C is for Control panel...

..of a large rocket ship.
It has levers and buttons
that bloop, bleep, and blip!

Control panel the first

All last fall and winter these childrens and I dreamed about decorating their room.  Inspired by our favourite band which appeals to children and adults, They Might Be Giants, we really had no choice but to choose space.  The band has an album called "Here Comes Science" and when I saw it at my local library a little over a year ago, I did not know how much it would influence us!  My childrens  loved the song and video about the solar system, and that was our inspiration.

Video link over here---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5nBUidKqo





They love Jupiter!  Anyway, this added to the sciencey love that my daughter already has for Earth, and we did their room as the Solar System. (pictures at a later post)  So as part of the space bedroom, their beds needed to be rocket ships of course!

Enter some large cardboard I had, some paint, small boxes and aluminum foil (Side note - we lurve aluminum foil and all the wonderful crafty things you can do with it! Wait, what?  It's meant for kitchen use?)

To make the aluminum foil controls, I just covered a box (cereal or similar) with foil.  The levers are made by first making a small ball of foil.  I put this on top of/above a small rectangle of cardboard.  Then I took a large piece of foil and covered the whole thing, so it would stay together.  Slice a straight-ish line into your foil covered box and insert lever.  Repeat!  Glue gun the foil box to the cardboard.

And here we are:

Control panel the second

Close-up of working levers

And they are *finally* up on their walls by the beds!  That was actually a challenge since the paint warped the cardboard so I couldn't tape them up.  I ended up punching holes in the top and bottom sides and used those sticky wall hook things.  Seems to work well!

*Note - I realize this is the second time I am posting about a life/craft project that is inspired by They Might Be Giants (and it likely won't be the last).  I am not affiliated with them in any way, we just really like them and their amazing science, math, and letter songs!  They inspire my kids to learn and that is super cool! Thanks TMBG!