By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Little ones were in for a treat this past Wednesday, August 9th, as Holly Miller held a Plant Prints craft event. Holly is the education outreach coordinator at the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. This craft event was centered around some fun things you could do with leaves and took place at the Medfield Public Library.
The Kids Room was packed that afternoon with everyone on the edge of their seat to do some fun crafting. To start, Holly handed out an array of leaves to each table that were laminated. Along with these, crayons and white pieces of paper were also passed out.
As Holly explained, each kiddo would put the piece of paper over the laminated leaf and color over it with the crayon. Once completed, they had a skeleton drawing of the leaves. All were welcome to make an array of these drawings with as many colors as they liked.
Before the youngins started working on this craft, Holly passed out an informational sheet of paper that told them how to identify leaves. Since she brought so many with her, it helped everyone see which kind of leaf they were working with, whether it be simple, compound, toothed, lobed, etc.
After shading over their laminated leaves with crayons, it was then time to move on to Holly’s next craft, the plant prints. Each child received a plain wooden frame that they could decorate with paint markers. Each kiddo had a blast doing so, all of which turned out extremely creative and unique.
Once everyone was almost done with their frames, Holly did a demonstration of how they were going to create their very own plant prints. Starting with a small foam cutout, they would roll some washable paint all over it. Next, they would take any leaf of their choosing and place it rib- side-down onto the painted foam. Finally, each child would place a small piece of paper on top and rub it in. Upon removing the paper, they each had their very own unique plant print that they could put into the frames that they had decorated.
One of the best things about this craft was that there were multiple variations everyone could do. You could add multiple colors to the foam, press a piece of paper on the foam after removing the leaf, press the painted leaf right onto the paper, and more!
Overall, this crafting event was a huge success and all the kiddos were thrilled with what they made. Many were excited to put their frames up at home with their plant prints inside.
This is just one of many kid-based events that the Medfield Public Library hosts. For information about some upcoming events like these, please visit their website at www.medfieldpubliclibrary.org.
