It’s beautiful, botanical, and inspiring…find your little light in the darkness with this lovely garden box illuminated with shimmering votive candles!
We read Just One Little Light, written by Kat Yeh, and illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault (Balzer + Bray, 2023). With its gorgeous colors and uplifting text, the reader is powerfully reminded that even in darkness, just one little light is enough to light the way. Have faith. Your little light will always lead you to the path of beauty and hope.
You’ll need:
- 1 small box
- Colored cellophane
- Decorative flowers and leaves
- LED votive candles
- Scissors, tape, and glue for construction
We used 4.5″ x 4.5″ x 3″ cupcake boxes with window lids (if you’re using a regular box, simply cut a window in the lid). Next, cover the window with a piece of colored cellophane. Place votive candles inside the box, then finish by decorating the outside of the box with tons of paper flowers and leaves!
Once the kids garden boxes were finished, we hid them around the gallery, and kids went forth to find their own unique little lights! Note: we recommend writing the kids’ names on the bottom of the box, just to avoid confusion.
While this was a quiet and simple project, it was incredibly cozy and the kids absolutely loved it. Our story time can sometimes get a little raucous, so this sweet and mellow project was a delightful change of pace.
Did you know that Kat Yeh doesn’t just write picture books? Check out our interview with her about her middle grade novels The Truth About Twinkie Pie, and The Way to Bea. Also! Katie tested the recipe for Twinkie pie in the Pop Goes the Page blog kitchen. See how it turned out here! Mmmmmmm.
It’s a special week for hoots and haunts, so we’re delving into the blog archive to deliver our most ghostly posties for your Halloween celebrations!
Moving on to a different house, different haunting, we read Ghosts in the House (Square Fish reprint edition, 2010). After crafting a classic ghost chest, kids had to locate multiple phantoms spirited away in our elaborate
For simpler – but no less spooky – apparitions try this 
And speaking of optical illusions, we dug through Cotsen’s special collections and discovered a really cool book from 1864. Spectropia allows the reader to experience the scientific concept of afterimages. The post contains 
We’ll conclude our Halloween post with a ghostly guppy. We read Goldfish Ghost (Roaring Brook Press, 2017) and crafted this simple paper plate goldfish marionette that of course hangs upside down. It was quite a hit at story time!
Right out of the bag, all three pens didn’t work. I wasn’t sure if it was user error or lack of ink, but I was rightfully disappointed. It took a few minutes of scribbling lines and circles on a piece of scrap paper before the pens miraculously came back to writing life. Armed with a clever notepad (courtesy of Pop Cult Paper), I created a list of tasks:
