Looks like it should be a pretty nice weekend! Head out with the family and enjoy my top picks of this weekend’s activities in the Iowa City area!!
Saturday, November 7th
Free Child’s ID’s at the Iowa City Public Library. 10-11:30am. New York Life Insurance will be on hand outside the Storytime Room to provide free child identification cards. This is a community service initiative dedicated to providing parents and guardians with a tool they can use to help protect their children. The event allows parents to collect specific information by easily recording the physical characteristics and fingerprints of their children on identification cards that are then kept at home by the parent or guardian. If ever needed, this ID will give authorities vital information to assist their efforts to locate a missing child.
Old Capital Extravaganza. 10:00am-5:00pm. Join us for another extravaganza at Old Capital Town Center. You can shop crafters, vendors, and artists from the area. Get your holiday shopping started or finished. Free admission and free “kids day” on Saturday. Giveaways at the event from vendors! Saturday (12-4) will be family fun with Santa, balloon twister, and face painter. Bring your cameras to take pictures.
Mini Cakes. 10-10:30am. Each little one gets to bring a special guest to help them decorate. It could be Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, or anyone else close to them. Class will start with a short demonstration on piping frosting, then each little one and their guest can decorate their own mini cakes. All materials provided, but your are welcome to bring you own apron! Event taking place at the North Liberty Rec Center. Cost is $5 and registration is required. This is for ages 2-6.
Sunday, November 8th
Mini Maker Faire: Meet the Makers. 11:00am. Brandi Ordaz of Active Learners joins us all day with some early education S.T.E.M. activities for younger ones. You can also hear her talk about active learners at 5:00pm. Hands-on activities for the kids include home-made squishy circuits, DYI art, and draw bots to play with. We show you how you don’t have to spend a fortune to deliver quality STEM activities! Great things for even the littlest of makers. If you can’t make Sunday afternoon we will also be in the Old Capital Mall Saturday from 12 to 4 with great FREE STEM activities for their vendor shows. Free fun events for you & the kids.
Science Booster Club Nature Hike. 11:30am. We will be meeting at the shelter on the north side of Hickory Hill Park (on Conklin Lane) at 11:30am this Sunday! There is a parking lot right by the shelter. The BBQ following the hike will be at this shelter as well. The hike will be led by Ray Tallent, an expert in plant biology, from the University of Iowa’s Biology Department. He will teach us about some of the plants that we can find around Iowa City and how these plants prepare for and cope with our cold and snowy Iowa winters.
The Fossil Guy:Dinosaur’s Growing Up. 2:00pm. Don Johnson, “The Fossil Guy,” returns in November with educational paleontology programs for children at 2:00pm on Sunday afternoons at the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History. All “Fossil Guy” programs are free and open to the public, and include 30-minute talks with audience participation followed by 30-minutes of hands-on interaction with Don’s extensive fossil and replica collection. Presentations are geared toward elementary-age children and their families. Don is an amateur paleontologist from Fairfax, IA with a special interest in fossil vertebrates. His collection of fossils and fossil replicas is one of the largest in Iowa, and he has experience collecting fossils in Iowa and other states out West. Recent research has shed light on the growth and development of many kinds of dinosaurs. This program will focus on duck-billed dinosaurs, tyrannosaurs, oviraptorosaurs, and sauropods. See and touch genuine fossil dinosaur bones, teeth, and claws. Examine fossil bones of a special duckbill, “Laura the Kid Dinosaur”, and see how she fits on the Hypacrosaurus growth. See and touch fossil dinosaur eggs, teeth, claws and more. Don will also share his experiences hunting for dinosaur fossils in the badlands of South Dakota & Montana to conclude the program.
