Mad Hatter Hats, Guest Author J. Fischer

A special welcome today to my latest guest author...... with an idea that would be awesome in time for Easter bonnet parade this weekend. Many thanks to Jennifer for sharing such fun! I'm so grateful for your ideas!! -- Debbie --

Every time I’ve seen these Crazy Hats being made, it has been a huge hit. A friend of mine did a Crazy Hat booth at a major city event and the booth always had the longest line. When they decided to change up events, and she offered to give me the materials they had left, I quickly accepted.

When I ran an After-School program, we used this activity as the featured activity at an Alice in Wonderland fundraising carnival we did to raise funds for clean water in Burkina Faso (a small country in Africa). Crazy Hats became Mad Hatter Hats! Once again, huge hit!!

(Note: if you are doing these with large numbers of children at a program or party, make sure you have enough adult helpers as glue guns are required). My 4th-6th graders really loved it.

Directions for making Mad Hatter Hats:

Materials (per hat):

1. Brown paper bag (size: 12x7x17" – you can order them at uline.com, but we just got them from grocery stores for free)

2. 22" x 22" square fabric (to cover full hat)*

3. 2" x 60" long fabric (to wrap around edge of hat)*

4. Hot glue and glue guns

5. Fun trinkets to attach to the hats (I found incomplete decks of cards as one of the trinket add-ons, these were really popular)

Hat Making Directions:

1. Take brown paper bag and roll the bottom upwards (on the outside of bag)

2. Square fabric goes over the rolled paper bag (while bag is on patrons head)

3. Long fabric gets tied around the edge (just above the roll) to fit the head size (many of the girls enjoyed braided the fabric to make pretty strips for tying around0

4. Take hat off, turn hat with fabric attached upside down to hot glue the lose pieces of fabric inside the paper bag

5. Add trinkets to outside of hat with hot glue gun

*My friend recommends getting fabric in a wholesale fabric district, if you can (so that you can get stuff for $1/yard or less). You could also make them without the fabric and just decorate the banks with stamps or paint them or just the trinkets if you didn’t want to deal with the fabric.



Another fun idea to go along with this would be to do a tea party (of course) in which your children get the big hats and you use small lunch bags to decorate with just stickers, markers, trinkets and/or paint (no fabric) for the tea party “guests” (AKA stuffed animals and dolls). We did the simple, small lunch bag hats for some of the younger children so that they could make them on their own with regular glue and markers.

This is a link to a blog I wrote about the fundraising event’s success. Read back to see how the act of one generous child changed the outcome of our efforts.

Dynamic Deborah Duo

Movers and Shakers. Game-changers. Quantum-leapers. Meet Deborah Stewart up a little bit closer. She is a dynamo of vision which is awesome, but she is absolutely a visionary when it comes to action-on-behalf-of-children and for that I stand even more in awe. The fact that both of us are named "Deborah Jo" and have Indiana-roots just adds to my list of smiles and reasons to like her. Here we are at the Indiana AEYC conference this spring, where I've asked Mrs. Stewart to join my stage as I share my song and it's picture book format, "Tall Giraffe."

I happen to know that Deborah likes this particular song of mine. I know because she's told me. She told me from the stage of her workshop for NAEYC in CA last fall. In front of a packed room, standing room only -- packed room, Deborah saw me in the pack stacked in the back and brought me to her stage. She then suggested that we sing "Tall Giraffe" together. Which we did accapello. There was instant acclaim. Much applause.

When I saw her in my packed workshop, I knew turn about was certainly fair play. So here she joins me, channeling her best Vanna White impression to turn the pages so I can lead the teachers in the sign language sing-a-long.

There are people who have given me a hand-up. Given encouragement. Given support. Then there are game changers. Game changers are the ones, who by their sponsorship and care giving, by offering their connections and connecting the dots help me make a quantum leap forward. Deborah is a Quantum-leaper.

My Hostess with Da Mostest

As the morning progressed the fun continued to unfold in wave after wave of delight. Here you see my hostess, Danielle Vaughan joining me up on stage for the introduction of my picture book, "Tall Giraffe" to her eager students. Of course my costume adds to the hilarity and everyone's eager to get started. We're reading, we're singing, we're signing, we're smiling. The very best way to share a book is to get everyone involved. That's my motto: everyone involved! I think you can see we did indeed have everyone joining in the fun.

In those final pictures I'm reading the 'welcome' book that Danielle created for me as a gift to remember our time together. It's not always that I'm given a book from my wee ones. Danielle's mom wrote the words and they created the art together, by using photos from my blog. It's a real keeper!!

Who is Having the Most Fun?

Let me just say right here & right now...... the children of the future are going to be in good hands, if the pre-professionals at this JVS are any reflection of the zest & energy in the pipeline. These teachers-in-the-making obviously have everything it takes to succeed with children: enthusiasm, responsiveness & a desire to engage with a smile of zip!!! Now who do you think is having the most fun? Me? The teenagers? Happy, happy. Joy, joy, joy!!

Kentucky Continues

Diva Mic & Speaker System!

Back to Ohio. It's always fun to get a 'return' invitation. The last time I was at Beavercreek it was in the midst of a monsoon of a downpour of rain, the kind that makes an impression. This time my visit was during a wind-warning advisory, the kind that can blow a small dog down the block. A lot has happened since my last visit. For one thing I have a blog!! For another I am now the author of THREE picture books. It's awesome to arrive and be led back to the gym that is wired for sound AND has a DIVA mic!! The kind that seamlessly wraps around your ear and allows the last child in the last row to hear me whisper from the stage. I just LOVE that type of setting. It's fun to return to friends.

Next, Marcia-the-director, tells me about all the times they've used my first book, "You're Wonderful" in the interim of my visits. What a joy to hear that it has become their standard performance number for their annual kindergarten graduation -- complete with sign language. Seriously a joy to have this year's kindergarten class sing it with strength and commitment.

First though we fill the gym with enthusiastic kindergartners and some eager PreK kiddos and turn on our imaginations for a "Lion Prowl." Having that sort of microphone allows for all sort of antics from the stage, engaging the children is as easy as breathing.

Costumes Galore!!

You know you've walked into a special program when the goldfish are as big as the children. This brilliant teacher takes the koi from her summer pond and brings them into the classroom (yes, in a MIGHTY big tank.) We posed that little gremlin face so that you could see that I wasn't exaggerating. Goldie the goldfish is a whopper!! Welcome to Ephraim's Peninsula Preschool, hosted by Leslie Leline and lots of princess-people, some ninjas and a stray Spider Man. I got to be the special guest for the day. Just because!! They were tickled to see me in my "Tall Giraffe" costume and then spiffie-changeo I turned into a fierce lion and took them on a "Lion Prowl." Thanks, Mrs. L for opening the door to all sorts of fun & imaginations running wild.

"Glee" in Real Life

While my connection to cyber-leprecauns is connected, I wanna get caught up on some sights & sounds that I haven't yet shared. Goodness, I have daisies & sunsets & yoga & flowers & all sorts of details that I haven't yet gotten onto my photo journal of adventures.
It's been at least a weekor two since our annual favorite-performance-of-the-summer night. Think Glee in real life. This is the 42nd summer for the "Kids from Wisconsin" to demonstrate just what teenagers are capable of producing. We get to go to professional musicals all the time, but the calibar of this evening's performance is always about four levels above anything else we see in the course of the year. It's raw energy. Total energy. Powerful energy. It must be all of those teenage hormones that drives it to the level of awesome. There are 10 guys & 10 gals and a 16 piece jazz band. The choreography is seriously incredible. They go thru 8 to 10 costume changes per evening. The first two pictures are their ode to "Grease" and the final picture is from the grand finale. Kudos to the Kids!!

Sacred Threads OverAlls

Last week provided an excellant "retail therapy" session in the quaint college-town of Deland FL, where my parents live. First off let me apologize for neglecting to take any pictures of the people on the trip. DUH. My parents and my Hoosier Aunt Sue were the prompt for our Deland outting, yet in all the fun & excitement of our visiting, I forgot to pose any pictures with them. But look what I found vagabonding thru the various coffee shops, art galleries, antique stores and the quilt shop.

These new overalls are from the company Sacred Threads, which is an ingenious fair trade company out of India. I have several other garments of their 'patchwork' style, including my awesome floor length jacket that never fails to receive an inquiry..... but these, these are so perfect beyond belief. The BRIGHT colors and designs make my heart sing. I can't wait to wear them out to literally sing with kids. The timing is brilliant, as my 'original happy pants' are getting so very thin in the derriere. Whooohooooo. The fact that they were on sale just made them all the more irresistable. [Little did he know that I would have paid 3 times the normal price.]