Fur, Tails, and Scales at the Westlake Library
The Daly City Public Library was honored to be a recipient of the 2019 ACL mini-grant! On August 16th we were very excited to bring Fur, Tails, and Scales Animal Show at the Westlake branch. In attendance were 57 children and 48 adults plus numerous library staff who couldn’t help but to take a peek!
Owner Tracy and his assistant were very professional and organized when they arrived at the Westlake branch. They loaded up a utility cart with numerous dark plastic containers and three small folding tables before they came into the library. Once they were inside, the audience couldn’t see what was in the containers but their excitement rose immediately, anticipating what kind of animals were in there! The set up was short and only took about 5 minutes as they set up three folding tables and put down a line of painter’s tape for the children to sit behind.
Tracy was thorough and mindful of the younger audience as he carefully described each animal that made an appearance. The children and families gained knowledge about the animals, what they liked to eat, and were able to watch them as Tracy held them out and/or placed them on one of the tables. He also regularly included humor throughout the show, which kept the children and adults entertained.
The anticipation grew each time Tracy would begin to take out another animal! The children (and adults) would squeal with delight each time or say “aww” if the animal was particularly cute. Tracy brought the animals out one by one, generally from the smallest to the largest in size. Some of the animals he showed included: baby chicks, hamsters, a guinea pig, a chicken, a rabbit, an iguana, a tortoise and, for the finale, a yellow python! He then chose a number of children to come to the front and hold up the python!
After all of the animals had been introduced, Tracy allowed the children to touch a select number of animals if they were interested. He helped them form a line, and gave directions on how to best touch the animals. He talked with the children as they passed the animals and provided trading cards with different animal pictures (those that were featured in the show). Children loved getting something to take home in order to remember their “favorite” animal of the day. It was a very successful program! Children and families were thrilled to see so many real animals, up close! Thank you ACL again for the grant that allowed us to provide this educational show to our community!
Sarah Spence, Daly City Public Library
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