Volunteering at the Armstrong Air and Space Museum

What’s a great way to spend the day if you love books and kids?  Volunteer at the Armstrong Air & Space Museum! 
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That’s what I did on Tuesday, April 25th.  It was library day, and my day as Volunteer Reader.  Christopher Moynihan, Director of Programming and Education, picked two great reads, “Eight Days Gone” and “To the Stars!  The First American Woman to Walk in Space.”  Both nonfiction, but so different!

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Eight Days is about the Apollo moon launch in 1969.  I was 10 years old when Neil and Buzz landed.  It’s fun to share a story I remember, and then try to make it real for preschoolers.  As a retired teacher, I love helping kids understand science words like orbit.  My young audience did a great job listening and sharing.  It’s amazing what they absorb!​​

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To the Stars...is the story of Kathy Sullivan, who really did travel to the stars.  Then she walked in space and co-authored this book.  It was a more challenging read for my young audience.  It was longer, had more real facts, and was written for older kids, but the preschoolers did a great job.  They liked learning how they were like Kathy, and different.  I think a few would hop aboard a plane or rocket, if they got the chance.  Who knows?  Maybe someday, today’s listener could be tomorrow’s astronaut.  ​

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After the books came the action part…Museum Executive Director, Chris Burton entered dressed in a spacesuit, something like this.  At first the kids were shy but they got over it.  They loved trying on the helmet, and their parents loved snapping pictures.  ​

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Library Day finished with a rocket craft from Kristine Spyker, library youth service director.  Our young astronauts made their own spaceship, complete with crepe paper flames.  Best of all, a popsicle stick turned the rocket into a puppet so kids can invent their own adventures.  Finally many thanks to museum educator, Katie Meyer, who made sure everything ran smoothly, especially the thirty rockets let loose in the museum.
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Please check out the Museum's Facebook post for April 25th.  You can see eight pictures of Library day, and catch a video of me reading.  Sorry, no sound!   If you love space like I do, here are two special summer events for your calendar:
 
July 22-23   Summer Moon Festival- family fun with inflatables, rides, concerts, science Demonstrations, education activities, rocket launches…AND Buzz Aldrin from the 1st moon landing.
 
Aug. 26-27  Space Station Armstrong- Work together using recycled materials to build a kid-sized space station.  You can construct the station Saturday and inhabit it Sunday.

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