Moonpowder Factory

       Yay! My first post! This is a picture of the Moonpowder Factory craft I did for this year's Summer Reading Program-Dream Big-READ! We read the book "Moonpowder" written and illustrated by John Rocco. It's the story of Eli who is the "fixer of all things fixable" and how he manages to fix the Moonpowder Factory which is what's responsible for giving us sweet dreams.
       For the craft we did what I call a paper sculpture where we created our own Moonpowder Factories. The base is recycled cardboard that I painted black and then the rest is just scraps of colored paper from all the departments in the library cut into approximately 1" wide strips. The idea is to glue the paper down into different shapes through folding and various bends to create the shape of the Moonpowder Factory (This is also a great craft to go along with just about any Dr. Seuss book since some of the shapes created are very akin to his illustrate buildings). I recreated the images of Eli and Gizbot (one of the Robots helping run the Moonpowder Factory) as well as a piece of the actual factory from the book to really tie the book in. I took basic traces of the images and filled the rest by hand and colored them with colored pencil to be copied. Kids absolutely love this craft! There's so many variations of shapes that can be done that each one is completely unique and it really gives the kids room to exercise their creative imaginations! I usually do hour long programs and with this one I was literally kicking some kids out 15 minutes after who were still building away (I sent them home with extra paper strips so they could keep going).