[LM_NET] SHARE: Cirque du Freak Party

[Sandra Lingo <slingo47@FUSE.NET>]

In my original post, I asked for ideas for a Cirque du Freak party, but only got 
one response—a link to an article about the 5-legged dog:

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/5-Legged-Pup-Rescued-From-Coney-Sideshow.html

I had to rely on my own meager imagination to plan a party.  I’m happy to say the 
hour and a half party was a hit, so I thought I’d share what we did.  

While we (the public librarian and I) were getting organized, the kids looked at 
books with historical circus posters and pictures of old circuses including 
“freak” acts.  Be prepared to discuss with your kids the politically incorrect 
nature of historical pictures.  We also shared the article about the five-legged 
dog.  We watched the movie trailer.

Then kids selected their bottle of “blood”  to "sip," as Crepsley said.   I 
mixed fruit punch powder packets into bottled water and got a very authentic color. 
 I typed blood type labels on lime green cardstock (O Positive, AB Positive, A 
Negative, etc.) and taped them over the label on the water bottle.  I used a glue 
gun to glue a rubbery spider on top of each bottle.

Each student got a goodie bag.  On lunch bags, I glued pictures of Cirque du Freak 
book covers.  Inside I put little containers of chocolate icing, a baggie with 
black and red string licorice, a plastic knife, chocolate eyeballs, little 
Halloween treat bags of Dots and life savers, and a paper strip of those tiny candy 
dots.  Students used the contents to make their spider cupcakes.  Anything not used 
for the cupcake was theirs to eat.

I found several pictures of spider cupcakes on the Internet.  I compiled pictures 
of the samples on cardstock.  I offered chocolate and yellow cupcakes (no icing) to 
kids to decorate with contents from their goodie bags and a variety of sprinkles on 
the tables.  I gave them disposable plastic plates to put the cupcake on.  In 
addition, I had iced cupcakes for them to eat, in case they wanted to take their 
spider cupcakes home rather than eat them.

After they were finished decorating and eating, they circulated among three 
stations.  One station was a Plinko game I borrowed from a church (they use it for 
their carnivals), a second was face painting (to look like book characters), and 
the third had two cut outs (one of Crepsley and one of the bearded lady) where kids 
posed (putting their faces in the openings)  and had their pictures taken.  At the 
Plinko station, I had 3 buckets of prizes, designated for different point values.  
For the last half hour, we had three rounds of trivia questions.  Kids had to have 
read at least one book in the series to come to the party.  I was amazed what 
details kids were able to remember!  Kids worked in pairs.  The top three scoring 
teams won a Cirque du Freak book.  

I’m going to the movie today—sad to say, it’s gotten poor reviews.  Why, oh 
why, did they have to make it PG-13?  It won’t be long before it’s out on DVD, 
so you could have a movie party.



--
Sandra Lingo, Librarian
Delhi Middle School
5280 Foley Road
Cincinnati, Ohio   45238
slingo47@fuse.net

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