by Samuel Wang (age 10)
Do you like Family Day? I do. What did you do this year? This Family day, it’s special for me because I was at the Harbourfront Snowglobe Festival.
“Harbourfront is a place where kids can collaborate with others to make things and it’s also Family Day which is good because more people can come here,” said Allison Cummings, the artistic associate of the festival.
There, you’ll find a bunch of amazing activities like the new Snowscape, which is an entire indoor snow globe! There’s also puck signing with Toronto’s hockey legend Wendel Clark, and lots more! All the staff and volunteers have spent lots of time preparing for this event so that an estimated 20,000 people could enjoy the wonderful activities.
“I think people are making snowglobes, playing around at the science table, and I think lots of people are on the ice too,” Cummings said.
As we spoke, there was a hissing sound. “Hisssssssssssssssss.” What’s that noise? It’s coming from the science table.
“What are they doing?” I asked Allison, when I walked over to the science table. She said, “They are playing with dry ice which is about -80 degrees Celsius! It’s so cold that it turns into a gas at room temperature!” The volunteers put the dry ice inside a bottle with tongs and water. Then, smoke came out of the bottle like it was escaping a fire! I put my wet hand over the bottle mouth and I made a bubble of carbon dioxide gas. There was the sound of hissing gas and shouts of laughter. The room suddenly became foggy as the carbon dioxide gas flew out of the bottles. “Who wants to learn how to blow rings of gas?” Another instructor came by and asked.
“Me!” I shouted. The instructor told us to squeeze the bottle with the dry ice quickly, then let go immediately. I followed his instructions and I blew a big ring of gas. As I messed around with the dry ice, a big bubble floated in front of me. Wow! I thought. What a big bubble!
After I finished with the dry ice, I walked over to the bubble making station. I made a big bubble with a special bubble mix. It’s not harmful and you can make it yourself! All you need is 6 cups of water, 1 tablespoon of glycerine, some dishwater soap, and ¼ cup corn syrup. To make the bubble maker, you attach two strings to two straws and you submerge the contraption in the mixture. Then, you push straight up and bring it down to close the bubble. Remember to do it quickly to make a big bubble.
At the big snowscape, there was a big dome in which it appeared that snow was falling everywhere.This is achieved by projecting images of snow, making the dome look like a real snow globe. Lots of kids were also playing around in the fake snow and we could hear laughing sounds nearby.“We had many problems while making the snowglobe because we wanted to create it out of recycled materials, but it was hard to get everything together. In fact, we spent a whole day figuring out an issue with the lighting!” Cummings explained when I asked about the challenges they faced with the Snowscape and how they resolved them.
We then went to the art center to create snow globes. First, we put styrofoam balls on a toothpick in a line, then we added arms and a face. Finally, we put the snowmen into little glass jars. Lots of kids were having a good time. I even saw a snowman made with gold snowballs!
Raymond (L) and Samuel (R) built a snowman using lego
When we went into the Lego room, it was really quiet. I could hear the “click, click, click” of people building with Lego bricks. To my right, there was a display table with lots of models on it. There were houses, towers, and lots more! My friend Raymond, who’s another journalist from Voice K, and I both like Lego so we sat down and began to build our model snowman since it was very cold outside and it fit the winter theme. I collected white Lego bricks while Raymond started to build the snowman. We made the snowballs first and worked our way up to the face. It took a long time, but we built it piece by piece. Once we put on the nose, our masterpiece was finished. We set it on the display table and looked at it. It looked unique compared to the buildings and cars.
I think Harbourfront Snowglobe Festival is a great event for Family Day and we recommend it for anyone who loves winter and enjoys spending time with their family! Hope to see you there next year!
Making snowglobe
