Tag Archives: instructions

A Very Spirited Performance

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Turn down the lights and astound your audience with tales of adventures, hauntings, and astounding plot twists! Best of all, no special screen needed…it’s parchment paper from your home pantry.

We read Gilbert the Ghost by Guido Van Genechten (Clavis, 2014). Gilbert is not like the other ghosts at Ghost School. For starters, he was born blush, not ghostly white. And while other ghosts are shouting “Booooo!” Gilbert can only say “Ba…ba…bahoo!” For this, he is banished to the Abandoned Tower. But it’s not quite abandoned, and thus begins Gilbert’s wonderful friendship with Meow the cat. The roommates claim the tower for their own, and make it into the coziest little haunt you’ve ever seen. Soon, there are many visitors, but only one ghost who can say “Bahoo!”

You’ll need:

  • A rectangle of corrugated cardboard (we used a 10″ x 14″ cake pad)
  • A theater banner from the template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ paper
  • Small boxes to prop the theater up
  • Parchment paper
  • Black poster board
  • 3 drinking straws
  • 2 LED votive candles
  • Scissors and tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating
  • Box cutter
  • Hot glue

To create the front of your theater, cut a window into a piece of corrugated cardboard. Then use markers to decorate the cardboard stage (or use patterned tape and star stickers like we did). Add a banner from the template, and you’re done!

Flip the cardboard over, then tape or hot glue a piece of parchment paper on top of the window. This is your theater screen. Attach a strip of poster board to the bottom of the screen to create a pocket for your scenery to sit in during performances. Finish by hot gluing small boxes to the base to prop your theater up, making sure they are tall enough for two LED lights to stand on either side of the screen.

Now for the entertainment! Cut 3 pieces of scenery and 3 puppets from black poster board, then tape drinking straws to the top of the puppets.

It’s showtime! Fire up those LED votive lights and enjoy!

And while we had some wonderful ghostly tales being told at Ethan’s Pika Theater…

And some intrepid cats on adventures elsewhere in the library…

At Seraphina’s theater, there were some distinct holiday vibes happening!

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