grocery shopping!

It's time for bed!

It's time for bed!

Kiss goodnight, turn off the light!

It's time for bed.

I'm a Little Teapot:

I'm a little hungry,

I need some lunch,

Let's go home and make a sandwich.

When you eat your veggies and an apple too,

Maybe we can have delicious dessert.

 See how it doesn't rhyme? You don't have to overthink these things. Make singing fun and silly! Pretty soon your made-up songs will become the top sing-alongs for your kids. They would love nothing better than their own unique tunes!

Have fun!
- Samantha

What's the word?

We encountered the word TRUDGE today in Rick Riordan's The Demigod Diaries, by Rick Riordan on page 8.

“We trudged across a narrow bridge over a lazy green river…”

So what does it mean?

Trudge: to walk slowly and heavily because you are tired or working very hard

Research says that reading 20 minutes every day increases one's vocabulary.

Every week we’ll point out a word that we’ve discovered in our books.

We used http://www.merriam-webster.com to provide the definition.