Granville Island
The 37th Annual Vancouver International Children’s Festival takes place May 27 to June 1 on Granville Island with programs that travel from prehistoric to present day.
Ten professional performing artists from as far away as Australia, Israel and Germany will perform 73 shows in five Granville Island venues, including four indoor and one Big Top tent. The festival’s Activity Village makes it easy for the whole family to be creatively adventurous together with activities such as mask making, bicycle spin-art, origami, circus skills, the Twist & Toddle play area and much more. The festival expects 30,000 children and adults in attendance next weekend.
Highlights of this year’s festival include: Fred Penner, one of Canada’s best-loved children’s singers; the North American premiere of Invisi’BALL — a show that combines dance, theatre and pantomime in a game of soccer, the eye-popping performance of the Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo — large-scale dinosaur puppets kids get to see, feel and touch up close; the English-language premiere of Where I Live, a play that invites small children to explore their place in the world; and five special evening performances including Pajama Nights.
Tickets for featured performances are on sale now. Visit childrensfestival.ca for more information.
Various locations
For all of June some of this city’s restaurants will be adding $1 to a popular menu item to help fund Growing Chefs Classroom Gardening Program.
Over the course of a three-month Growing Chefs classroom program, more than 1,000 children will grow, harvest, and taste a variety of organic and delicious greens. Students plant windowsill gardens n the chefs’ first visit to a classroom. The chefs then return every two weeks to give lessons on plant growth, nutrition, urban agriculture and sustainability. At the end of the program, the chefs help students harvest their gardens and give cooking lessons with the vegetables they grew.
Last year the non-profit’s Eat, Give, Grow campaign raised $8,000 towards the program, which teaches children about urban agriculture, local food, healthy cooking and proper nutrition.
With programs in 34 classrooms across the province, Growing Chefs has a $10,000 goal for this year’s event. Just some of the restaurants taking part include Tableau Bar Bistro, Homer St. Cafe, MARKET by Jean-Georges and Chambar. For a complete list visit growingchefs.ca.
Downtown
Parents might want to get in on these two workshops taking place at the Vancouver Public Library’s Central Branch in June.
The first, Getting to Know Facebook, is designed to teach the basics of the social media site.
Learn how to stay connected with friends and family by sharing on Facebook. Parents with kids active on Facebook might also find this session informative. The free sessions takes place June 3, 13 and 25 in the computer training room of the library.
On June 2, the library is hosting a workshop called Raising Financially Responsible Teens.
Parents will learn strategies to help their teenager become a financially responsible adult by planning for school, buying a vehicle and even saving for a home.
This session is being presented in partnership with the Credit Counselling Society of B.C. in the Alma VanDusen Room on the lower level of the Central Library, 350 West Georgia St. This session is free but registration is required.
For more information and times on all of these sessions, call 604-331-3603 or visit vpl.ca/events.
