Participants in Preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten to Grade 5 are encouraged to read or listen to books every day for 30 minutes or more all summer and record your accomplishments through the Imagine Your Story: Patch Power 2020 website or app. You can also complete Missions, by completing at-home activties and attending Virtual Programs, to earn the 2020 patches!

Even children under 3 years can participate this summer by signing up for 1000 Books Before Kindergarten! Research has shown that listening to 1000 Books Before Kindergarten helps children to develop the important pre-reading skills that provide a solid foundation for learning to read — a key to learning and school success. Read at least 100 book this summer to earn a special award!  

As long as you’re not talking computers, a cookie is a small sweet cake, typically round, flat, and crisp. Like we didn’t know that already! You might be surprised, though, at how many different kinds there are. If you’d like to try your hand at baking something delicious, visit these sites for recipes — Cookie Recipes at Cooks Recipes or All Recipes All Recipes – Cookie Recipes. You won’t know which to try first!

You can visit the Statue of Liberty like never before with a Virtual Tour inside and outside the great American symbol. Last year, architect Paul Davidson spent ten nights inside the Statue of Liberty. He and his team carried out a first-of-its-kind laser scan of Lady Liberty, capturing the statue’s interior during the hours when it wasn’t full of tourists — 6:00 pm to 7:00 am. His scans have been turned into a virtual tour. You can see inside the crown and the torch, and even climb Lady Liberty’s arm! The most difficult part of the project was taking the scans in a statue that’s always moving! It was build with a flexible support system that’s meant to sway in the wind (It was designed by Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel who’s famous tower also sways in the wind). Davidson has noted that it was something like being on a boat.

When “Liberty Enlightening the World” was dedicated in 1886, it was the highest structure in all of New York City. Now you can see it in a whole new way — Statue of Liberty Virtual Tour.

The Statue of Liberty Virtual Tour is part of the National Park Service Historic American Buildings Survey. Read more here.

Although J.K. Rowling came up with the idea for The Ickabog a long time ago and planned to publish it after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it some how wound up in her attic! She decided to release it as an on-line serial for free to help kids read during the COVID-19 emergency. Once you’ve read the story, Ms. Rowling has created a competition. She wants YOU to illustrate the story. You can read The Ickabog and submit your illustrations at The Ickabog.