The kids were able to take clumps of mud, dig out the fossils, identify them and take them home with them.
“If you were an eight-year-old kid, how would you feel about coming and doing a fossil dig?” said English. “They love this kind of stuff.”
The fourth through sixth graders got to dig first and did not have to listen to the children’s story read by the Chilton County Queens. They always have the fourth through sixth graders do a separate activity in their program while different queen groups read to the younger kids.
Jemison’s summer reading program takes place on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. and runs through July. They opened up with an opening party with the Blackberry Queens. A different queen group comes every week. On June 10, they did their fossil dig. On June 17, they will have a Magic Show. On June 24, they will have a visit from Raptor Ridge — an informational bird show. On July 1, they will have an America 250th celebration. On July 8, they will have an art party. On July 15, they will have cop day. On July 22, they will have the Chilton County Relay Queens come and on July 29, they will have an end-of-summer celebration.
“Encouraging them to read is the most important thing to us,” said English. “Reading is fundamental; if you can read, you can go places.”
All of these programs are paired with the summer reading log, which allows kids to get prizes for every 15 books they read and that their parents sign off on.
“Summer reading… this is the thing, if they come into the library and choose books about things they enjoy, then that will get them more excited about reading,” said McGriff. “That’s even what the parents have said… I think that’s the secret; I mean, we’re all that way. We want to read about what we love.”