Every year the Empty Bowls dinner raises money for the efforts of Just Harvest and Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to end hunger in our region. This family-friendly event is also an excellent opportunity to expose your child to some important issues: the existence of hunger and poverty, and the power of a community working together to help people.
Once again this year, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh will be volunteering their creativity and skills to help make that lesson a fun one for the kids. They will be providing the materials and guidance for two activities:
Seeds of Change – Using seed paper children will write down something that made them mad or sad, tear up the paper and mix it with clay and mud to make a seed bomb that they can give away or plant themselves.
Coffee Filter Craft – Using spray bottles filled with different colors of water, children will decorate coffee filters in any pattern they choose.
Says Bill Schlageter of the Children’s Museum, “Making art allows children to represent their personal meaning, questions, understanding and ideas on a nonverbal, creative level. This is especially useful around serious and complex issues such as these, as exploring artistic media helps them represent ideas and feelings they may not developmentally be able to express in other ways – the ‘real stuff’ of art making.”
And the art making and lesson learning need not stop when the event is over. Both crafts will leave your child with items that can further transform over time – thanks to their patience and nurturing, and their creativity.
And what better lesson is there?
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