Preschool Storytime and Play!

Preschool Storytime and Play! is back at the Katharine Drexel Library on Thursday, October 22, at 10:30 AM. It's one of those regular Thursday morning sessions for the little ones, so if you've got a preschooler at home, it's an easy one to slot into the week.

The format is pretty straightforward: stories and songs first, followed by creative play. It's designed for kids ages 3 to 5, and they need to be accompanied by an adult, so it's as much a morning out for you as it is for them. The combination of listening and then getting to move around and play makes it a good fit for that age group, where sitting still for a whole story can be a bit of a stretch.

If you haven't spent much time there, the Katharine Drexel branch is at 11099 Knights Road, right at the corner of Knights and Fairdale Roads in Northeast Philly. It opened back in September 1969, in an area that was still mostly farmland and open space in the 1950s—and the birthplace of Benjamin Rush, the Revolutionary War physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence. The library was dedicated in November 1969 to Mary Katharine Drexel, the Philadelphia heiress who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, an order devoted to educating African American and Native American children. She was named a saint of the Roman Catholic Church on October 1, 2000, and her portrait hangs in the entrance.

The branch was renovated in 2000 as part of the 'Changing Lives' campaign and houses Evelyn Keyser's teakwood sculpture The Reading Bench, which depicts a mother and child reading. It's a nice spot to hang out between the stories and the play. The session starts at 10:30 AM on selected Thursdays, so check the schedule if you're planning to make it a regular thing.