Did you know that you can make a sari out of only 3 1/2 yards of fabric? I purchased a length of costume satin - inexpensive, but bright and shiny. I trimmed all of the edges and treated it with some frey check to keep the fabric from unraveling. If I had wanted my makeshift sari to be a bit more professional I would have hemmed all of the edges, but I was all in favor of quick and easy.
To make these hats (called a Non La in Vietnam and usually woven out of straw), we cut out 9-inch circles of poster board and then cut a slit in each circle. The kids could decorate their circle before we helped them roll it into a cone shape. Tape was used to hold the ends down. We then cut a length of yarn and taped/stapled it to each side of the hat - this string goes under the chin and helps to hold the hat on.
At one station I had two bowls. On had a few cotton balls inside. Kids could then learn to use chopsticks (a diagram was provided to show you how to hold the chopsticks) and try to move the cotton balls from one bowl to the other.
One of our lovely volunteers had actually done quite a bit of missionary work in West Africa. She also has a music background, so she brought in drums, a xylophone, and a number of other cool instruments for the kids to try.
Other activities not pictured here included:
Snacks - I wanted to serve food that originated someplace other than the United States, but I didn't want to put out anything too exotic for fear that picky eaters wouldn't want to try it. In the end I settled on French bread with Nutella and a cheesy risotto. Both were a big hit and very easy to prepare.
Origami - I took the low-maintenance approach to this activity with mixed results. I put out several books with instructions for "easy" origami and the paper and let the kids go to town on their own. Some of the kids - younger ones especially - could have used a bit more guidance from a staff member (unfortunately there weren't enough to go around), but generally parents were able to decipher the instructions themselves and help their own children.
World Languages - I'm lucky enough to have a staff person who's a bit of a language guru. She's a former German teacher who's also dabbled a bit in French, Italian, and Japanese. She and a former student native to Germany introduced the kids to a few phrases in other tongues. We also had on loan a collection of various editions of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar in several other languages available for the kids to browse.
Scavenger Hunt - I hid photos of various world landmarks around the library and challenged the kids to find them. Everyone who found all of six photos was entered into a drawing for a free book!
Book Display - Naturally, I did a big display of books set in or about other places around the world.
We all had a blast at this program. There was quite a bit going on, but we tried to keep the activities as simple as possible so things ran very smoothly. Our estimated 100 guests all seemed to have fun exploring the myraid world activities, so we can definitely count this as a successful program!
1 comment:
What a cool program! That must have taken ages to assemble. Way to be awesome, you.
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