On January 24, 2009, 20 participants met in the Bucyrus Public Library's brand new Community Room for an afternoon of Fancy Nancy fun! The majority of the little girls came dressed in their "Fancy Nancy finest", complete with gloves and tiaras in some cases!
As participants arrived, they were given a nametag that said, "Bonjour, my name is...." This came from the Fancy Nancy site.
Children's Librarian Barbara Scott welcomed all with a "bonjour" (that's Nancy's fancy way of saying hello), and shared a brief biography of both Jane O'Conner (the author of the Fancy Nancy books) and Robin Preiss Glasser, the book's illustrator. She also shared the book Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy.
Participants were then released to five different tables located around the room where they could do Fancy Nancy crafts. These stations were:
Create Your Own Bauble!
At this table, participants could pick bracelet styles from a preprinted construction paper with 3 styles on it. This was obtained from the Fancy Nancy site. Stickers were purchased at the local Wal-Mart. As well, odds and ends of star stickers, self-adhesive decorations from Christmas ornament decorations and crayons were provided. Participants could decorate their bauble/bracelet however they wished.
The Perfect Pet Drawing Activity
This activity was also taken from the Fancy Nancy site. Pre-printed sheets invited participants to draw a picture of their perfect pet and also tell all about it....name, what it liked to eat, etc.
Fancy Nancy Coloring Page
This was another great activity from the Fancy Nancy site. Participants used crayons or markers to color a picture of Nancy herself!
Let's Make Fancy Crowns!
This was one of the most popular stations! We had left-over crowns from the Dragons, Dreams, and Daring Deeds summer program as well as left-over ones from our Narnia program. These are the gold foil ones that we purchased through J and A Handy-Crafts. They come in packs of 24 crowns, complete with glue, feathers, foil star stickers and jewels, all for $20.88. The kids had a ball with these!
Let's Make a Fancy Necklace!
This was, by far and away, the most popular station! Wal-Mart has large bags of all sorts of beads for $2-3.00 I purchased 3 of these and also purchased plastic lanyard for stringing. The kids made necklaces, bracelets, even rings in some cases! They were all tres chic! (At this station, I think the moms and grandmas had as much fun as the kids!)
Snacks were served as part of the afternoon. We had cookies, pretzels, fruit snacks and punch. You could easily do finger sandiches or fancy cookies!
Door prizes were also drawn for. The library purchased two Fancy Nancy paperbacks (also from the local Wal-Mart) and our local radio station gave us 8 sets of Fancy Nancy card games that they had gotten.
Although Fancy Nancy's favorite color is purple, I could not find purple tablewear at our Wal-Mart. I opted for pink. I used a pink feather boa (which I wore earlier in the program) to wrap around the punch bowl, and had some fancy little hats and a pair of red high-heel shoes on the snack table as decoration.
Any party catalog that supplies princess items would work for a program like this. And in looking for door prizes or things for goodie bags, check the "princess" section of catalogs or stores. They will be a treasure trove of items!
