volunteer supervise both tables, although it is better to have
separate supervision. The most successful placement for the
Kid’s Corner is near the entrance where kids and their parents
will see it right away.
The Houston Orchid Society created a “Photo Panel” to stand
at the Kid’s Corner and catch participants attention. The Kid’s
Corner consisted of a table of activities and a hanging vinyl
photo (4’x 6’) of an orchid. The vinyl poster hung from a photographers’ frame and had the center cut out of one of the
flowers for a child’s (or adult’s) face. Parents or friends would
take photos of their child’s/friends face in the flower. In a future issue, I will include detailed instructions so your club can
setup and create this very successful activity.
The children’s table consisted of: sorting boxes, coloring pages, two plants and drawing paper for children to make their
picture, and an orchid scavenger hunt containing flowers exhibited in the show.
For the sorting boxes: each box should have a type of orchid printed on it and photos of orchids of that type should
be pasted on the box. The children were given envelopes of
laminated photos of individual orchids to sort into the correct
boxes. For those too young to sort by orchid type, other boxes
were painted with a single color. The same photos could be
sorted into these boxes by orchid color.
Coloring pages are printed from the internet and an orchid
coloring book.
The orchid scavenger hunt consisted of manila folders. Each
folder had about 10 photos of orchid flowers in the show. These
were numbered and stapled onto one side of the folder. The
facing side of the folder had a chart for the child to write in
the name of each orchid and the exhibit containing the plant.
Rewards
Each child who participates in an activity can be rewarded
with a mini-ribbon. Collect old ribbons from members before
the show and cut off the back (with the date, etc.) and any club
name on the front that is not your own club. This results in
small ribbons the child can pin on a shirt. (Supply safety pins
with the ribbons.) The object is to have children wandering
the show wearing ribbons and feeling good about themselves.
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