Sewing School

I've had sewing workshops with the older kids in the past (ages 10 and up), but due to much wailing and gnashing of teeth from a very very interested younger crowd, I decided to do a sewing class for slightly younger kids this fall. And so Sewing School, a monthly sewing program, was born. 

For the first session, I wanted to get them familiar with the basics of sewing before we started our projects.  

Everyone had a piece of flannel with a needle in it to begin with. I taught them how to thread the needle and tie a knot at the end of the yarn. Then we practiced a simply running stitch on the flannel. 

Once they were comfortable with that, we moved on to the projects: pillows with buttons and lace. 

First, they picked their fabric, the lace they wanted, and the buttons (if they wanted buttons). They cut the fabric to size using sheets of cardboard that were approximately 9x12. 

Then they used the running stitch to attach the ribbon/lace to their pieces. 

Finally, they placed the pieces right-side-to-right-side and sewed them together. 

Then stuffing and closing and TA DA! Pillows! 

The younger kids (I had ages 8-12) did remarkably well with the project and I got ALL of the needles back! (Miracle of miracles). I set the program at 90 minutes, but we probably could have used the full two hours once you factor in the waiting time to untangle thread and troubleshoot crooked projects.

The kids were very proud of their pillows, though, and excited to be involved.

Book Clubs: That's Gross!

For this month's book clubs (I run K-2 then 3rd-5th clubs back to back), I decided to do things that were gross. I pulled a whole bunch of books that we had based on the following search terms: gross, yuck, slime, disgusting, pee, farts, and poop. It was like a third grade boy's favorite Google search terms. 

I did find a whole bunch of books, though! Unfortunately, none of them were Grossology cause I guess that one gets checked out a lot. Well, that just means I don't have to promote it! 

I started by reading: Yikes! Your Body up Close by Mike Janulewicz. 

I didn't read the whole thing, just enough to gross everyone out (giant photos of lice, anyone?). I do wish the flaps had a better reveal of what you are looking at - they just show more magnified parts which you still have to decipher. The skin photo was cool, though. 

We then moved to the table to make dirt cake. I love making dirt cake with the kids. Take oreos, remove the inside stuff, and smash them. Make chocolate pudding. Put a gummy worm in the chocolate pudding and add the crushed oreos on top and I swear it looks like you're spooning up dirt. Delicious, easy, loads of kid appeal, and it involves smashing things. It never ever fails. 

Then we went to craft time: SLIME. 

We ended with slime because it was the messiest and because it invites extended play. The best recipe is from Steve Spangler Science and uses glue and borax. I've been making this particular concoction for years and it's super squishy and gross and fun to play with - definitely a winner.

Slime Ingredients

Slime as boogers. 

Though I didn't make it this time I've also made a fun-to-moosh-around slime out of cornstarch and water. You mix the two until you have a liquid-y type thing which hardens when you squeeze it: 

And when you let go it goes all liquid-y again. It's fascinating... 

 ...but rather difficult to clean up. 

I was going to teach my older kids the "Great Green Globs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" song, but they were a little hyper and I didn't want to add fuel to the fire. It would have been so awesome, though...

I'd say this topic was very successful with both age groups. The Wee Book of Pee definitely elicited some giggles and several people were curious about how toilets work (thank god for David Macaulay!). I also had a pretty high check-out rate for the books that I had pulled, which pleased me.

Book Clubs: Historical Fiction

Every month, I have run two book clubs: Reading Rangers for grades K-2 and Pagemasters for grades 3-5. We talk about what books they are reading, read a book, make a craft, and make a snack. The theme varies from month to month, but the kids are not required to read anything specific before the club. I don't even give them the theme beforehand - I ask them to guess it based on the books I've put out for them to look at.

I start each group by putting out 20-30 books on the rug for them to look at while they wait for the program to start.

This month in our book clubs we tackled Historical Fiction. I recently weeded my intermediate chapter books and my J Fiction and I noticed that if a book was historical fiction it was much more likely to be a candidate for weeding based on circulation alone. This bums me out, so I thought I would highlight the books we have left!

Talking 'bout books and the Theme

The Reading Rangers (grades K-2) and I talked about historical fiction and why The Magic Tree House doesn't really count as historical fiction even though they travel to the past.

Then we read Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt by Lisa Campbell Ernst.

This one was longer than I would usually attempt at this age, so I abbreviated a little as we went. I was worried they wouldn't really be in to it, but when someone in the book says "quilting is only for women" one little girl said "no it isn't!" And the whole group gasped when the quilt fell in the mud.

The Pagemasters (grades 3-5) and I read John, Paul, George, and Ben by Lane Smith which I find hilarious. They found it less so, though they were interested in identifying each historical figure before the book gave away who they were.

I still think this book is hilarious, but I'm starting to doubt its audience. The younger ones wouldn't know who these people are (even the older ones struggled with John Hancock) and the older ones didn't seem to enjoy the humor. But, since I think it's an awesome book, I'm going to chalk this up to my inability to read it properly. 

Both groups did the same craft and snack. We made candles from crayons and made our own butter. 

Candles: 

I pulled out my much maligned toaster oven (poor thing just doesn't work well for my cooking programs) while the kids peeled broken crayon bits and put them in aluminum muffin tins. 

I popped those in the oven until the wax melted, pulled them out and added a wick, and then waited for them to harden. Fortunately, crayon wax hardens quickly. 

Butter:

 I got this idea from a coworker who uses it during a silly cow storytime. I used Talenti gelato containers that someone donated (the kids always want to know if I ate all that gelato by myself) and dice.

Pour some milk into the container. Add a pinch of salt. Add two dice (or marbles if you have them). SHAKE!!!

First you get sour cream: 

Then you get whipped cream: 

Then finally, once the water (buttermilk) separates out, you'll have butter. 

Spread it on bread.

Yum!

It takes a lot of vigorous shaking, but the kids mostly enjoyed that part. I put on "Shake it off" and, if I were to do it again, I would probably make a CD of shaking songs for motivation. 

The younger set mostly made it to whipped cream (which is totally spreadable as whipped butter and it was enough to make them happy), but the older set took great pride in opening their jars for me and having me proclaim "BUTTER!!" 

As an extra bit of butter on the bread, one of the moms sent me a photo of their dinnertime that evening with candles for ambiance and butter for deliciousness. 

I always encourage the kids to take the books I've brought to continue reading on our theme at home. 

Frankentoys

I was cleaning out the office closets at the end of the summer and came across two bags of stuffed animals that someone had donated. Which got me thinking. 

Then we had a town-wide garage sale event (I bought an enormous stuffed bear for the kids to read with for, like, $1) and I figured this was it: it was time to chop up those toys in to FRANKENTOYS!

The set-up for this program was quite simple: the toys, some good scissors, some needles and thread, whatever embellishments I had laying around, some extra stuffing just in case, and hot glue. The program was for 10 and ups, so I was comfortable that they could use the glue gun on their own. 

There was only one rule: if you cut something, you had to have a plan for it. No just ripping in to things willy-nilly. 

At first, it seemed like this rule wasn't going to be necessary. In fact, the entire program teetered on the brink of disaster when the girls started picking up stuffed animals, dubbing them CUTE!! and mourning any cutting that might have to be done. It didn't help that the newspaper reporter who had come (entirely of her own volition - I really am lucky! And that wasn't sarcastic - I consider myself very fortunate to have proactive photo takers!) kept saying "are you really going to cut that one?"

But then. Oh.... glorious then. 

Someone cut one. And then someone else cut another one. And then another one. And suddenly, the whole thing snowballed into one big cutting, gluing, un-stuffing frenzy. I found myself repeating the rule a few times to prevent mayhem.

Some of the results:

Headless by choice, thank you very much.

That tree? Is glued to his butt. Also, he's on wheels. 

That fish head is a measuring tape that comes out when you yank it.
Glorious does not begin to describe it. 

The head-swap twins. 

  

Cerberus. Three headed with yeti arms and a cape. 

Even I, the queen of anthropomorphising everything under the sun, got in on the action.

Especially when this yeti lost his arms to Cerberus.

Doesn't he look just completely bewildered and depressed about his missing arms? 

 I had to make it better.

So I did:

Less flummoxed, more "dear god, why!!"

Each participant ended up taking home 2-3 toys in the end.

And the thought of what might happen to their toys at home after this program... Yeah, it keeps me up nights.

Rock Your Locker!

Some of my tweens just started middle school this year which means: LOCKERS! So I wanted to give them a chance to make their own locker decorations.

This program is pretty flexible with regards to content. The only thing you absolutely need is magnets. Everything else is negotiable; that is to say, the projects that go on those magnets can be pretty much whatever you can make with what you have on hand.

Here's what we made:

1 - Duct Tape Envelopes

Wrap duct tape around a manila envelope and put magnets on the back. These can hold papers, notes... whatever you want. I cut my envelope shorter when I made it so that I could clearly see the papers sticking out of it, but that's a matter of personal preference. Bonus: you can use the top part of the envelope that was just cut to make another folder! Just tape the bottom shut.

2 - Clothespin Clips

We decorated clothespins and then put a strip of magnet tape on the back. These can hold photos, notes, or whatever you want. I had a glitter glue option available, but in the future I'll stick to the jewels, paper flowers, and sharpies. The glitter is just too much mess and takes too long to dry. And I like the flower one better anyway. 

3 - Laminated Letters 

I let the girls (I had only girls this time) use my Lakeshore Learning Die-Cut Machine and a set of capital letters to cut their names out of cardstock. Those were laminated and then magnetized. I had some nice cardstock designs and the girls really liked this one. 

4 - Whiteboards

This was the hit of the session. I had some 4x6 dollar store frames from another project (if you are buying them just for this, though, I'd buy 8x10 to make them a little bigger), so we removed the back, covered it in duct tape, decorated the frame, and put the whole this back together. I had bought some packs of whiteboard markers at the local FiveBelow, so they got one of those, too. 

They were also encouraged to decorate the frames themselves, which they did with gusto.

Magnets on the back and a whiteboard marker makes this a colorful locker whiteboard!

The timing is obviously important with this one and, if I do it again, I'll probably do it a little sooner in the school year just to get that group of kids who are excited by the new year and new school supplies (yes, I was one of them! So many clean new notebooks!). 

Discovery Art: Marcus Pfister

I'm a fan of Marcus Pfister. When I was working in a children's bookstore, he came once to talk to the kids and sign books. He also showed us all how to draw Penguin Pete and was just generally so charming and wonderful that I have been a huge fan ever since. 

Regardless of personal opinions on the Rainbow Fish, the sparkle paper is certainly eye-catching and fun to work with so I decided to have one of our art programs focus on Marcus Pfister. This one was particularly good for me because it worked for my preschool artists (Preschool Explorers) and my afterschool art club (Discovery Art).

First, we read "The Rainbow Fish" and talked about how the illustrations were made. I pulled out a few more Marcus Pfister books and we looked at how he made his watercolors and what he chose to highlight with sparkle. 

Then it was our turn! 

I set out paper, pencils, watercolors, and paintbrushes for the painting part. They could draw and watercolor over it or just paint free-form. I also had glitter foam and scissors so they could cut out the shape of what they wanted to highlight and stick the glitter foam right to their painting. 

 

First we paint!

Then we add glitter parts!

 

 

 

All in all, it worked out pretty well. I think the dot art was a little better overall as some of the kids struggled to come up with ideas of what to paint, but the results shiny and the kids had fun and checked out Marcus Pfister books, so I'm satisfied. 

Sweet Snacks: Chocolate Waffle Ice Cream Sandwiches

For the last Sweet Snacks of the spring session, we made Chocolate Waffle Ice Cream Sandwiches. And yes, it was as good as it sounds. 

I used Alton Brown's recipe to make the chocolate waffles. I only made half a recipe at time which made about 6 waffles. (How did I halve the called-for three eggs? One egg and a yolk. It seemed to work ok.)

Here's what you need: 

We mixed the dry ingredients: 

Then the wet ingredients: 

Then we mixed them together and took them over to the waffle irons. I was lucky to have two of these; I borrowed one from another staff member. 

Chocolate waffles:

To add the ice cream, I took a container of Edy's Slow Churned, put it on its side, and used a big knife to cut about half an inch off the top of the container. I popped out the resulting round of ice cream and placed it between the two waffles.  

The ice cream, halfway through the program. It's been cut down a little bit at this point...

I cut the resulting ice cream sandwiches into triangles and TA DA!: ice cream sandwiches for everyone!

I chose to do a recipe that had a lot of ingredients so that everyone would get a chance to measure something and mix it in. You could also, I presume, use regular just-add-water waffle mix, but that doesn't seem as exciting. Even with all the ingredients that went in to this and making two sandwiches (four waffles) per group, it only took about 20 minutes per group of ten. I love how many times I hear "oh, hey, we can make this at home!"

Verdict: yummy!

Cake Decorating for Tweens

Here's a program I did with my tweens a few weeks ago: Cake Decorating. We've done cupcakes before (I showed them some fun piping techniques and we went to town) but this was an entirely different ballgame. 

But before I go on, here's my warning. This one is neither cheap nor easy, but holy smackers is it fun and worth it. I had kids from 8 to 13 and they LOVED it. 

Here's what we did. 

Before the program, I baked 10 cakes from a mix. That's right, ten. (I used a cake mix, which made it easier, but still...)

I put icing on five of the cakes and stacked the other five on top, giving me five two-layer cakes. I cut those cakes into mostly square pieces (each cake gave me about 8 squares, give or take) and put those on small cake boards. Then I spread icing on the outside and top of each square so the fondant would have something to stick to. 

Granted, you could probably just make five cakes and split them into squares, but I really wanted the kids to be able to decorate the sides of the cake as well and you need a double layer to get enough space for that. 

I then put green frosting into piping bags. One of the bags had a writing frosting tip and the other had a grass frosting tip. I made about 8 grass tipped bags and 6 writing tipped bags for everyone to share. The favorite was definitely the grass one - I should have made more of those. 

Then it was time for the program. I put out parchment paper and a cake square at each place and spread fondant tools, rolling pins, scissors, paintbrushes for the fondant glue, fondant glue, and the frosting bags evenly across the tables. 

Once the kids arrived, they received several different colors of fondant. They rolled white fondant to cover their cake. Then I showed them how to use purple and pink to make a snail and green to make a frog. There was also yellow fondant for flowers and embellishments. 

Snail and frog pre-icing. 

They placed their snail and their frog on their cakes and then got creative with the frosting making grass, vines, and whatever else they could think of. I walked around giving hints and helping execute their ideas. One of the boys (that's right, the BOYS) actually showed the kids around him how to make roses!

Here are some of the results: 

The roses. He figured this out by himself!

Someone used the fondant to make a butterfly. 

Fondant flowers. 

Getting creative with vines and flowers. 

It was great fun and the kids had a blast decorating their own small cakes. The results were stunning and, it was reported to me later, delicious.