Children

Children

Makerspace Mondays

Children in Kindergarten through 8th Grade are invited to come and tinker with us. This is an open-house style program.

Activities vary each week, but all promote educational and enriching STEAM learning in an informal enviornment. Examples include K-nex, Snap Circuits, Lego, Magnatiles, crafts,, and more. Makerspace Mondays encourages exploration and creativity.

This free program is offered at Butman-Fish Library. Please contact Butman-Fish Library or visit our website for current program information.

Second Wednesdays @Zauel & Makerspace @Zauel

Children in Kindergarten through 8th Grade are invited to attend a fun evening of discovery at Second Wednesdays @Zauel. The purpose of Second Wednesdays @Zauel is to share targeted STEAM programming and makerspace activities.

Interested in STEAM learning and playing outside of scheduled programs? Makerspace @Zauel is made up of two rooms devoted to self-guided STEAM activities that are open during normal library hours.

These free resources are offered at Zauel Library. Please contact Zauel Library or visit our website for current program information.

Fun Zone

Children ages 6 to 10 explore, create, and imagine in the Fun Zone. This is an open-house style program.

Activities vary each session, but all focus on STEAM learning. Examples include Magic Nuudles, marble mazes, a light table, craft center, and more. Children rotate through the activity centers at their own pace.

This free program is offered at Hoyt Library. Please contact Hoyt Library or visit our website for current program information.

Duplo Club

Young builders ages 3 to 6 years and a loving adult are invited to interact with other families while learning in a fun and open environment. This free program is held the 4th Saturday of every month (except June, July, and August) at Zauel Library.

Duplo Club is designed for children and their parents to experience problem solving while building vocabulary and mathematical thinking. This fun activity allows you to play and interact with your child in a fun and open environment while challenging your child's imagination.

Lego Club

Builders ages 7 to 12 years are invited to attend our Lego Club. Children enjoy creating their own colorful masterpieces.

Lego Club is designed to support children's imagination and curiosity in the basics of engineering. Building with Legos aids in the development of motor skills.

This free program is offered at Butman-Fish Library. Please contact Butman-Fish Library or visit our website for current program information.

Wiggle-Bots

How will you wiggle? With Wiggle-Bots. Children ages 8 to 12 are invited to design and build a motorized contraption powered by their imagination.

Children design and build their own unique Wiggle-Bots by combining  Wiggle-Bot components  with other household items. Understanding and design evolves through experimentation and tinkering. 

This free program is offered at Hoyt Library. Please contact Hoyt Library or visit our website for current program information.

Preschool Storytime

A weekly program for children 3 to 5 years and a loving adult. 

Read-aloud stories, finger plays, music, and other fun activities help young children gain self-confidence, develop language skills, and appreciate the love of books and reading.

This free program is offered weekly at our Butman-Fish and Zauel Libraries. Please call ahead to verify scheduling.  

Childcare providers with a group of children are asked to please call ahead and schedule a separate session.

Toddler Playgroup

Young children ages 18 months to 3 years and a loving adult are invited to join us for an hour of playtime at the library.

Toddler Playgroup provides a stimulating environment filled with toys and books. Reading is encouraged and positive library memories are made.

This free program is offered at Wickes Library. Please contact Wickes Library or visit our website for current program information.

Storyroom Activity Centers

Children 3 to 5 years and their families are invited to visit rotating centers that include It's  Tool Time, In the Barn, Movin' & Groovin', and Someone's in the Kitchen.

The activity centers are designed to foster creativity and imagination in preschool age children, providing the opportunity to play freely with toys and books in a fun environment.

Centers are available every other month at Zauel Library. Please contact Zauel Library or visit our website for current activity center information.

Children's Coloring

Children of all ages are invited to join us for some coloring fun. Children under 7 must be accompanied by an adult helper.

All supplies, including coloring projects, crayons, pencils, and markers are provided.

This free program is offered at Hoyt Library. Please contact Hoyt Library or visit our website for current program information.

Children's Drive-In Movie

Children ages 3 to 8 years and a loving adult are invited to bring their favorite blanket and pillow for a drive-in movie experience.

Rubbermaid bins have been converted into cars that kids will sit in while enjoying a movie, snack, and drink!

This free program is offered at Butman-Fish Library. Please contact Butman-Fish Library or visit our website for current program information.

Design Time

Children of all ages are invited to join us for stories, crafts, music, and a snack!

Activities vary monthly, but all programs focus on enriching relationships, promoting literacy, and entertaining children.

This free program is offered at Wickes Library. Please contact Wickes Library or visit our website for current program information.

Saginaw Children Read Blog

Saginaw Children Read Blog

Check out the latest children's book reviews from Public Libraries of Saginaw staff.

Children's Databases

21 Things 4 Students

21 Things 4 Students
Educational and online resource to help students improve their technology proficiency and meet or exceed the Michigan eighth grade technology proficiency requirements.

BedTime Math

Bedtime Math
Resources are used to advance the mission of helping kids learn to love math. Daily math problems, a bedtime math book, Crazy 8s Club, Math on the Go printable games to use during car time, and short, fun videos for solving math problems.

BookFlix™

BookFlix
An interactive experience that allows beginning readers to explore fiction and non-fiction designed to increase understanding and fluency. Increase comprehension and have fun at the same time!

Britannica School

Britannica School
Suite of Britannica School resources at four levels - Learning Zone, Elementary, Middle, and High. People, countries, science, animals, current events, and biographies.

Britannica School - Elementary

Britannica School - Elementary
Grades 3-4. Find information on countries, animals, and people in articles, media, and a world atlas. Watch and learn with videos, games, and activities.

Britannica School - High

Britannica School - High
High School and adult. Primary sources for quick facts and in-depth information on history, geography, people, places, science, and much more. Biographies, world atlas, countries comparison, articles and interactive resources are available.

Britannica School - Learning Zone

Britannica School - Learning Zone
Pre K - 2nd grade. Activity-centered learning to explore, play, read, and build technology skills. Letters, numbers, geography, shapes and much more are included.

Britannica School - Middle

Britannica School - Middle
Grades 5-7. Homework help and discovery learning. Explore maps, photos, articles, famous people and places, compare countries, and tour the U.S.A.

Children's Clapping Songs

Children's Clapping Songs
Learn hand clapping songs and chants to improve motor and cognitive skills. Each song features a video of children performing the movements.

CIA Kid's Zone

CIA Kid's Zone
Do you have the skills it takes to be a spy? Test your thinking and perception skills with puzzles, photo analysis, code breaking, and more games.

Discovery Education: WebMATH

Discovery Education: WebMATH
This site is composed of many math "fill-in-forms" into which you can type the math problem you're working on. Linked to these forms is a powerful set of math-solvers, that can instantly analyze your problem, and when possible, provide you with a step-by-step solution, instantly!

DLTK's Crafts for Kids

DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Hundreds of printable crafts and coloring pages organized by topic. Features a large selection of seasonal, holiday, and school crafts.

Early World of Learning

Early World of Learning
Grades PreK-3. Follow Trek and Taffy the cat around the world learning about colors, numbers and other fun things. Strengthen reading foundations with stories, activities and videos. Explore the Know It encyclopedia designed especially for early readers. Includes materials for educators.

Early World of Learning

Early World of Learning
Grades PreK-3. Follow Trek and Taffy the cat around the world learning about colors, numbers and other fun things. Strengthen reading foundations with stories, activities and videos. Explore the Know It encyclopedia designed especially for early readers. Includes materials for educators.

Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos

Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos
Grades PreK - 5. Bilingual resources - visual dictionary, world of animals, encyclopedia articles, and Spanish language newspapers. Eight categories to browse: arts, history and government, people, places, plants and animals, science and mathematics, sports and hobbies, and world religions. The visual dictionary includes thousands of images and more than 12,000 labels. Save, print, or email content.

Expanded Academic ASAP

Expanded Academic ASAP
Junior and Community Colleges. Mostly full text. Magazine, newspaper and journal articles appropriate to college and university -level research from 1980 to the present. Updated continuously. All topics. Michigan residents or Michigan library access only.

Fact Monster

Fact Monster
Fact Monster contains categories in world, United States, people, science, math & money sports and more. This site has age appropriate blogs where kids can post questions. Click on the homework center link to access material by subject quickly.

Fish Identification

Fish Identification
Educators/parents can use with students to learn about the fish that live in the Great Lakes. Identify fish by name, snout, tail, body shape or other distinctive features. Also includes big full-color photos.

Fun Brain

Fun Brain
Strengthen your brain cells by playing math arcade games, reading popular eBooks such as, Galactic Hot Dogs and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and getting creative with MadLibs Junior. (Beginning Reader Friendly)

Gale Virtual Reference Library

General Reference Center Gold
Encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. Includes Study of Science--Earth Science, Geography and Geology c. 2017 and the Life & Career Skills Series--Employment, Personal Finance, Health & Wellnes and Social Skills.

General Reference Center Gold

General Reference Center Gold
General user. Mostly full text. Integrates a variety of sources - newspapers, reference books, magazines, and trade publications. Find articles on current events, popular culture, business and industry trends, the arts and sciences, sports, hobbies, and more. Updated daily. Indexing, abstracts, image, or full text formats available.

Giggle Poetry

Giggle Poetry
Read hundreds of silly poems and rate them on the Giggle Meter. Poems are categorized by topic. Author biographies are available.

Health and Wellness Resource Center

Health and Wellness Resource Center
Provides instant access to carefully compiled and trusted medical reference materials. Includes nearly 400 health/medical journals, hundreds of pamphlets, over 700 health-related videos from partner Healthology, Inc., articles from 2,200 general interest publications and links to reputable health websites in addition to a broad collection of Gale reference titles.

High School Ace

High School Ace
High School Ace is a free online learning center that features subject guides for English, foreign languages, math, science and social studies.

High School Equivalency Center

High School Equivalency Center
Use tests, eBooks, and tutorials to assess and build your skill levels in reading, writing and math and prepare for the GED® Test in English and Spanish.

InfoTrac Student Edition

InfoTrac Student Edition
Over 1,300 titles cross searchable with eBooks. Gives access to a variety of indexed and full-text magazines, newspapers, podcasts, and reference books for information on current events, the arts, science, popular culture, health, people, government, history, sports and more.

Inkless Tales

Inkless Tales
Stories, songs, poems, finger puppets, crafts and more presented by children's musician, Bushey, Elizabeth. All resources are free.

Interactives: Elements of a Story

Interactives: Elements of a Story
Learn the seven elements of a story while listening to "Cinderella". The elements you will learn are: setting, characters, sequence, exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution.

Into the Book

Into the Book
Learn eight reading strategies to improve your understanding of stories. Each strategy features a video example and an opportunity to try the strategy yourself. Strategies include: questioning, evaluating, inferring, prior knowledge, making connections, summarizing, synthesizing, and visualizing.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy
Video tutoring for math, science, economics, arts and humanities, computing, test prep and more. Login is not required. Click on "subjects" then select a topic to locate video tutorials.

Kids InfoBits

Kids InfoBits
Grades PreK - 5. Full text. Especially for beginning researchers in Kindergarten through Grade 5. Covers geography, current events, the arts, science, health, people, government, history, sports and more. Curriculum-related and age appropriate content is from the best elementary reference sources and magazines.

KidsReads

Kids Reads
Find information about your favorite books, series, and authors. Select reviews of the newest titles, interviews with the coolest authors, trivia games, word scrambles, and awesome contests!

LearningExpress Library

LearningExpress Library
Test Prep/Jobs/Careers. Seven interactive learning centers of academic and licensing/certification practice tests, elementary level testing for math and reading, and skills building tools. Click "More" for centers links. Learning centers: High School Equivalency, College Preparation, College, Career, Adult Learning, School, and Recursos para Hispanohablantes.

Lil' Fingers Storybooks

Lil' Fingers Storybooks
Simple online stories for young children to read and interact with. Story themes on opposites, monsters, numbers, potty time, colors, emotions, and more will interest emerging readers. Also includes coloring pages, videos and games.

Michigan Birds Identification

Michigan Birds Identification
Birds of Michigan identification guide with color photos and habitat descriptions for educators/parents to use with students.

Michigan Bugs and Insects

Michigan Bugs and Insects
Identify the 276 bugs that live in Michigan by their appearance. Features include: color photos, taxonomy, size and color descriptions.

Michigan's Snakes

Michigan's Snakes
Snakes of Michigan identification guide. Features include colored photos, food habits, behavior, and more.

Michigana: Sources in U.S. History Online

Michigana: Sources in U.S. History Online
This digital archive documents state history. Drawn from the Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 collection and other Gale sources, the archive provides access to a wide variety of documents: personal narratives and memoirs, pamphlets and political speeches, sermons and songs, legal treatises and children's books.

Mr. R's World of Math and Science

Mr. R's World of Math and Science
Sing songs to help you learn math and science topics such as: numbers, counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, place value, and more. (Beginning Reader Friendly)

NoveList K-8 Plus

NoveList K-8 Plus
Find just the right book by subject, age, awards won, Lexile Reading levels, State standards; even books made into movies, and much more. Read reviews and learn about the author.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context

Opposing Viewpoints in Context
Features contextual information and opinions on hundreds of today's hottest social issues. Continuously updated pro/con viewpoint essays, topic overviews, primary source documents, biographies, court-case overviews, periodical articles, tables/charts/graphs, and more. Contains more than 700 Greenhaven Press, Gale, Macmillan Reference USA™, Charles Scribner’s Sons® and U·X·L titles.

Professor Garfield: Read!

Professor Garfield: Read!
Garfield the cat invites you to read books and comics online. Read alone or be read to. Pre-reading skills, rhyming and phonics games are also available. (Beginning Reader Friendly)

Reading Rockets

Reading Rockets
National multimedia project that offers reading strategies, lessons, and activities to assist parents, teachers and other educators help young children learn to read and to read better.

Research in Context

Research in Context
Includes the most-studied topics for grades 6-8 - literature, science, social studies, and U.S. and world history. Written specifically for middle schoolers (high school students may find it useful too) this information comes from authoritative sources including Gale, National Geographic and Scholastic and is aligned to national and state curriculum standards. Designed to develop learning skills to launch 6-8 graders into high school and beyond.

Robert Munsch Site

Robert Munsch Site
If you like Robert Munsch's silly books such as "The Paper Bag Princess" or "Smelly Socks," you will enjoy listening to this popular author read ALL 50 of his own stories. Audio is full of excitement and fun, just as his books are. (Beginning Reader Friendly).

School Center

School Center
Grades 4 through 12 skills improvement in math, writing and grammar, reading comprehension, social studies, and vocabulary and spelling through tests, eBooks, and tutorials. U.S. Constitution study and review.

Starfall

Starfall
Read beginning-reader books online. Don't know a word? No problem. You can click any word and have it read to you. Books are colorful and fun, featuring plays, nonfiction, and comics. (Beginning Reader Friendly)

StoryBlocks

Storyblocks
52 short videos produced in partnership with Rocky Mountain PBS that demonstrate rhymes and songs appropriate for early childhood literacy. English, Spanish, Vietnamese, French and Arabic languages available.

Storyline Online

Storyline Online
Watch and listen to famous actors read popular children's picture books. Videos can be viewed on YouTube or SchoolTube. Activity guides featuring book summary, related activities, internet activities, and author biography are available in PDF. (Beginning Reader Friendly)

Wildflower Database

Wildflower Database
Learn about the wildflowers found in Michigan. Features include: colored photos, family name, bloom time, habitat, size, flower, and leaf descriptions.

World Book Kids

World Book Kids
Grades PreK - 5 Contains nine content categories: Pictures and Videos, World of Animals, Activities, Maps and More, Games, Important People, Compare Places, Science Projects, and Dictionary. Also includes support and educator sections.