Richards Free Library

Engage, Enrich, Entertain

Services

RFL October Calendar

To download the calendar, scroll to the bottom of this post!

10/1 Needle Felting (Kids age 6-11) Drop-in between 1 and 4.
Learn how to needle felt or practice your skills! Make an acorn decoration out of wool or try your own project!

10/6 – 10/8 Leaf Pictures (Kids age 6-11) Drop in during typical library hours. 
Stop by the children’s room to make your own picture with a leaf-rubbing using real fall leaves.

10/7 Temporary Tattoo Creation (Grades 6-12) 3pm.
Come use our stencils and skin safe markers or make your own designs.

10/8 LEGO Day (Kids age 6-11) Drop-in 2-4pm. 
Let your imagination loose to build anything at all with the library’s LEGOs.

10/8 TAB Meeting (Teens and tweens ages 11-18) 3pm. 
We encourage those interested to join the Teen Advisory Board to help plan programs and events at the library.

10/10 Newport Rec Building Play Group story time (kids) 10-11am.
We’ll be hanging out and reading stories at the Rec’s play group! Stop in and play and listen.

10/14 Kid’s crafts with popsicle sticks (kids) 3:30-4:30.
Come up to the dePaola Children’s Program Room to experiment with popsicle stick crafts like Pom Pom Catapults and picture frames.

10/16 The Scam Landscape: Staying Safe! (adults) 5:30PM.
Presented by AARP NH Speakers Bureau and the Newport Police Departmen
AARP will be here for a scam presentation that talks about fraud trends, key warning signs, ways to protect ourselves. The program is open to everyone, not just people 50+!

10/16 Adult Craft: Create Your Own Book Jacket (adults) 6:00PM.
Celebrating National Book Month
Everyone has their favorite book, the one that you reread over and over.  Now’s your chance to design your very own book jacket!  Your artistic creations will cover the books and be put on display in the library for everyone to appreciate.

10/16 Sunshine Knitting Club (adults) 6:00PM.
Meets monthly on the 3rd Thursday of the month
Free to join for everyone! Bring your needles or hook and some yarn!

10/20 LEGO Day (Kids age 6-11) Drop in 2-4pm. 
Let your imagination loose to build anything at all with the library’s LEGOs.

10/21 Board Games (Grades 6-12) 3pm. 
play board games from our collection with your friends!

10/22 Notebook Decorating (kids and teens) 2:30-4pm.
Decorate a notebook with stickers, paper, coloring supplies, and more.

10/23 Spooky Movie Night: “The Witch” (2015) (adults) 5:30PM.
Celebrate Halloween with a screening of Robert Egger’s “The Witch” (2015).  A tale of one Puritan family’s experiences in the woods of colonial New England, this film is perfect to wrap up “Spooky Season” 2025!
Please note that viewer discretion is advised.

10/23 Poetry Group (adults) 7:00PM.
Meets monthly on the 4th Thursday of the month
Whether you write, read or simply enjoy listening to poetry come join us for a relaxed evening as we share poetry together. 

10/24 Keep Sarah Warm Kick off and Yarn Swap (all welcome) Drop-in 2-4pm.
We begin to accept scarf pieces (and it’s Sarah’s Birthday). Pick up and drop off yarn as crafters begin to bring in pieces for the community knit scarf!

10/27 Stitch-for-a-bit 2pm.
This is a craft meet-up group, where you can bring your work and socialize.

10/28 Historic (Haunted) Library Tour (families, small groups, and the general public) 4:30. 
Join Mo for a tour of the building featuring the history of the house, the family, and the ghosts.

10/29 Mini Pumpkin Painting (For kids and teens) 2:30-4pm. 
Decorate a tiny pumpkin to take home for Spooky week!

10/30 Ghosts of Mount Washington (adults) 6:00PM.
Presented by Marianne O’Connor
Author Marianne O’Connor will be presenting the memorials of Mount Washington, some of which are said to be haunted by supernatural beings.  Marianne will share stories related to “The Presence.”  Some believe it to be a spiritual being related to the many deaths on the infamous mountain!

10/31 Trick-or-Treat for books all day, 10-6pm. Stop by in your Halloween costume to trick or treat for children’s books.

10/31 Historic (Haunted) Library Tour (families, small groups, and the general public) 4:30. 
Join Mo for a tour of the building featuring the history of the house, the family, and the ghosts.

10/31 Scarf Put-together! 2:00.
Assembly sessions each Friday leading up to the Keep Sarah Warm wrap up, where crafters can help assemble the pieces of the scarf together and add to our “contributors” list! This will be repeated weekly until the end of this project, November 21st.

Wednesdays Family Storytime! 11am.
Everyone is welcome at this traditional Storytime with singing and stories! Babies and children up to age 5 will find something to enjoy.

Some Thursdays Teen Hang Out (Teens grades 6-12) 2:30-4pm. Teens grades 6-12 are welcome to join a librarian in the Elaine Frank room on the third floor to hang out, draw, write, color, read, or just chat.

October 2025 Official (4)Download

Number Party Oct 5th!

Join us for a number party Tuesday October 5 from 12:00 to 2:00.

This exploration and celebration of numbers is perfect for homeschoolers and preschoolers.

Activities include:
Number Shapes with Playdough
Pattern Exploration with beads
“Chicka Chicka 123” collage craft
Number games like “Tenzi”

Feel free to drop in on these activities and join us at 1:00 for a Number Scavenger Hunt (all elementary school ages welcome. There will be prizes!)

Children’s Programs for June

Children's Corner

This June we are incredibly excited to welcome Molly Dipadova to the youth services staff as our Teen Librarian! You probably already know Molly, since she is a Newport local who’s worked at the front desk with us before. Now Molly is working towards her Master of Library and Information Science, and will be helping with the YA collection and with teen programming.

June is one of the busiest times of year for so many of our library-loving families, so we are focused on providing a chill, relaxing month here in the children’s rooms as we lead up to our summer reading program!

Storytimes:

Family Storytimes on Wednesdays at 11:00 will move outside to our big side yard unless it’s wet! This traditional family storytime features 3 picturebooks with songs and rhymes. 

~On Wednesday, June 15th we’ll read books that celebrate Pride Month! 

~There will be no storytime on June 22nd as Ms Mo will be away. 

Farmers Market Storytimes are held every (dry!) Friday at 4:00 at the Farmer’s Market on the Common. We start reading at 4:00 and usually read until at least 4:30. 

~On Friday the 17th we’ll have Rainbow Bubbles at storytime to celebrate Pride month!

Programs:

June 6th: 3:30 – 4 Afterschool Bingo for Books! Play bingo and win free books. Parents and little siblings are welcome! We have gently used books for children of all ages available as prizes, and we’ll play until everyone wins.

June 9th, 12-8pm: Drop in Activity: Black Out Poetry. Start with a photocopy of a book page, and then use a marker to black out all the words you don’t want in your poem.

June 14th 12-6pm Drop in Teen Craft: Pride Paper Hearts. Make a rainbow paper heart to decorate the library or your room!

June 28th: Summer Book Walk Launch! Come read it any time, night or day!

June 30th 1pm SUMMER READING KICK OFF! 
Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) will visit and bring some scaly reptile friends to meet and learn about! This is the first day that the summer reading program will be open for registration. Come pickup your reading chart, bookmark, and brag tag and start earning beads and books for all your summer reading!

Children’s Programs for May


May Story Times

Family Story Times will continue each Wednesday at 11:00 am, usually featuring 3 picture books and some songs and rhymes to enjoy with our littles! I gear this story time to anyone who will listen to picture books– usually ages 0-6. This story time will move outside to our big side yard as soon as the weather stays warm enough.

Little Wiggle Time, our shorter, action-focused storytime for our wiggliest little ones, will continue on Friday evenings at 5:00, until the Newport Farmer’s Market begins on the Common across the street on May 27th, which will be our first Farmer’s Market Storytime. I’ll be on the Common with my wagon, blankets, and books from 4:00 until 5:00, or I run out of listeners!
*I don’t hold storytimes on the Common if it’s raining or too wet.

May Afterschool Programs

Teen Hangman Hangout, May 11th, 2:30-3:30- for tweens and teens ages 10-18. Come play hangman, Apples to Apples, or whatever else we feel like and eat snacks with Mo.

Afterschool Bingo For Books! May 16th, 3:30-4:00-Play bingo and win free books. Parents and little siblings are welcome! We have gently used books for children of all ages available as prizes, and we’ll play until everyone wins.

Kids Craft: Memorial Day Pinwheels! May 26th 3:30-4:00- Stop by the library to make your own pinwheel for Memorial Day to decorate your room or yard, or to remember someone special on Memorial Day.

Summer Reading Program

It’s getting closer and closer to summer reading! What are you and your kids excited to read this summer? Let us know so we can consider adding it to our collection!
As always, you can reach Ms Mo at mchurchill@newport.lib.nh.us

What are We Playing At?

We’re creating a new gaming collection for Richards Free Library. This collection will include board games, card games, video games, video game consoles, and all the accessories needed to run spectacular gaming programs here at the library. 

COVID-19 cut into a lot of our programming just as it was ramping up, including our game nights. When we wrote this grant application, we had hoped we could get games into your hands and have you run your own game nights at home while we waited for it to be safe to bring game nights back to the library. Thankfully, it looks like we’ll be able to reinstate library game nights sooner rather than later! We’re planning after school gaming programs in the ballroom, family game nights, and board game lessons (we know some of these rule books can be intimidating!). 

I know some of you are thinking “why games?” Games are really just another way to tell a story, and we’re pretty big fans of storytelling here at the library. Plus, games are a great way to engage teens who come to the library after school, looking for entertainment (and somewhere warm or cool to spend the afternoon). We also hope they’ll be a useful tool for families to find time to spend together. 

We’re planning a “kick off” event on Saturday, June 4th, which just happens to be International Tabletop Day (a big day in board game circles). Join us at the library to check out the new collection, learn a new game, or play an old favorite. We hope to see you then!

17 games displayed on a blue shelf. Avengers, Hellapagos, Guess Who?, Slamwich, Xbox Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga, Nintendo Switch 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Star WArs Jabba's Palace, Zeus on the Loose, Paint chip Poetry, Santorini, Cascadia, Trivial Pursuit DVD edition, Azul, Scattergories, Buffalo, Apples to Apples, Ticket to Ride.

We’re really excited about this new collection and the incredible grant money from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the New Hampshire State Library that made it possible. 


If you have a game you’d like to recommend for the library, you can fill out this form!