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Children create with cardboard at Marengo library
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MARENGO — “We are a believer of child-led opportunities,” Rebekah Domayer, of Iowa Children’s Museum, said while waiting for children to arrive for a program at Marengo Public Library Thursday.
“Child-led” activities are those that give children control over what they create, said Domayer. The children decide how to use the material they are given.
Iowa Children’s Museum provided cardboard, paper, tape and tools Thursday so children could build whatever they liked. The children imagine what they can build, and they fine-tune their motor skills while using the tools, said Domayer.
Children learn methods of problem solving as they figure out how to create what they’ve imagined.
Domayer showed the children “really, really thick, awesome, corrugated cardboard.” She showed them “some really thin pizza boxes,” that were easier to cut. “This stuff is really great for really small details,” she said.
Paper was provided for children who wanted to draw their designs before beginning construction, like architects do, said Domayer.
The tools available included a safe saw to cut thick cardboard, a Klever Kutter with an unexposed razor blade that makes cutting safer, scissors and a tool that looked like a pizza roller which creates perforations that make cardboard easy to fold.
“Think about what you want to design,” Domayer told the children. “A house, a zoo, a rocket.” Then she turned them loose with instructions to share and to be kind.
About 15 children attended the event. Domayer noted the diversity of the creations the children constructed, a common occurrence in child-led activities and one of the main reasons them.
Kaelyn Dietrich and Winnie Stubblefield teamed up to make a large rocket. Other children worked by themselves.
Copper Phelps made a tower. Seated next to her on the floor, her brother Onyx Phelps created a power plant that runs on recyclables.
Onyx said that Create with Cardboard is his favorite summer reading activity. He built a power plant last year, said his mother, Adrienne. He expanded it this year to include recycling.
Onyx is very passionate about recycling, said Adrienne. “We call him Captain Planet at home.
Sherra Bonnichsen, an Iowa Valley High School Student, helped Onyx with his creation. “I do this every summer for the reading program,” said Bonnichsen. She likes interacting with the community, and it helps the library, she said.
“This is really fun,” said Bonnichsen. She remembers many of the children — including Onyx — from last year.
Bonnichsen helps with many programs at the Marengo library, but she especially likes Creating with Cardboard. “This is probably my favorite one,” Bonnichsen said. It encourages all the children to be creative.
Iowa Children’s Museum also provided information about the Museum, located at Coralville Mall in Coralville.
The museum is open all year round, Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., said Domayer. The non-profit organization relies on sponsorships and grant funding for revenue.
While the Marengo library’s summer reading program brought Iowa Children’s Museum to Iowa County June 5, the staff travels all year, taking activities wherever children are gathered.
“We believe that every child should have the opportunity to create,” said Domayer.
From June through August, The Iowa Children’s Museum sets up outdoor play dates at parks in Coralville and Iowa City and visits communities all summer long.
Iowa Children’s Museum will have children’s activities at Blairstown Public Library June 26, at Montezuma Public Library July 10 and at Victor Public Library July 23.
