Kaleidoscopes offer new way to look at fair

Combining entertainment and education is the goal of a featured attraction at this year's Yuba-Sutter Fair.

Kaleido-Tainment, an exhibit in the Kids Zone, shows children and adults alike the fun that can be had with kaleidoscopes.

"This is my second year working with Will Smith – he's the one that makes all these kaleidoscopes," said Darleen Giannini, who is running the booth with her husband. "But he's been doing this for years. He's a genius at what he does."

Giannini's job is showing fairgoers several types of kaleidoscopes and teleidoscopes.

"A teleidoscope is like a kaleidoscope," she explained. "Except a teleidoscope has a marble ball at the end, so instead of seeing just colors and shapes, the viewer sees whatever is next to the ball."

Sammy Rodriguez, 5, of Live Oak and his mother, Melissa, both tried looking through the teleidoscope Thursday.

"I saw my mom a lot," Sammy said. Darleen also showed Sammy a teleidoscope that allowed him to see himself on a TV screen. "I call this kaleidovision," she said, pointing at the screen. "And I call this kaleido-you."

Sammy laughed as he jumped up and down and watched his kaleidoscope counterpart do the same.

Hannah Prillwitz, 6, also enjoyed looking through kaleidoscopes. "I like the colors," she said.

Joseph Rodriguez,11, liked looking at the colors, too. "I've never seen anything like this before," he said.

Giannini said the reaction to the different kaleidoscopes is uniformly positive.

"Sometimes we'll have people come over who think they're too old or too cool for kaleidoscopes. But they always end up so engrossed," she said.

"I think it's neat to show kids how you can take any everyday object and make it look different under a taleidoscope. But mostly it's fun." "I think it's neat to show kids how you can take any everyday object and make it look different under a teleidoscope. But mostly it's fun."