Lego hour builds on its library success

Popular feature moves from monthly to weekly

With the school holidays done and dusted we are ready to bring some after school action to the children’s library this term. Lego hour will be moving from monthly to weekly, on Tuesday afternoons. We love Lego at the library. Lego not only enhances fine motor skills, problem-solving abilities, spatial awareness, and creativity but also promotes communication, language development, self-confidence, and patience.

Lego is also a fantastic way to destress and lower anxiety. We hope that running weekly Lego sessions will nurture a fun and friendly space where teamwork and social skills can flourish.

A new weekly programme coming to the library in Term 4 is Code Club. This will take place on Wednesdays 4pm-5pm, and is aimed at ages 9-12.

Code Club encourages kids to use their imaginations with step-by-step guides to create games, make and design websites, code interactive stories and much more. Children will gain coding skills as they work through Code Club Aotearoa projects each week, supported by library staff in a fun and friendly environment.

Code Club Aotearoa, founded in 2014 in a small computer lab in Christchurch, aims to help all kids in New Zealand learn digital skills. They teach coding to children, no matter their background or abilities, making technology accessible to everyone.

By emphasising inclusivity, they recognise the unique strengths of children, for example, those with dyslexia, whose exceptional logical thinking and problem-solving abilities are invaluable skills for coding and programming.

We’re kicking things off using MIT Scratch. Scratch has a lot of resources

available for students and teachers and offers a variety of exercises for kids to quickly build different programs.

Scratch was designed to support young people to learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

It can be used on most browsers, which means you can get started on

most laptops. Children can bring their own device to Code Club, or one will be provided.

To enrol your kids in Code Club, simply visit our website at www. tetakere.org.nz and complete the registration form. We’re thrilled to partner with Code Club Aotearoa to offer this program in Horowheuna absolutely FREE!