Teen Craft: Constellation Wall Art Craft

Last summer's Summer Reading Club theme was Own the Night, so when I came across How to Build a Constellation Light for a Little Astronomy in the Bedroom on the Offbeat Home blog I immediately tried to figure out how to simplify it for a Teen program.

Pre-Cut Black Foam Board (the pieces should make a rectangle that can be sealed, w/ one side shortened to feed the cord out)
Tracing Paper
A String of Clear Christmas Lights
X-Acto Knife (for the grown ups)
Hot Glue Gun
Silver Sharpie
Ruler
Blown Up Photocopies of Popular Constellations (we did the ones everyone knows and the astrological signs)
Scotch tape & Duct Tape
Extension Cord

1.  Have teens select their constellation and trace over the stars with a pencil and tracing paper.

2.  Tape the tracing paper down to the foam core and shade over each of your stars with a pencil.  Carefully remove the tracing paper.

3.  Have either the teens pop holes in the foam core at the stars using their pencils or have the librarians pop the holes in with the x-acto knife.  For some of the constellations that had fewer stars we poke a few extra holes here and there for extra stars.

4.  Using the silver sharpie and a ruler connect the lines of the constellations using the holes that were made for the stars.

5.  Then the teens threaded their lights through the holes making sure that the plug of the lights will end up coming out of the bottom of the box.  A librarian then put a little hot glue at each light for reinforcement.

6.  The teens then used duct tape to attach the sides of the box.  Then have a librarian hot glue the back cover on to the box.

We also sent each teen home with an extension cord so that they wouldn't have to have their constellation wall art right on top of an outlet.