LEGO Club
LEGO Club encourages children to learn while having fun! Creativity, problem solving, and teamwork are some of the skills that "playing" with LEGO can teach children.
Join us every Tuesday afternoon during the school term to complete exciting LEGO challenges. All LEGO will be provided; just bring your creative thinking hat!
Chess for Beginners
Chess has been persuasively linked with improving children's concentration, problem-solving, critical thinking, and even mathematical abilities. It is also said to help with memory storage and how young brains manage information – and should not only be perceived as a game for gifted children. It can also enhance children's ability to interact with other people. These chess classes for children and teens aged 8+ will focus on setting up your chess board, how chess pieces move, and general game play.
Reading Buddies
Reading Buddies involves reading to therapy dogs to build confidence in reading. This programme is designed specifically for school-aged children/young people who have print disabilities, dyslexia, or other disabilities that impact upon their reading; children who are very frightened of dogs and would like to improve their confidence around dogs through reading; and children who are learning to read in English as their second language, or children who are learning to read in Te Reo.
Reading Buddies sometimes has public intakes, taking place in our libraries; at other times, Hamilton City Libraries works with local schools to bring this programme to pupils in the classroom.
To find out where and when the next public intake for Reading Buddies is open, keep an eye on our Event Calendar, Facebook page, or sign up for our newsletter, ePaanui. To enquire about running the Reading Buddies programme at your school, please contact the Whakaahu/Service Development Librarians.
Movie Nights
Movie Night is a free monthly or bi-monthly film showing at one of our libraries. We select films from the library's DVD collection, or from our free online streaming service Beamafilm, and show them on a big screen. Most often these are cartoon or family friendly movies featuring children's favourite characters such as Shaun the Sheep, Captain Underpants, Ash Ketchum from Pokémon, Sonic the Hedgehog and various other popular characters. You can also borrow the Movie Night DVDs from our DVD collection.
School Holiday Programmes
Each school holidays during the year we have activity-based programmes with different themes open to all school aged kids. Sometimes, a number of prizes can be won at the end of each activity. The kids get to take their crafty creations and drawings home. All our events are usually free, but registration may be required for more popular programmes. We also have programmes where you can simply come along on the day to join in.
Reading Programmes
Reading Programmes are an important activity for children and teens to help keep up their literacy levels. Our Reading Programmes are for pleasure - allowing kids to choose what they want to read, with the focus being relaxation and enjoyment. You can sign up your children to our reading programmes for fun activities and competitions, including a grand finale event at the end of the programme.