For my fall kick-off, I picked Melody Ellison to celebrate. I’ve known since last Spring that I would like to create a program around her.Melody’s books are full of different ideas and approaches. I decided to focus on her singing and gardening.

Melody is active in her church. An element of many churches, not all, are stained glass windows. I immediately decided to tie-in stained glass artwork. I gave the participants examples of different stained glass windows. Some of them were religious while others were just pretty windows. I did do a traditional template of church window to keep it some what tied to Melody, but I let the kids go wild with their designs.

The second portion of the program was the gardening aspect. I really struggled with what I wanted the kids to plant. Do I do flowers or something easier? What about the cold weather? I actually decided to do grass! It’s fairly easy to grow in cups, and I told them if they took care of their grass they could cut and style it. I ended putting out sharpie paint pens and allowed to them decorate their cups.

Our snack was pretty simple. POPSICLES! I let the kids and parents have at least two of them.