Category: Children

Read and win! Grab a Winter Reading card today! ⛄

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Winners announced! 🏆

Congratulations to all of our lucky winners:

Early Readers
$50 Warehouse voucher – Robin Olbrich
$50 Reading Cinema’s voucher – Harry McCarthy
Book prize pack – Lewis Nelson

Kids
$50 Warehouse voucher – Alexa Oosthuizen
$50 Reading Cinema’s voucher – Olivia Carter
Book prize pack – Joshua Romero 

Teens
$50 Warehouse voucher – Oshadha Perera
$50 Reading Cinema’s voucher –Amelia Thompson
Book prize pack –Luke Smith

Winter Reading has returned! 🏂

Running for the month of July, simply pick-up a challenge card (or print one off at home) and get reading! We have three age groups; early readers (0-7 years), kids (ages 7-12), and teens (age 12-18).

Complete at least 4 challenges and you’ll be in to win! Prizes include a $50 Warehouse voucher, $50 Reading Cinemas voucher, and a Book Prize Pack!

Entries close 6pm, Saturday 31 July. Winners will be notified on Monday 2 August.

Early Readers
Kids
Teens

✍🏼 Write and win! Enter your Matariki-themed short story and you could win a $500 prezzy card!

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Matariki Short Story Competition

Great prizes up for grabs!

Age categories:

  • 13-18 years: Winner gets a $500 prezzy card
  • 8-12 years: The winner gets a $200 book voucher.

PLUS, you’ll both get your story published on Lingogo and
win a Lingogo subscription for your school. Enter now!

What's Lingogo?

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Lingogo is Aotearoa’s raddest library app for dual-language Māori & Pacific stories with audio. 

Help us celebrate Matariki 2021 by entering our short story competition before June 30. You could be flying into the Māori new year as a published author with some extra moolah in your pocket!

Learn more

Competition Details

Stories must be:

  • about Matariki. Interpret that any way you want. We’ll accept fiction or non-fiction, contemporary or traditional, and all genres.
  • between 50-400 words submitted as a word doc or pdf.
  • an original, unpublished piece of work by you.
  • written in English or te reo Māori.
  • Submitted by midnight 30 June, 2021.

Who can enter:

  • You must be a NZ citizen and have parental approval.
  • You must be between 8-18 years of age.
Submit your entry

Take your kids on a trip for a day of fun in Bluff! 🛬

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  • Wed 30 September
  • 10:30am - 3:00pm
  • Bluff Senior Citizen Rooms

On Wednesday 30 September bring the kids down for a day of stories, crafts and fun around the world at the Bluff Senior Citizen Rooms!

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10:30am Morning activities

🤪 Make-a-passport
👲🏼 Chinese lantern craft
🖼️ Photo frame craft

12:00pm Lunch

🍱 Inflight lunch ($2 cost)

1:00pm Afternoon activities

🤸‍♂️ Ki runga ki roto
🛡️ Cow hide shield craft
🏓 Pickleball

This event is part of the School Holiday programme at the Library. 
Check out more of the fun activities on at the Invercargill Public Library during the holidays!

Have a stress free school holidays with daily activities at the library!

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We have a great range of fun activities to keep the kids busy these school holidays! Each day during the week there will be activities in the morning (from 10:30am) and the afternoon (from 1:00pm).

28 Sept - 9 Oct

Check out some of the featured events below, and see the bottom of the page for the full timetable!

Featured Events 🦚

Week-Long Activities 🦦

🗺️ Scavenger Hunt

Can you find all the animals hidden around the library?

🔍 Where is Finn?

Each day Finn will be hiding somewhere in the library. Tell us where and you're in to win a prize!

Full Timetable 🐋

Filter Events

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Please note: children under 14 must be supervised by a parent/guardian in the library.

Marking Anzac Day while staying safe at home

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Anzac Day is usually a solemn time when we come together to remember the sacrifices made in the past. Here are four ways you and your family can mark Anzac Day this year while staying safe in your bubble.

Complete our Since Writing You Last quiz

Keep the kids busy with our Anzac themed quiz. Explore Since Writing You Last to find the answers to these wartime-related questions.

  1. What are the names of the four soldiers whose letters are on the Since Writing You Last website?
  2. What date did New Zealand find out that war had been declared?
  3. How many troop ships left Wellington on 3rd December 1914?
  4. How old was Len Shepard when he enlisted in the army?
  5. What was served to one of the soldiers for Christmas dinner?
  6. What date was conscription announced?
  7. Whereabouts in Southland were the McIntyre brothers born?
  8. What was Len Shepard’s job before joining the NZ Expeditionary Force?
  9. How old was John Hall when he left school?
  10. Which two soldiers came home to Southland after the end of WWI?
Explore Since Writing You Last

Make your own poppy ✂️

The red poppy has become a symbol of war remembrance the world over. People in many countries wear the poppy to remember those who died in war or who still serve in the armed forces. Make your own poppy to wear or display this ANZAC day to remember our fallen soldiers. The RSA website has some great ideas to help you out.

RSA: Make your own poppy

Bake Anzac biscuits 🍪

Although it’s a myth that ANZAC biscuits were sent and eaten by troops in Gallipoli, rolled oats biscuits were in fact sold and consumed at fetes, galas, parades and other public events at home, to raise funds for the war effort.This connection to the troops serving overseas led to them being referred to as “soldier’s biscuits”.

The basic ingredients for a rolled oat biscuit were rolled oats, sugar, flour, butter with golden syrup, not eggs, used as a binding agent. This made them not only nutritious and full of energy but also long lasting.

After WWI, the most popular rolled oat biscuit had the name and association of ANZAC applied to it and thus the legend of the ANZAC biscuit began. Try making some of your own.

Anzac biscuit recipe

Hold a home service 🎖️

With the cancellation of ANZAC day services due to COVID-19, think about ways in which you could have your own service at home. You can join other New Zealanders at 6:00am on Saturday 25 April. Visit the RSA website for all the details.

RSA: Stand at Dawn