Author Archives: Dana Sheridan

The Great (Museum) Escape

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Katie, our resident queen of escape rooms, stumbled upon this little gem on a road trip, and decided to give it a go in the spirit of fun! Take it away, Katie!

Tucked away on a lower shelf in the toys/games aisle at the Walgreen’s Pharmacy outside of Sevierville, Tennessee was where I found the next at-home escape room to test for Pop Goes the Page. Created by Professor Puzzle, the mini game is titled “Escape from the Museum” and includes everything you need for the solve in a handy and travel friendly 3.5-inch by 5-inch box. Recommended for ages 12+, the list price on Amazon is $20.98, though I got my game on clearance for $3.99.

After reading the explanation story and glancing through the instructions, I carefully laid out the 11 puzzle cards and accompanying materials, which included a museum map, a calendar of events, a selection of rare postage stamps, and a foldout titled the “Cabinet of Curiosities.” Never fear: there are solutions provided for all of the puzzles if you get stuck.

I worked my way through the cards, starting with what I could solve the fastest to what I found was the most difficult. My personal favorite puzzles were mazes that cleverly hid a clue within the walls of the maze; it was a puzzle style I had never encountered before, but now hope to recreate myself.

It took me just over 3.5 hours to finish. I only needed to consult the solutions list once when I could NOT figure out the connection between two words. It was obscure enough that even after I had the answer, it still didn’t make sense. And when I say the way to escape was in plain sight, it was right there and I totally glanced over it until I solved all of the puzzles!

My only complaint is the game can only be played once. I have found other at-home escape rooms are able to be solved by taking notes on scratch paper, but that’s not the case here. It would be impossible to finish without writing directly on almost all of the provided cards.

“Escape from the Museum” is ideal to bring on vacation, pull out on a rainy weekend afternoon, or play anytime you need a fun challenge. It can absolutely be solved by just one person, but the individual cards easily allow for more players to participate. I agree with the suggested age range for kids who want to tackle the game on their own, but younger children can definitely play with help from their grown-ups. Since the box is not much bigger than a deck of cards, it can easily be tossed into a backpack or suitcase for play while on the go. It gets my enthusiastic recommendation!

Like Bats on the Beach *

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The moon is bright, the bugs are out, the weather is perfect…for a bat beach party!

We reads Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies (Clarion Books, 2006). As night rises, a bevy of bats head to the shore for some sand, waves, snacks, and a moon tan. Clever, sweet, and filled with absolutely gorgeous illustrations (the moonlight shining through the bats’ wings!), this book is an extra charming read, any time of day.

Our story time project was inspired by this amazing flying bat craft by Raising Veggie Lovers that our friend Franny spotted on Pinterest and tagged Katie…

Their version is smaller and utilizes a free printable template and a drinking straw, but we wanted to make something a little larger for our program!

You’ll need:

  • Black poster board
  • 1 paper towel tube
  • Black construction paper
  • String
  • Scissors and tape for construction
  • Metallic markers for decorating
  • Hot glue
  • Optional: paper cup beach bucket

Here’s a bird’s eye view of our version of the project. First, cut your bat’s body out of black poster board (the wing span for our bat ended up being 21.5″). Fold the bat’s head upwards, then add eyes, a nose, and a smile with metallic markers. Wrap a paper towel tube in black construction paper, then hot glue it on top of the lower half of the bat’s body.

Above, you can see where we used tape (and black dot stickers) to attach two pieces of string to each bat wing (our strings were 27.5″ in length). Thread both strings through the length of the paper towel tube, then knot them together at the bottom. We also anchored the strings to a purple foam bead to make it easier for kids to grab. Your bat is complete! Pull the strings and watch the wings flap!

How about a beach bucket? Cut the sides of a paper cup about halfway down, leaving a strip on each side that fold together at the top to form the bucket’s handle. Color and cut the shells from this beach shell template and drop them in your bucket! Finish by hot gluing the bucket to the underside of your bat.

No beach night is complete without some activities and refreshments, so Katie and I turned out the gallery lights and let kids and their bats navigate to this lighthouse (yes, that is a spinning disco light):

And here I am staffing the bug juice bar where bats could order various flavors of juices (color cotton balls in little sample cups):

Meanwhile, Katie had the beach grill going with marshmallows. These were packing peanuts mounted on  craft sticks roasted over red holidays lights:

Deluxe bugmallows were also available…these were mallows with wings and legs added, very much like the ones depicted in the book. Sooooo CUTE.

* Yes, this is a Taylor Swift reference  

It’s Telescope Time!

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This week, our intern Melanie Zhang takes us to the stars with a simple telescope project with custom slides! You may remember Melanie’s superb honey cakes kitchen test this summer, followed by blueberry jam for Sal, and her guest appearance in our unique story time garden. Now it’s time to explore the galaxies…take it away Melanie!

I have for you a craft that is out of this world in more ways than one! I was inspired by Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos written by Stephanie Roth Sisson (Roaring Brook Press, 2014). Star Stuff tells the story of Carl Sagan, astronomer and planetary scientist. He also once was just a young boy, looking up at the night sky, wondering about the stars. If you currently don’t have a starry night sky to look at, here’s how to make your own!

You’ll need:

  • Paper towel tube
  • Tin foil
  • Petri dish (or a clear plastic cup or plastic packaging)
  • Scissors, glue, and tape for construction
  • Stickers, construction paper, Sharpie markers, and masking tape for decorating
  • Small tissue box (optional)

First, take your paper towel tube and wrap it in a piece of tin-foil. Tape in place and fold the excess foil around the top and bottom edges of the tube. Next, decorate your telescope however you would like! I chose to wrap extra strips of folded tin-foil as well as construction paper around the top and bottom, then add stickers and label my telescope the “SKYSPOTTER 9000” with a sharpie. Now you have your telescope!

Next up is the night sky! Grab your petri dish and open it up. Using sharpies—other markers won’t color properly on the plastic—draw your space scene on the inside of both the dish and the lid. You can draw a constellation, like the big dipper, or planets, or shooting stars.

If you don’t have a petri dish, you can use the bottom of a clear plastic cup, or just about any piece of clear, flat plastic. For example, I used a plastic takeout box from lunch and cut a circle of plastic out of the lid.

It helps to draw your space scene on top of a white sheet of paper so it’s easier to see what you’re doing. Or, you can instead draw on a piece of masking tape, then cut out your drawing and paste it onto your petri dish! Just make sure that the tape you’re using is translucent and light can still shine through.

Hold your telescope up in front of one eye, then hold the petri dish up behind it, ideally in front of a light source. Take a look at what you see! Hold the petri dish closer or further away from the telescope to zoom in and out, or move it around to see all the different parts of your space scene.

Optionally, you can make your telescope a place to rest out of a tissue box! To make a telescope stand, cut a wide slot into your tissue box, wide enough for your telescope to fit in. You’ll want to cut the slot so that it extends further down on one side of the box than the other wise, so that when you set your telescope down, it is still aimed up at the sky. Keep your petri dishes inside of the box to keep them safe!

I also added a foam sticker to the underside of my telescope, near the bottom end, so that when I put it on its stand, it will stay in place. You could also tape on an extra piece of foil or a roll of paper.

And we’re done! Do you think “STARSPOTTER” or “SKYSPOTTER” has a better ring to it?