Families are invited to talk, play, read, write and sing while exploring a range of themes and rotating activities designed to promote school readiness, encourage creativity, and healthy development. 

Ages 0-5 with adult

Kids explore science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics activities. Open to children in Kindergarten-5th grade; no registration required.

Create handprints with an art student from Champlain College.  The prints will be displayed at the Library to create a sense of community during a troubling time in Burlington.

Beat the mid-winter blues with some friendly competition! Teams of 1-5 will race to complete their 500-piece puzzle first and win awesome prizes, courtesy of The Friendly Toast. Puzzles provided.

Registration required. All ages. Children under the age of 9 must be accompanied by caregiver aged 16 or older.

Registration opens 12/21/23 at 10:00 am. Click here to register: https://fletcherfree.org/puzzle-palooza-2024-registration

Celebrating The Nib
5:00pm - 6:00pm // Fletcher Room
Panelists: Matt Bors, Shay Mirk

Resiliency Narratives
2:30pm - 3:30pm // Local History Room
Instructor: Natalie Norris

In this workshop we gather to learn techniques for approaching memoir stories that we find difficult to tell but feel compelled to share. We’ll focus on the resiliency that grows out of personal stories about adversity, illness, and survival and how you can harness your strength to face these kinds of memoirs. This workshop will include discussion and a drawing activity. All skill levels are welcome.

Build a World! ALL AGES
1:15pm - 2:15pm // Local History
Instructor: Daryl Seitchik

In this all-ages workshop, we will draw inspiration from literature, comics, and film, to create our own fantastical worlds.  We will design our own imaginary maps, populate them with strange creatures, and consider what it would be like to inhabit these worlds, in the form of a comic. 

Join us, and create a place that hasn't existed before!

Telling Other People’s Stories
3:45pm - 4:45pm // Pickering Room
Panelists: Marek Bennett, Janet Biehl, Bill Tulp, JT Yost
Moderator: Jason Lutes

Graphic Explorations of Adolescence
2:45pm - 3:30pm // Fletcher Room
Panelists: Jarad Greene, Tillie Walden, Coco Fox, Isabella Rotman
Moderator: Sally Pirie

What draws so many cartoonists toward exploring adolescent experience? And what is it about adolescence that readers find so compelling? In this panel Jarad Greene, Coco Fox, Isabella Rotman and Tillie Walden talk about representing adolescent lives and the significance this phase of life holds for them and their audiences.

Let’s Make Zines!
Comics-Based Research - Using Art to Analyze Qualitative Data
2:00pm - 4:00pm // Fletcher Room
Instructor: Sally Pirie

Description:

This workshop explores the role of the visual arts in qualitative research. Using strategies from creative nonfiction writing and arts-based research, we will get hands-on practice using drawings to work with our data.