Friday, March 25, 2016

A Look Back at March Programs...

March has been such a busy month in the children's room! We had a lot of programs going on this month, along with St. Patrick's Day, the first day of Spring and Easter all in the same month! I wanted to take a look back on some of my favorite programs of the month and share some of the pictures we took capturing these fun events.  My favorite programs were St. Patrick's Day Crafternoon, Bubble Science and of course Spring Cupcakes!

On March 8th, children came to the Montauk Library to create some pretty awesome St. Patrick's Day crafts.  First, we painted shamrocks using green puffy paint and topped it off with some glitter.  We then made leprechauns by gluing and coloring a leprechaun's face and then painting on his red beard with puffy paint.  Puffy paint is a mixture of equal parts glue and shaving cream, which creates a creamy kind of "paint."  What's really cool about it is that when it dries, it maintains it's puffiness, making whatever you paint pop of the page in 3D.  It also gives your painting a smooth texture once it dries.  To make different colored puffy paint, simply add food coloring and mix!  Our final project was a St. Patrick's Day countdown craft! Children made rainbow chains out of construction paper strips and attached the chain to a pot of gold.  The children made one paper chain link for each day until St. Patrick's Day that remained.  Once they took it home, the children can remove one chain link per day until St. Patrick's Day.  The children had a lot of fun and made some creative and beautiful artwork!





Another great program we had in March was called Bubble Science! Programmer Cheryl Frey Richards came to Montauk and did some bubble experiments with children who signed up for the event.  They also got to create artwork by blowing bubbles with colored bubble solution.  Finally, she showed children how to make giant bubbles! This program was so much fun! Cheryl will be back at the library in May for a program called Boom Painting where children will experiment with fizzing and exploding paint to make awesome artwork.  She will also be visiting the library this summer for an outdoor Jackson Pollack mural painting program.  We can't wait!






Finally, we had a great time at our Spring Cupcakes program where children decorated cupcakes to look like different symbols of spring.  First, we decorated vanilla cupcakes to look like butterflies using m&ms, pretzels, pull-and-peel Twizzlers and green icing.  Second, children sculpted pull-and-peel Twizzlers pieces into birds nests and topped it off with mini Cadbury eggs for our birds nest cupcakes design.  The final cupcake was a fluffy bunny design! Children frosted the cupcake with vanilla frosting and dipped the cupcake in coconut shavings (making the bunny look fluffy).  Then they used marshmallows, jelly beans, m&ms and more coconut to decorate the face and ears of the bunny.  Both sessions for this program were full and everyone had a great time and made some fabulous looking cupcakes!






We had a lot of fun in March and we have even more great programs coming up in April, including a visit from some bunnies, a fruit sushi & dessert pizza making program and more!  Check our upcoming events page for more details!  See you in April!

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Children's author and innovator Dr. Seuss would have turned 112 on March 2, 1904.  Theodor Seuss Geisel, the man behind the pen name, was first an illustrator and cartoonist for several magazines and also worked on ad campaigns and political cartoons before turning to children's books after World War II.  He wrote many classic children's books that remain the cornerstone of children's book collections today.  Dr. Seuss published a total of sixty children's books in his lifetime and has a children's book award named after him, the Theodor Seuss Geisel award, which honors the authors and illustrators of beginner children's books of merit.  To commemorate Dr. Seuss' birthday every year, March 2nd has been named the official date for Read Across America Day, which celebrates reading and promotes reading motivation and awareness for children.

In honor of this wonderfully wacky author and his beloved books, I decided to throw a birthday party for Dr. Seuss this past Saturday, and all the children in Montauk were invited!  We had Cat in the Hat party hats for each child, as well as Lorax mustaches and a chance to play Pin the Hat on the Cat.  But what's a birthday party without dessert? The main event of the birthday party was decorating Seussational Seuss-themed cookies! 

First, everyone made one Cat in the Hat cookie using a chocolate cookie and red velvet oreos stacked on top of it secured by vanilla frosting. This created a replica of the Cat in the Hat's famous hat.  The second cookie we made channeled Sam, Sam I am, from Green Eggs and Ham! We frosted sugar cookies with green frosting and topped it with a Nilla Wafer cookie and sprinkles to create our own green eggs and ham! Our final two cookies were made to look like a red fish and a blue fish from Seuss' classic story One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.   Using red and blue frosting, we frosted the cookies and decorated them with m&ms to make them look like fish.  Children got to take home their treats in a treat box to enjoy. 

We all had a great time honoring Dr. Seuss and getting creative with delicious desserts.  Check out the photos below! Interested in attending our programs? See what's coming up in the month of March here