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By Amelia Tarallo
Hometown Weekly Staff
These days, when television and iPads are so prevalent in our society, it can be hard to get children excited about reading.
Westwood’s Creative Kids group does just that.
The organized group has been meeting since September. The kids come to each session, ready for activities and excited to read a new book, explore its different themes, and indulge their creative sides. That creativity was on full display last Thursday.
The Creative Kids participants arrived at the library shortly after finishing their school day. “Everyone, find a space on the rug,” said Karen Cagan, who has been organizing and running the group for the last five years. During that time, the group has read 64 different stories, put on numerous plays, and organized various crafts. The group began their program by reading “The Fox and Hen.” The book follows the adventure of Henrietta Hen as she and her fellow barnyard friends try to come up with a way to convince Fox to trade her first egg back to her. Fox, however, is determined to keep the egg and wants to use it try out some new recipes, like poached eggs and omelets.
“I like scrambled!” one of the children said in response.
Still energized after finishing the book, the group moved on to putting on a short play about it. Each child was given a part that corresponded with a character from the book, along with a costume. Once everyone had their costumes on and had their lines in hand, they group began their play. "Lights, camera," Karen began.
"Action!" the kids shouted.
The kids each took turns trying to come up with ways to convince “Fox” that he should give Henrietta her egg back. Finally, they came up with an ingenious plan: they painted a rock to look like an egg. Once again, they approached Fox with the rock disguised as an egg. Finally, Fox was interested and traded Henrietta her egg back. Henrietta returned home with her friends and her beautiful egg, while Fox tried to figure out how to cook with his “egg.”
Following the completion of their wonderful play, the children ran over to a craft table, where a craft had been set up for each of them. “We’re making Easter eggs!” one of the girls exclaimed. To make these eggs, each child picked out six strips of patterned paper and organized them. They then carefully glued the strips of paper onto the egg, making their own unique creations, just as pretty as Henrietta’s.
The next session of Creative Kids will be the last of the season, but those who would like to participate in the future should take heart: the group will resume in September, with even more books, crafts and plays ready.
