Reading Under the Stars Party Ideas

By Angela Sellari

About a month ago, we shared that both of my granddaughters had signed up for the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. My younger granddaughter has always been an avid reader, and her sister not so much. Something happened this summer that has transformed, Becca, and occasional reader into a full fledged book worm. We found a couple of book series that she really enjoys. Eeach time they read both girls are eager to log their reading minutes online to unlock new badges. I’m so glad we have partnered with Scholastic for this compensated campaign.

This year’s Summer Reading Challenge theme is “Reading Under the Stars” so we decided to do just that and had a little party over the weekend. Just before sunset on Saturday, we got things ready for our party. As we were setting up, some nasty clouds rolled in and gave us a little rain. Luckily, it passed over quickly. We weren’t going to let a little rain stop us, so I put a plastic tablecloth over the wet picnic table and a blanket on the ground where the girls could read.

Becca and Maddie really wanted a tent for our party, and since we don’t have one we decided to make one. This hula hoop tent was very simple to make.

Do you want to know how we made it? You only need four things to make this tent. It’s so easy!

Here’s what you’ll need:

hula hoop
king size flat sheet
safety pins (about 20 large)
some kind of string or cord to hang the tent from a tree (we used fishing line)

Layout the sheet and at one end of the sheet begin to fold it over the hula hoop, about 2-3 inches over the hoop. Secure with safety pins. Work your way around the hoop, until one entire end is folded and pinned into place.

Attach several pieces of string or fishing line to the hula hoop. Join and tie them together at the top, and tie to a tree limb.

This hula hoop tent creates such a nice area for kids to read, day or night. The tent was big enough for both of my granddaughters to snuggle up inside and read. It was a ton of fun!

We planned our Reading Under the Stars party for the same night as the supermoon, but sadly never got to see it. While the rain left, the clouds never went away. Did you get to see it? I heard it was spectacular. I did get to see a few pictures of it that were shared on Facebook and Instagram.

Nighttime snacks were a must for this party. Cookies and milk seemed appropriate. We made some star and planet sugar cookies to go with our theme of Reading Under the Stars. I used green and blue food coloring and a variety of colored sprinkles to give the cookies a celestial look.

Like most kids, my granddaughters just love things that glow in the dark. Some inexpensive glow sticks, necklaces and glasses really added to the fun of our party. We all started to get a little silly after the sun went down. Both of my granddaughters are reading the Lorien Legacies Series right now, so a lot of our dinner conversations of late have been about super powers, aliens and the possibility of life on other planets. I couldn’t pass on these glow in the dark alien balloons.

We live in a very wooded area and needed more than glow sticks to read under the stars. EVEREADY® flashlights came in so handy for reading in the dark. You can’t go wrong with kids and flashlights, really.

Reading under the stars felt like an adventure. It was so much fun!

I encourage you to have your own party.

There is so much fun stuff to check out on the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge website. The challenge, now in it’s 8th year, is dedicated to stopping the “Summer Slide” and getting kids to read throughout the summer months when school is out. They really know how to make reading fun for kids.

Did you see our first post about the Summer Reading Challenge? If your kids want to get in on the fun there is still time. The Summer Reading Challenge runs through September 5, 2014. Get more information at scholastic.com/summer and start logging your reading minutes to help Scholastic reach it’s goal of 176,438,473 minutes logged this summer.

Every Monday, you can check Scholastic on Twitter for the #MondayMinutes to see the total number of minutes kids have read to date! Every Friday, check out the Summer Reading Challenge Pinterest Board for a new collage of summer books. Also, be sure to tune in to Facebook on June 21 for the Summer Solstice Facebook Chat for Parents. It’s sure to be really great!

This year’s Summer Reading theme is Reading Under the Stars, and is powered by EVEREADY®, the maker of batteries and flashlights, to encourage families to discover new and fun ways to explore reading outside this summer.