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!

Day & Night

We recently discovered the coolest little easter egg (and book), and wanted to share it!

Fatima’s Great Outdoors (Kokila, 2021) is written by Ambreen Tariq – author, activist, and founder of @BrownPeopleCamping. The story follows Fatima Khazi and her family as they go camping for the first time. From building fires to fending off spiders, the family learns a lot about what it means to come together and learn new things. There are so many reasons to love and enjoy this book, and it’s beautifully illustrated by outdoor enthusiast Stevie Lewis, who we meet here.

The cover of the book is bright and charming, but when you remove the dust jacket…SURPRISE! The scene turns to night!

And yes, the back cover does that as well, but you’ll have to acquire a copy and see the lovely image for yourself! Better yet, turn this into a story time and activity with this simple (but SUPER popular) Dixie cup lantern…

this little light

Or you can put together this legal-size manilla folder backpack and supplies!

little camperDon’t forget to pack the marshmallows!

Flowers for Ferdinand

It’s warm, it’s raining, it’s spring, and that means FLOWERS! If there’s one character close to Katie’s heart, it’s the peaceful, flower-loving Ferdinand the Bull. Pair this simple project up with a nifty wildflower identification activity, and you have yourself a nature walk!

We recommend The Story of Ferdinand, written by Munro Leaf, and illustrated by Robert Lawson (Viking, 1936). Read aloud here by Brighly Storytime. This tale of a peaceful bull who would rather enjoy flowers then battle in a bull ring is a children’s classic. And if you’d like to read Alexis Antracoli’s excellent essay during banned Book Week 2019, click over to the curatorial blog!

You’ll need:

  • 1 toilet paper tube
  • Brown and white construction paper
  • Scissors and glue for construction
  • Markers for decorating

Use the materials above to craft a bull, then head outside with your camera! Keep an eye out for plants and flowers, then take a photo of Ferdinand enjoying them.

Now to identify your botanical finds! Katie discovered this awesome website for flower identification, Wildflower Search. You can set your locations with the assistance of Google Maps and the site will generate an illustrated list of the wildflowers in your area. It’s an awesome resource!

Using the site, Katie was able to identify a bunch of flowers, as evidenced in this lovely spring photo montage. I think the Bull Thistle is my favorite:

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If you live in a more urban area, not to worry! Enter your location and see what happens…you might be surprised to find that there are more flowers then you expected. The screen shot of results I took for this post? That’s not New Jersey! I selected a location in New York City, Financial District, Manhatten. The site of famous Charging Bull statue to be exact.