We just had our summer reading kick-off with the theme of “Universe of Stories.” So we pretended that the library was a space station and our readers were reporting in for astronaut training. We had different stations, including moon walk training on bucket stilts, motor skill training using astronaut gloves, a green screen photo booth, and then a play area with a mission control desk and a rocket. I created the mission control desk.
I started with two pieces of cardboard, about four feet long, that had come from some packaging. I pulled some printable images of dials and meters. Then I raided my son’s toy box. He had some great finds. The “screen” was from a Crayola kit that was for 3D effects, it lights up. I printed out a picture of an astronaut. To make items stay in place, I cut holes for things that I wanted to set in. This is tricky and somewhat dangerous- make sure you have a good space to work on and a box cutter that is sharp. A shallow, sturdy fruit box made a good base for cutting. I used silver duct tape and black construction paper to decorate the box.
I also had some interesting packing material, soda bottle caps, and some adjustable bolts from clamps I wasn’t using. I made a set of “lights” with the plastic packing sheet and green stickers. I made twistable buttons with bottle caps that have cable ties put through the center (with another cable tie underneath to secure it. I used cable ties to secure the old controller for an R.C. car. Copper colored washi tape helped outline different panels. I also used some random stuff from my sewing supplies. Of course you won’t have the same stuff as I do around your house, but look at what kind of “junk” you do have with new eyes- can it be turned into a switch, button or other manipulatable item? Remember that this is going to be played with, so the more things that can be moved, the better.
For the launch button, I used a string puppet toy, the kind you press the button underneath to make the character (in this case a zebra) move by releasing tension on the strings. It made a satisfyingly impressive button. Once I finished adding things, I put a layer of small boxes between the top and bottom sheets of cardboard, then taped it together. We put the box on a slant on a low table, taping it down, and put an old keyboard in front of it. Ready for launch!
If I had more time, I would have added rows of LED lights, maybe even a small circuit for the kids to “fix” from a snap circuit kit. The only thing that broke after a lot of hard play was the combination lock being pushed in. One of the kids managed to fish it out and we taped it back in, making that the item to fix in their drama play. We suggested that the kids playing with mission control send messages to the kids playing in the rocket, and vice versa.
