Category: moderate staff time

Explore + Discover Together: DNA

Explore + Discover Together: DNA In this art and science program, participants will marvel as they get up close to DNA while exploring the physical characteristic that’s been used to separate us, skin tone. Infinitely riffable based on your population. Full Program Description Investigate the molecule responsible for the incredible diversity of humankind with hands-on…

Sally Battle

February 15, 2026

anti-bias activities, arts + crafts, cost, holiday, moderate staff time, scavenger hunt, staff time, stem, substantial cost
Where Will You Go?

Where Will You Go? — Stories about Travel Developed and contributed by Crystal Elliott O’Connor & Sarah Jo Zaharako as part of the Wilmette Public Library Let’s Learn Together program series. Participants share their stories about travel and create colorful maps. Full Program Description In this program for the whole family, participants will learn about…

Sally Battle

February 14, 2026

knowledge and sense of justice, minimal cost, moderate staff time
Explore + Discover Together: Juneteenth

Explore + Discover Together: Juneteenth In this registered program for families, we read the book My America by Ashley Bryan and Jan Spivey Gilchrist, and chatted over prompts in the art and craft projects. Full Program Description On June 19, we nationally commemorate the day in 1865 when, two and a half years after the…

Sally Battle

January 7, 2026

anti-bias activities, arts + crafts, cost, holiday, moderate staff time, scavenger hunt, staff time, stem, substantial cost
Creation Station: Clay Bowls

Creation Station: Clay Bowls Participants will gain exposure to the similarities among a wide variety of historical cultures, marvel at human ingenuity and creativity, and feel connected as they join a long tradition of human creativity by making their own clay bowl! Full Program Description Craft and create with us! We’ll provide an idea and…

Sally Battle

January 6, 2026

anti-bias activities, arts + crafts, cost, holiday, moderate staff time, scavenger hunt, staff time, stem, substantial cost
Explore + Discover Together: Beads

Explore + Discover Together: Beads Add an easy DIY scratch-off map to any family program that uses beads. Participants will gain a little exposure to a wide variety of world cultures, marvel at human ingenuity and creativity, and feel connected as they join a long tradition of human creativity. Full Program Description Did you know…

Sally Battle

May 3, 2025

anti-bias activities, arts + crafts, cost, holiday, moderate staff time, scavenger hunt, staff time, stem, substantial cost
Explore + Discover Together: Celebrate with Candles

Explore + Discover Together: Celebrate with Candles Participants discover many ways that people around the world use light in various holiday celebrations, then create a decorative candle craft. Full Program Description Explore holidays from various cultures that use candles as part of the celebrations. Then create a festive and unique set of candles. “Tall, I…

Sally Battle

March 22, 2025

anti-bias activities, arts + crafts, cost, holiday, moderate staff time, scavenger hunt, staff time, stem, substantial cost
Family Engineering Rubberband Cars

Family Engineering: Rubberband Cars Participants use the engineering design process to create rubberband-powered cars. Then, they learn about little-known Black inventors who helped make our roads and vehicles safer and are invited to imagine and create an invention to help improve car or road safety! Full Program Description Brainstorm, design, build, and test structures to…

Sally Battle

March 22, 2025

anti-bias activities, best for 4+, Black History Month, cost, minimal cost, moderate staff time, recycled materials, staff time, stem

We recommend...

As always, we recommend pre-reading this book before reading it to your children or group.

In this story, Milo and his sister travel by subway train to visit someone special. Along the way, Milo imagines where other people on the train are headed.

Towards the end of the book, it is revealed that Milo’s mother is incarcerated and that Milo and his sister are on their way to visiting her.

In our workshop, we chose to end the story before Milo’s destination was revealed. We were meeting over Zoom, which made conversations difficult, and we felt that we would not be able to give a conversation about incarceration the attention and time it deserved.

We emailed parents and caregivers to let them know why we did not choose to read the whole story and encouraged them to finish the book on their own. We also encourage parents and caregivers to watch the entire fascinating video from illustrator Christian Robinson.

Be sure to check out the Penguin Random House Teacher’s Guide (a free downloadable pdf) with ideas for talking about this topic with children plus tons of other great material.

As leader, you have a couple of options in introducing this project:

You can tell kids that they’ll be making a color-changing slime. Then they can make a more informed choice about the color of thermochromic pigment and food coloring that they choose. Click here to get a better idea of how to choose the colors of the pigment and food coloring to predict the color of the slime when warm and cool.
Or you can have them make the slime and play with it until they discover a change in color. If you want to go this route, make sure that you choose a thermochromic pigment that changes temperature at a lower temperature (70-80 degrees Fahrenheit); otherwise it may take a while for the slime to warm up and you may need to tell the kids regardless.
Or you can tell them that they’ll be making a slime that has a hidden power and ask them to figure out what it is.

Category: moderate staff time

Explore + Discover Together: DNA

Where Will You Go?

Explore + Discover Together: Juneteenth

Creation Station: Clay Bowls

Explore + Discover Together: Beads

Explore + Discover Together: Celebrate with Candles

Family Engineering Rubberband Cars