After Midnight

Take a nighttime stroll in your local neighborhood and…who knows? You might notice something you’ve never seen before! Light projects are always a hit at our story times, and this sweet story was the perfect companion to the craft.

We read Night Walk, written by Sara O’Leary and illustrated by Ellie Arscott (Groundwood Books, 2020). When a young child can’t sleep, their Dad invites them on a night walk through the neighborhood. From warm lights in windows to late suppers, the world can be a different place, even when you’re close to home.

You’ll need:

  • 1 large box (ours was 4.5” X 4.5” x 9” but a large tissue box works too!)
  • 1 small strand of LED string lights
  • Dark blue poster board
  • Construction paper and tagboard
  • Scissors, tape, and glue for construction
  • Markers for decorating
  • Hole punch

This project is a simple diorama with silhouettes of buildings cut out of tagboard. Kids used hole punches to add windows to the buildings and “stars” to the sky:

To light the box, we used strands of mini LED lights scored from a holiday discount bin. First, punch holes in a rectangle of dark blue poster board, then push a light bulb through each hole. Use tape to secure the wires to the back of the poster board to prevent the light bulbs from wiggling loose.

In the above photo, you can also see how the end of the light strand is threaded through the back of the box. It leads to the strand’s battery pack, which we taped to the back of the box to make it extra sturdy:

Complete this portion of the project by taping the night sky to the back of the box. Now add your tagboard skyline, then decorate your buildings with markers, construction paper, or whatever else is available. We also recommend adding cardboard trees, shrubs, sidewalk, whatever strikes your fancy!

When the projects were complete, we lined up all the boxes, turned out the lights, and everyone took a walk to enjoy and observe the little worlds we created!

Racing Robot Reader

Have a reluctant reader who might appreciate good race? This simple project will get them raring to read letters and words with the assistance of their own personal reading robot! Built out of things in your home or office, it’s low tech, but high levels of F-U-N!

You’ll need:

  • 1 paper cup
  • 1 small ball
  • 1 piece of tin foil or sparkle stem
  • Pens or markers
  • Post-it notes

Flip the cup upside down, then decorate your robot with markers (we went a little fancy with silver circular file labels and eye stickers). Add tin foil or sparkle stem antennae. When you’re finished designing, place your robot cup on top of a ball. We used a squishy foam ball, but a tennis ball works great too!

Next, write alphabet letters on Post-it notes and stick them to a tabletop. Have the reader and their robot sit on the opposite side of the table. As you call out the letter, they can slide and release their robot towards the proper Post-it!

There are plenty of variations on this game. The robots can read single letters, words, finish sentences, and seek out synonyms. They’re also multilingual if you’re trying to learn a new language. Or you can go multiplayer and race other robots in a full scale demolition derby!

I Want to Believe

Keep your eyes open…you might just spot a unicorn in the library!

We read Do You Believe in Unicorns? by Bethanie Deeney Murguia (Candlewick Press, 2018). It might look like a horse in red hat, but the book’s narrator isn’t quite convinced. I mean, it could be a horse who thinks its hair is messy, likes the color red, or is trying to keep its head dry. But if you truly believe…then yes, it’s definitely a unicorn!

You’ll need:

  • 1 pony head template, printed on 11″ x 17″ paper
  • A 11″ x 27″ piece of white poster board for head (plus extra for the horn)
  • 2 rectangles of white construction paper for ears (approximately 2″ x 3.5″)
  • Construction paper for mane and forelock
  • 2 wiggle eyes
  • 2 black dot stickers for nose
  • A 41.5″ piece of PVC pipe for stick
  • A 35″ piece of ribbon for the reins
  • Hole punch
  • Packing tape
  • Stapler, scissors, tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating
  • Hot glue

Our unicorn is the stick horse we designed for this story time project. With an additional horn, of course. Our horns were 9″ long, and constructed from extra poster board. I stapled two, 3″ tabs of poster board to the base, then folded the tabs outward and hot glued them to either side of the horse’s forehead so the horn stayed centered.

Once we completed our unicorns, we rode forth in the library, including trotting through a magical hoop of flowers (which you might recognize as the slightly deconstructed door from our Hobbit event)! Those talented unicorns even took a stab at a theater performance!

And for the record, I do believe in unicorns.