Wellington City Libraries

Te Matapihi Ki Te Ao Nui

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Programmes

Wellington City Libraries runs programmes designed especially with children and parents in mind. Find out when our programmes are happening via our What's On page.

Our programmes are structured to give your child a complete library experience from birth to adulthood. We strive to provide a supportive environment for recreation and learning and instil a passion for reading.

Our librarians who run children's services are knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and take every care to provide a fun and supportive place for children and their carers.

Services for 0-5 year olds:

Baby Rock & Rhyme

Your baby's first experience with the library.

Baby Rock & Rhyme is a programme that promotes active movement from newborn to two year olds. These 30min weekly sessions are available during term time at most Wellington City Libraries.

Baby Rock & Rhyme sessions are aimed at providing positive movement experiences to stimulate brain and body development among youngsters. Using music and movement babies (and their careers) are prepared for early literacy.

The theory behind the programme is that movement is a child's first language; therefore it is important to provide babies with whole-body movement right from birth. It's also a great opportunity to have fun, socialise and spend quality 'one-on-one' time with your baby.

Mum, dad, grandparents and caregivers are welcome to join in and learn skills to put in to practice at home.

Preschool Storytimes

Storytime at Kilbirnie

Pre-school storytimes are interactive sessions with stories, songs and rhymes and are specially tailored to introduce your children to the library environment and the joy of books and stories. They are fun and free at all Wellington City Libraries for children and carers to share.

Recommended for children aged 2 - 4, but younger children are always welcome

Services for 5-12 year olds:

Kids' Club

Kids' Club is an incentive-driven online book review club that encourages your children to evaluate the books they are reading and write reviews. Children earn prizes after they submit their first two reviews, and then for every 5th review from then on.

Writing reviews helps children to explore their thoughts and feelings after reading something new. It helps them to put the story into context, relate it to existing experiences, and develops their critical evaluation skills. Writing reviews will also help increase their comprehension levels and written literacy skills.

You should encourage children to think about, and discuss, all the stories they are reading; putting these thoughts into a written form is further encouraging the development of more literacy skills. There is no right/wrong answer to the question of how many reviews, or how often - it is a matter of doing them when you and your child have the time and the inclination. Hopefully by providing gentle encouragement through this online book review programme, children will be self-motivated to write reviews. There is a guide for children on writing book reviews on the children's book review webpage.

Holiday Activities

Wellington City Libraries provides free activities for school-aged children during the holidays. Activities vary between holidays and libraries, and are aimed at 5 - 10 year olds.

Our holiday activities provide parents with a safe, structured, fun and often educational event for their children to participate in. Normally 1 - 2 hours long they give you a chance to visit and use the library and socialise with other parents and children.

Services Online:

Kids webpages

A one-stop shop for our youngest library users. The Kids webpages have dedicated pages for event listings, a link to the Kids Catalogue, downloads, games, puzzles and quizzes, homework help and the popular Kids' Club. The Kids Blog is where we list everything new, news-worthy and exciting for kids.

Kids Catalogue

The KidsCat is more than just your regular catalogue. As well as the usual title, author and subject searches, this child-friendly catalogue also contains a wide variety of subject lists with book and website recommendations. The KidsCat lists current events and hot topics, New Zealand and Maori topics, fiction booklists for a wide variety of topics and much more. A perfect resource for those looking for information for their homework or recommendations on great books.

Merchandise available:

Baby Rock & Rhyme CD

Now you can keep rocking and rhyming at home with your baby. Wellington City Libraries has produced a CD of 33 traditional songs, nursery rhymes and waiata that will appeal to all tamariki under five.

The CD encourages parents to continue modelling early literacy skills by interacting with their children in a fun way. Baby Rock & Rhyme is available to borrow at all library branches, or purchase for only $9.50ea.

Whispers in the Wind CD

Whispers in the Wind

A collection of children's stories written and read by Wellington authors to ignite your child's imagination and their love of reading and writing.

A fantastic gift for any occasion, the CD features Joy Cowley, Fleur Beale, Barbara Else, Janice Marriot and many more, telling their own stories. It is available to borrow or purchase online or from any Wellington City library branch.

Children's Library Bag

new kids bagWe have a new practical and colourful carry bag for kids - big enough to fit books, comics, DVDs - or swimming togs for that day at the beach. Each bag comes with a handy pocket for your library card, plus they close easily with a Velcro fastening strip. There is a matching library card available to go with the children's library bag.

These bags are already very popular, and are available at any library branch for $5 each.

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