Virtual Program: Food Art for Kids

 Food Art for Kids was a virtual program I was really excited about doing, but it definitely took the most work and prep out of all the virtual programs thus far. It was a challenge and out of my element, but I think it came together well and it's always good to challenge ourselves as librarians and educators. 

Since there were so many great ideas to choose from on what food art to make, I knew I wanted to make sure I included really easy options and more difficult ones so this could be for kids of all ages and for parents who wanted to give it a try. I also wanted to narrow it down to a theme and came up with the idea of food based on children's books. This theme made the program so much fun to show. 

There are so many examples online and some really great holiday ideas too. 

I started off explaining a little bit about food art and how you can play around with food shapes, get your kids to eat healthy foods, and make a nice surprise for snacks and parties. 

The books I used to base around my food art were The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, The Cat in the Hat, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, and Rainbow Fish. All classics and all fun to use as inspiration to make some food art. 

Since it is around Halloween, I also added a simple pumpkin food art craft that uses a clementine and celery. 

This was a virtual program that allowed me to try something I would have avoided doing for an in-person program because it involves food and I wouldn't want to worry about food allergies and germs when food is involved. 

Family Storytime: Dr. Seuss

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday this Saturday, we read Dr. Seuss books and did Dr. Seuss activities for storytime. This was a fun theme with the biggest group for me in the session. I made sure to mention to register for the next session and a few said they already have.

We were able to only read two books since Dr. Seuss books tend to be longer, but the kids really enjoyed Green Eggs and Ham and Hop on Pop.

After we did our bean bag song and read the first book, it was time to get moving again. We danced with our scarves to Seussical the Musical's Green Eggs and Ham song. Afterwards, we read our second book, did the Ten Apples on Top flannel, and sang If You're Happy and You Know It.

They enjoyed their Dr. Seuss hat craft and we had Dr. Seuss stickers! I think the group really enjoyed this one and I'm glad I had a lot of movement ideas since the group was a big one and were energetic. 

A nice way to end the storytime session! Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Other Books:
Dr. Seuss' ABC
My Many Colored Days

Preschool Picasso: Dr. Seuss

This month's Preschool Picasso went very well thanks to Dr. Seuss! I had the biggest turnout I ever had for this program and it was a complete success. 

Because this was our Dr. Seuss theme, I was excited to choose the perfect Dr. Seuss book to read to this group. Since they are older, I read The Cat in the Hat. It is always so fun to read this book and it was Dr. Seuss magic because the kids were listening so well to the story and were genuinely interested to hear it. 

After we read about The Cat in the Hat's mischief, I explained our two crafts for the day. 

Our first craft was making Thing 1from the story. I explained that we had Thing 1 on our paper, but he was missing his blue hair and his red shirt. They had to paint his red shirt on and have some fun making his blue hair. For his hair, they had to use a dropper and fill it with some diluted blue paint and then drop little dots onto the top of their paper. Once they were done experimenting with the droppers, they used a straw to blow the paint around and make his crazy hair. Both the kids and parents loved this part of the craft. Once our paint was dry, we added a Thing 1 name tag to our project.

Our other craft was making a truffula tree from Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. There are so many different ideas available to make truffula trees, but I went with the one that I think would be the most interesting and allowed the most practice with motor skills. I cut out sponge squares and put out forks and different colored neon paint. We used the sponge squares to make the trunks with yellow and black (or whatever color each child wanted to use) and then the forks were used to make the top of the tree but pressing our forks in paint and then onto our paper. The parents liked how this craft allowed their kids to pick their paint colors and experiment with colors, patterns, and prints.  

This is definitely a theme I would want to do again and Preschool Picasso and Toddler Art lets me get a bit more creative with Dr. Seuss as opposed to a standard program where I most likely wouldn't use paint, but some other art format. 

We'll be doing some easier, but similar Dr. Seuss crafts in next week's Toddler Art.