Fancy Nancy Science Party

Everyone:

Thanks for your ideas! Our Fancy Nancy Explorer Extraordinaire Science
Parties were a big success! Each session was supposed to last for only half
an hour, but wound up being 45 minutes because the kids didn't want to
leave!

Our teen librarian found me some terrific volunteers to help with the
party--something I recommend highly!

We had two areas: science crafts and science games. Teen volunteers ran the
craft area while I ran the game area & we switched the kids half way through
the party.

In the craft area, the kids made windsocks and decorated science journals.

We had crepe paper streamers (the kind used to decorate for parties) left
over from another craft, & I remembered making "windsocks" with them during
a previous job at a science museum. The kids pasted pieces of streamer along
the edge of a large sheet of construction paper and then pasted the
construction paper to form a tube with the streamers hanging down. A pipe
cleaner was bent into a handle and scotch taped to the windsock.

To make the science journals, before the party I stapled together the
following inside a large piece of folded construction paper: a list of
resources (science themed Fancy Nancy books, other books of science
activities available in the collection, non-commercial websites), two
"sparkly" science experiments involving crystals, and some lined paper for
recording scientific notes. The kids then decorated the covers with crayons
and whatever stickers and sparkles I could find in the storage closet.

In the games area, I read a "guessing game book" with the kids (one of Tana
Hoban's "Look" books), they made "fossil rubbings" (using plastic plates
with fossil designs), sorted buttons, and played with tinker toys and
kieledescopes. All of the materials in the games area were things that I had
at home & brought in for the kids to play with.

The kids were focused and involved with all of the above activities.

Our publicity person came in at the beginning of the afternoon session and
photographed the girls (with signed parental permission slips)--you should
have seen them posing for the camera in all of their Fancy Nancy finery! Our
PR person made a beautiful poster out of some of the photos for us to hang
in the children's room & use to promote future events.

A couple people on pubyac suggested letting the kids use star stickers and
black construction paper to create star charts or make up their own
constellations. I decided against doing that at the Fancy Nancy event as I
was already doing that activity with the kids in our "Camp Connection"
program & needed every star sticker we have! I must say, though, that it is
an activity that has been a hit with the campers I've done it with so far.

Another suggestion from pubyac was to have a visitor come with live animals
through a park system or rescue group. I skipped that for the party as we've
already had the county park system (snakes), a local AAZA certified aquarium
(various reptiles, including a small alligator), and a rescue group
(parrots) visit the library this summer.

The other pubyac suggestion was making paper flowers. I've filed that one
away for future use--I don't see a waning of Nancy's popularity in the near
future!

--Jennifer