School-Age: Bonsai Trees

No, we did not work with actual Bonsai. But we did learn about Bonsai, as well as topiaries, this week.

1. Reading
We read the book, "The Night Gardener" by Terry Fan. It was about a neighborhood brought to life each night as a gardener transformed the trees into works of art, shaped into animals.

2. Discussion
We discussed what 'bonsai' means. I used the definition that I found in the book "Keshiki Bonsai" by Kenji Kobayashi. 

I felt it was the easiest way to explain what 'bonsai' is without getting into the nitty gritty. Kobayashi explains it simply as a plant or tree that is in a container. I connected it to the book, "The Night Gardener", explaining that people shape and trim their bonsai similarly, but the difference is that topiaries are in the ground and bonsai remain in containers. 

I showed them pictures of familiar plants and trees such as an azalea, an apple tree, a citrus tree, cherry blossoms, and even a broccoli that people had trimmed and kept in planters. I told the kids that there is a lot of work that goes into constantly maintaining a tree as a bonsai to make sure it never grows bigger than the pot it is contained in.

3. Activity
I set up an assembly line and had the kids plant their own grass seeds. I told the parents that it was up to them if they wanted to take care of it for the next week or so until the grass grew BUT when they did have grass, the kids could trim their grass bonsai. For my afternoon program, my teen helpers manned the stations. The program later in the week that is in the morning when I do not have helpers, I asked a few of my parents to help.

We pre-filled small Dixie cups with dirt about 3/4 full prior to the program. We had one station of grass seed that the kids took a pinch full of and put in their cups. The next station was dirt that we used to dust over the grass seeds. The last station was of a mason jar (with a lid) and a dropper. We squeezed a few drops of water on the grass seeds to get them started.

I collected the cups after the activity to keep at the front until the end of the program. After the kids went through the assembly line, they brought them to myself or my library assistant and we wrote the child's name on them. We told the kids to come back to collect it after the craft.

4. Craft
Next was the craft. We took 8.5 X 11 sheets of black scratch-art paper. I had my teen helpers cut "trunks" at the base of the paper prior to the program.

I explained to the school-agers that they could make their own bonsai out of the scratch-art paper so they could make one today and have their grass bonsai another day. I told them they could make shapes out of their trees or cut branches - the sky was the limit. I loved what some of the kids came up with. One even made his into a dinosaur!

Here's an example some of my teens made (they are not as creative as the school-agers at times):

Notes:

This week went swimmingly! We had a HUGE crowd at my morning program at the second program of the week (35 kids!!!) so the word 'bonsai' must have intrigued a lot of parents. We had way more kids than we anticipated but, luckily, I had backups for crafts. Thank goodness for having an awesome Library Assistant (LA) who helps me all the time.

We had pre-filled most of the cups but I had extra ones so my LA filled more of them while I was leading the reading/discussion part after she counted how many kids were there. I also had to dip into my back-up scratch-art paper (luckily I had some!!!).

But, even with a crazy amount of kids, everything went smoothly and according to plan. I guess it just goes to show that having back-ups in case of emergency is always a good idea!