Slugs, snails and dragons' tails

Family fun in libraries

By J S

Boys enjoying the ghost trail
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Two flying dragons
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Cutting out dragons at Kings Langley
Hertfordshire Library Service
Spells and dragons on display at Kings Langley
Hertfordshire Library Service

The story of the Brent Pelham dragon and some old recipes in Hertfordshire archives formed the basis of a family learning event held at Kings Langley Library, North Watford Library and Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies during the Family Learning Festival.

Flying dragons

Children and accompanying adults joined together to make a selection of flying dragons with an assortment of heads and tails. Following on from this year’s Summer Reading Challenge, some of the children managed to recreate dragons and monsters from the Dragon’s Quest books.

Chopped worms and crushed snails

The recipes from the archives include a cough cure which contained chopped worms and crushed snails. Touch and feel boxes containing lavender, cloves, snail shells and (cooked spaghetti) worms produced some horrified gasps.

Quill pens

Some of the children discovered the challenges of writing with a quill pen. Despite a few false starts and blots, they wrote out their own made-up spells, quite a few of which involved turning various members of the family into frogs or snails – or making them disappear altogether!

Ghost trail

At Hertfordshire Archives, participants had the additional challenge of a ‘ghost trail’, where they had to find out about ghostly Hertfordshire happenings by finding clues hidden around the library.

This page was added on 06/11/2009.

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