Friday, January 15, 2016
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolmucci.Thomas used the googly eyes and other decorations to put on his snowman snack cup.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Amiah worked on putting together her snowman snack cup to put the popcorn in when it was snack time during Sprout Club.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Trini held up her finished Snowman snack cup to show everyone what she had created.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Some of the children in the Sprout Club gathered around the Discovery Table during the Popcorn-themed Sprout Club meeting at Fellows Riverside Gardens on Dec. 17.
By ALEXIS BARTOLOMUCCI
The Sprout Club at Fellows Riverside Garden had its monthly meeting on Dec. 17 and this time the topic was all about popcorn.
Lynn Zocolo, the horticlture educator at Mill Creek Metroparks, led the class with help from Mandy Smith, the education director. The children attending learned about popcorn and where it comes from and how the kernels pop into popcorn.
The children started the class with a coloring sheet before Zocolo started walking around with pictures of corn plants, corn and then popcorn. Popcorn kernels were passed out to each child for them to feel, smell and look at.
After the children were done examining the kernels, they starting working on making a snowman snack cup. There was a little, clear cup at each child’s seat for them to decorate. They would put googly eyes on the cup along with a red scarf, then they would draw a mouth and some buttons on to decorate it however they’d like.
While the children waited for their popcorn snack to pop, they all went up to what Zocolo referred to as the “discovery table.” The discovery table had two big bowls on it which contained field corn, popcorn kernels and already pre-popped popcorn, which was used for the children to look at and play with as they waited.
“The smell, you can’t go wrong with popcorn,” said Zocolo as the room filled with the smell of freshly popped popcorn.
When the popcorn finished popping, the children ate their snack while listening to Zocolo read a story about popcorn.
One of the things mentioned in the story was a popcorn volcano, and that’s exactly what Zocolo tried to make as a finale to the event. She laid out a sheet and put the air popper on the ground and removed the lid. She then put kernels in the air popper and waited for the kernels to pop.
The children stood around the air popper, some chanting “popcorn volcano,” as they waited for the popcorn to fly into the air.