Night at the Museum Brings Books to Life

Pleasant Ridge Elementary school was transformed into three museums Tuesday night to help kids get excited about non-fiction reading and folklore. The event was part of a month long celebration of books and literacy for March is Reading Month.

In one museum, modeled after the Museum of Natural History, children lined the wall next to a 14-foot tall dinosaur to see how they measured up against the life-sized display. A “tour guide” stood before the pages of a book spanning 12 feet tall by 30 feet wide, which showed what the bed of the Great Lakes might look like if they all drained away, and a solar system floated above the heads of onlookers checking out the “Big Book of Space.” These were all “exhibits” based on  non-fiction books. 

Even the parents learned something new. 

“This is so cool,” Beth Shemanski said of the Mistakes That Worked Exhibit. “This is my favorite one,” she said. 

The exhibit, based on a book of the same name, displayed different successful inventions that were happened on by mistake, including Silly Putty, Post-it notes and the microwave oven.It was located in the Museum of Science and Industry along with a “Be Your Own Inventor” exhibit, and a robot exhibit that prompted kids to guess the emotions of a robot based on its body language.

In the Museum of Art and Culture, Jeanne Lambros’ first grade students performed three different Readers Theatre plays. 

“It is so important to introduce kids to reading at a young age,” Lambros said. “By age six, they should really be into it.” 

Between performances, the musical duo Topaz, made up of Paul and Becky Pazkowski, entertained the crowd with folk music. 

“This was fun for us,” Becky said. 

After their performances, they too explored the Museum of Natural History.

Leslee Niethammer, Director of the Saline District Library, was also on hand to talk with families about upcoming library programs. The library in Saline is often present for school events relating to March is Reading Month. In addition to this event, the library hosted Pleasant Ridge's third graders earlier this month, in an effort to get all students signed up with their own library card.

The night kicked off with a 45-minute show by storyteller LaRon Williams. He brought kids, parents and teachers up to play different roles in his story. Kids cracked up each time their music teacher, Colleen Walker, said her funny line. Williams commented on the number of men in the audience, and how he’d not seen so many fathers and other adult role models attend school events.

“That’s great,” he said. 

When the crowd applauded he said, “yeah, that deserves applause.”

The museum featured a food court which sold pizza, hot dogs, chips and candy. The event was well attended despite the rainy weather.