Abilene CALF 2012 Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of the Abilene Children’s Literacy and Art Festival (CALF)!

If you didn’t read my post on Day 1 you can go here to read it now, otherwise please continue…

A big part of the festival was the dramatic readings and these started on Day 2, Friday. On both Friday and Saturday there were three different times that you could go to the readings. There were 8 readings that took place during each time slot, so sadly that meant that you couldn’t attend all 8.

The 8 readings were The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, The Sneetches, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, If I Ran the Zoo, Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hears a Who, and Yertle the Turtle. There were also 2 movies that you could see at The Paramount Theater either Friday or Saturday, The Lorax or Horton Hears a Who.

We started the day off with breakfast at the hotel and then headed to The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature (NCCIL) for the reading of The Lorax. The NCCIL is an open gallery and the exhibit was about The Lorax. At the end of the reading the Lorax showed up for pictures and everyone with a lanyard and pass was given a button to display on the lanyard. They also had an activity for the kids to do. They used Model Magic to create animals. They got to pick a color and a cookie cutter to make their animal. Both boys picked white and then used markers to color them. Connor made a dinosaur and JT used the seal cookie cutter but added feathers to his and it ended up looking like a bird. I took a picture of the boys as they were making their animals but yet again I didn’t take a picture when they were finished.

After that we went to visit my grandparents for lunch. The boys enjoyed playing ball with their Great Grandpa and playing outside.

After lunch we headed back to the festival. There were several statues in different areas, mostly close to where their related reading was being held.

We had some time before the next reading so we went into a resting area, I can’t remember what exactly it was called but it was in the shade and they had coloring pages for the kids and lemonade. The boys then decided they wanted to change into their CALF t-shirts so we walked back to the car so they could change. Once they were in their t-shirts they were ready for the reading of The Sneetches.

After the reading the kids were able to make their own star to wear upon thars but the boys didn’t want to be star-bellied Sneetches so we just got our buttons, bought the book, and went back to the hotel. We had also purchased The Lorax and How the Grinch Stole Christmas at the NCCIL

Later that evening we went to the showing of The Lorax at The Paramount. I hadn’t seen the movie before and I really enjoyed it; it was also just fun to go to a movie which is something we don’t do very often. The theater itself is pretty inside and reminded me of The Majestic Theater here in San Antonio. The movie was a great end to the day.

Stay tuned for day 3 of the Abilene Children’s Art & Literacy Festival 2012.