Each year for the Hartsbrook
Holiday Fair, the early childhood/kindergarten
families create, staff, and provide crafts for the Treasures in a
Haystack and Children's Bazaar activities for the youngest visitors to
the fair. This work is organized by a parent each year, who works with the Director of Development who orchestrates the whole fair, and each kindergarten class has a Fair Representative to facilitates the process for that class.
Each family, regardless how many children, is
asked to contribute about 20 small, simple, handcrafted items. Some
craft-loving parents want to make more, and other families don't have
the time or just find this opportunity stressful and overwhelming, and
we balance each other out.
In Fall 2018, as we have done in previous years, we are spending
October Thursday morning craft sessions making crafts for the fair to
augment what kindergarten families are making on their own, and to have an abundance
for the fair. Kindergarten parents are encouraged to join us to make their crafts! We have some supplies, ideas, and encouragement. Please bring your supplies too!
We have a sample box of crafts to look at
and get ideas for what kinds of things you could make. Class fair reps will likely have
sample boxes out at drop-off and pick-up times near the Early Childhood
classes in October. In case you
don't see the items in the box, below are photos of many items that have been made in the past, to give you ideas!
October
2018: Sample crafts are in the display window at the front entrance to Hartsbrook Hall.
We strive to make these crafts by hand, with natural materials, but that is not a requirement. We want a variety of items and we want you to have fun making them! We look to include dolls/gnomes/angels with skin tones of varying race or ethnicity, and invite items that reflect many traditions.
As all our community work is woven together to form the fabric of our
lives, you may also be interested in school efforts to expand inclusion,
diversity, and equity consciousness and efforts at Hartsbrook. If you are interested in participating in this work, contact the school.
The crafts offered in the Childrens Bazaar do not all have to be treasures specifically for kids! It is lovely to have some items that are more useful for the home or as decoration. Sets of small cloth napkins like are used in the kindergartens have been quite popular; wall hangings, sun catchers, small beeswax candles, dish clothes or pot holders or the like would be lovely. It is wonderful to encourage the children to pick out treasures as gifts for others, not just choosing things for themselves, and opening up the crafting to include items other than those for kids is a good way to make this happen.
Tip: See the Hartsbrook SmugMug site for photos of these activities at the fair in previous years.
Sock making timeline
