Pumpkin Town - Fall Festival - 2011
Fall breakfast event for young children and families featuring a program story-telling with author Katie McKy and a light breakfast provided by ECFE.
- Dates: Saturday, October 30, 2010 9:30am - 11am
- Location: Lincoln School Gym
- Partner Organization(s): Katie McKy, author of Pumpkin Town, Fairmont Early Childhood Family Education
- Partner Organization(s) Contribution/Role in the Program: ECFC - use of school gym, staff provided free of charge, breakfast and PR assistance. Author - publicity assistance and program experience
- Partner Financial Support: $300.00
- In-Kind Support: $747.50
- Program Outputs: This was extremely positive event and a wonderful way to engage our community in the power of reading, play-acting and learning together. We are grateful for the funds available through TdS so that we can provide programming of this nature to our communities.
More than 200 people attended our "Pumpkin Town" festival on October 30, 2010. The event was primarily targeted to families with children in the 2 years to 6 years age range, although older children were also in attendance. Adults were asked to answer a few questions and feedback was also solicited from children and families informally by the staff. Overall, the feedback we received was all positive. Families enjoyed the activity and felt that it was a worthwhile learning experience.
- Some of the other comments heard by the staff following the event were:
"Thank you for the fun time!"
"Great time on Saturday, the kids loved it!"
"Thank you so much."
"Wow, the author was great. She was very talented and really involved the kids."
Measurable Outcomes may be collected by survey, anecdotal responses, pre-test/post-test, observations; Describe proposed end user change in Behavior, Attitude, Skills, Knowledge, Condition and/or Status.
- Children will have an immersive book experience.
- Parents will learn how to bring stories to life for their kids.
- Families will work together on a project related to the story.
- Children will be exposed to a new book title and author.
- Families will leave with a new fall craft and activity ideas.
Children in attendance truly had an "immersive book experience" because the author herself, Katie McKy, came and brought to life the story of Pumpkin Town. She illustrated to the children how a story that begins on the page can come to life in a fun, interactive way. Following the performance, many of the people in attendance purchased books to take home. This will further our goals (as the library) to encourage lifelong learning and literacy.As part of our evaluation, we asked parents if they saw the value in bringing stories to life with their kids. All respondents said "yes". Katie showed how taking a story and acting it out can further engage children. We also sang songs at the end of the event that tied in with the story. Parents received song sheets at the end of the day, to help them replicate similar practices at home. Another goal for the event was to encourage families to participate in a project related to the story. With our combination of three craft projects, every family had the opportunity to work together on leaf stamping, pumpkin picture frames and pumpkin scratch ornaments. This provided us with a chance to show parents how to tie related activities into the story framework.Children in attendance were exposed to a new author and book titles. They had the opportunity to meet Katie McKy, take photographs with her and many of the children had stories to share with her. "You are so funny," many children said to her. Another little girl said, "You're funny, just like me." To which Katie replied, "Maybe we should be a comedy team." The little girl smiled. Children were also exposed to new book titles, as Katie has written three children's books. She spoke briefly about each of them and the lessons they teach.