Muffins with Mom

What do moms like? Coffee, snacks (in this case muffins--mainly for the alliteration), a low-stress craft, and light piano music! This is what I tried to deliver at my day-before-Mother's-Day program called "Muffins with Mom."

It wasn't complicated. Moms and their kids ages 3 through 3rd grade came in, sat together, enjoyed coffee and muffins, decorated flower pots, and did a simple hand print craft.

I arranged the room so that the table all the way to one side had the muffins and coffee and the table all the way to the other side of the room had the craft supplies: paint, some small decorations (gems and pom poms), and tacky glue. The tables in the middle were arranged so that each setting had a flower pot and flower pot tray to paint and decorate, an empty paint pallet, and paint brush. Then I also put a small pile of the hand print craft on each table.

I told everyone that only the grown ups would get the paint and craft supplies from the back table and it worked out perfectly. That way the kids weren't even tempted to mess with any of that stuff. Here is a picture of some people getting paint for their pallets:

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of my snack table set up but it was pretty! I even artfully arranged the muffins on a platter. But here are some pictures of kids and parents working on their flower pots and eating muffins:

The handprint craft I had came from gluedtomycraftsblog.com and was a great, simple, extra small craft. In fact, I have my sample (made by Sadie) hanging above my desk as we speak. People really liked it!

What worked least: This was a total success but I guess, if I'm being super nit-picky, I forgot to put out the water cups for kids to dip their paint brushes in? I mean, this was a two-minute problem that was easily rectified the second I realized it, but I don't know, I'm just looking for a "least," I guess.

What worked best: The crafts! They were the perfect choice!

Overall, this was a really nice program that I left feeling really happy with. Everyone had fun and I genuinely think that I created the sort of "chill mood" I was aiming for (thanks partially to the piano music playlist I found on Spotify!). The patrons definitely played a factor in the success of this program too. I had SUCH a great group of families in attendance! This is a definite must-repeat for next Mother's Day.

Dino Diggers

Is there any match as perfect as toddlers and dinosaurs? They go together like peanut butter and jelly! This would explain the huge sign-up I had for last week's Dino Digger's program, for ages 2-5.

We started off the program with a story-- just one. It was hard to choose which I wanted to read. Because I was only doing one, I kind of wanted a true story book, but I wanted it to be short and easy enough so that even the youngest kids in the group would get something out of it. There are a lot of great dinosaur books, but I wound up picking Roar by Todd H. Doodler, which I'd used (with success) for pre-school visits some years ago. I think everyone enjoyed it, although I'm not sure if they enjoyed it more than they would have enjoyed, say, Dinosaur Vs. Bedtime, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?, The Super Hungry Dinosaur, or Dini Dinosaur. There are a few good class-roaring opportunities throughout Roar, so it's got that really big perk going for it. (Nevermind the fact that I had a sweet boy afraid of loud noises. Details, details.)

After the book, I opened the room up for a sort of "free play." I had several different activities available and about 30-minutes for children and caregivers to make their way around the room to try it all out.

There were:

-- Two sand bins with sifters and dinosaur skeletons buried for the kids to dig around in *

-- Several dinosaur puzzles

-- A volcano picture made by blowing watered down paint through a straw **

-- A trace-a-dino-footprint worksheet ***

-- Dino eggs to inspect and match up with their corresponding pictures ****

* The sand bins and the dinosaur skeletons are things we own and have on hand. We don't use them very often but when we do, they are always, always, always a big hit. It was time to break them out again and, as usual, they were awesome.

** I got the idea for this craft from Pinterest-- specifically, it came from OurLittleAcorns.com. I had pre-cut volcanoes (although my coworker commented that they looked like poops), watered down red and orange paint with straws for blowing, and these puffy dinosaur stickers, which were cool, though smaller than I'd anticipated. This craft was fun, but way too hard for the younger crew. In fact, I tried it at home with Sadie (who's 2½) and she liked doing it in theory, but was kind of clueless and not really strong enough, physically, to blow the paint around through the straw. The stickers though, now those were easy and fun for her. On the other hand, the 4ish-year-olds in the class had great success with blowing the paint!

*** The trace a dino footprint worksheets can be found here, on PagingSuperMom.com. I printed a stack and a few kids did them. I also took one home for Sadie and she liked it!

**** The dino eggs were fun! I borrowed these from our county's lending library. They are a total mystery to me. I seriously have no idea how they were made but they're really cool looking! Basically, they're colorful plastic dinosaurs living inside Easter egg-sized, clear plastic homes, with a texture similar to that of a fancy, un-started bar of soap. To go with them, I made some match-up sheets to encourage the kids to examine the eggs and play with them a little. I think it worked pretty well.

This is a picture I took of the eggs and sheets a long time ago. I have since lost my original sheets and the eggs got a little cloudier. But this really gets the idea across:

Some "egg-xamining" in action below. The boy pictured was so smart! Instead of matching the eggs with the pictures, he wrote down the name of every type of dinosaur! I told him that was the "advanced way" to do this activity.

What worked least: As a whole, this was a great program (that I received a lot of great feedback about!) but it's true that the paint blowing craft was probably better for the 4+-ers of the group and not the younger kids. Even despite this, the younger ones watched their parents/caregivers blow the paint and still enjoyed the sticker scene aspect of the craft, so I'm not sure I'd have even changed anything in retrospect!

What worked best: The sand. It's always all about the sand.

100th Anniversary of Children's Book Week

Children's Book Week is the nation's longest-running literacy initiative and this year--this week in fact--marks its 100th anniversary! To celebrate, I planned a self-directed program revolving around picture books. There were 4 tables, 1 craft per table, each based on a different picture book. So the idea was that the families would move around from table to table, read the book together, and then make the corresponding craft.

You might remember (but probably don't!) that about 4 years ago, I planned a program called Discover Picture Book Art. Inspired by seeing Lois Elhert speak at a conference, that program was basically this same thing: 4 different artists' books displayed and a chance to create art in those similar styles. The only difference is that I missed that program because I was out on disability after a bad car accident. The only other difference is that my colleague set that program up (again, because I wound up having to miss it) and she did it so so so beautifully and, while I really tried, I just don't think I did as nice of a job as she did. She's just got a natural eye.

Anyway, these are the 4 books I used: 

Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly

The Hidden Alphabet by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Color Zoo/Color Farm by Lois Elhert

I Spy by Jean Marzollo

The program was for ages 2 and up so I wanted to try to accommodate lots of different ages. Some of the crafts were simple and some were more challenging. Let me get into each one in more detail...

1. Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly

Perfect for the younger ones, this easy, almost "throw away craft" was, of course, the most popular one we had out. It's always like that, isn't it? The simplest thing is the fan favorite? It was just printed directly from kizclub.com. I put out several of their Go Away Big Green Monster black and white printable sheets with crayons, scissors, glue sticks, and paper plates. And that's it! And everyone liked it!

2. The Hidden Alphabet by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

I don't want to say this craft was for the grown ups, but well, this craft was kind of for the grown ups. It was inspired by Laura Vaccaro Seeger herself! I saw her speak at a children's librarian dinner a few a weeks ago and she had this cool craft for all of us to try based on her book, The Hidden Alphabet. Everyone got a piece of paper folded down the middle like a greeting card. On the front, the card had a square cut out of the middle. Laura Vaccaro Seeger told us to draw a picture of something in the middle of that square, then open the card and turn that picture into the letter that that thing begins with.

So... here are some actual examples made by the actual Laura Vaccaro Seeger:

The bottom two panels show balloons that then open to reveal a big B. The top picture shows eggs making an E (the picture with just eggs in the black window isn't pictured).

And here's my awful example:

While I am here, continuing to try to think of more creative ways to turn pictures into letters, I think this was way too hard for the kids. Although some parents got kind of into it.

3. Color Zoo/Color Farm by Lois Elhert

Shapes, shapes, shapes! Super simple, this was just straight up collaging with shapes. I put out pre-cut shapes, paper, glue, and crayons and the kids went to town. The best part about this craft is that it could be for any age! It's easy, cheap, versatile, and open-ended!

4. I Spy by Jean Marzollo

This craft was the one that the older kids seemed to migrate toward. It was making your own I Spy style scene. I collected a bunch of stuff from around the library and also gave the kids paper to create a background scene. Then they could arrange whatever random things on the paper, take a photo of it, and write a little "I spy..." list to go with it. Here is my example:

I spy 12 red hearts, a taco, a bunny ears ring, and a green feather.

What worked least: I hate to say it, but I think the Laura Vaccaro Seeger craft was too challenging. Not only that, but compared to the others, it was also the least appealing on the table. I was really excited about it, but unfortunately, I'm not sure if this was the right venue to debut it. Maybe another time.

What worked best: The super simple Go Away Big Green Monster table was a hit. This one required the least amount of effort for me to set up and was also the one that I think the families enjoyed most! It's always the way!