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!
You’ve seen them in various projects that roll, toddle, and race. For anything ambulant, we highly recommend these fantastic plastic wheels, sold by Kelvin Educational. This post also includes instructions on how to make an official Pop Goes the Page wheel assembly for all your vehicular needs!
To make a wheel assembly, tape two, 4″ plastic straws to the bottom of a box. Then thread two, 6″ wooden rod “axles” through the straws. We used BBQ skewers cut down to the proper size with pruning shears (and don’t forget to cut off the pointy end of the skewer!). Here’s what a finished wheel assembly looks like:
The wheels can be purchased from Kelvin Educational. Black wheels are product #990168 ($10 for 100); and color wheels are #990169 ($11 for 100). Warning! Sometimes, the wheels slide off the ends of the skewers. To remedy that, we hot glue 
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