Are you looking for awesome A Wrinkle in Time inspired activities and crafts to try at home? Any kid will want to learn more about the science and speculation of time travel with activities such as slime, creating your own Wrinkle In Time fortune teller, making a tesseract model, painting an IT, and more. Great for homeschool projects, parties, and for entertaining kids before and after they enjoy the new A Wrinkle In Time movie coming out this week.

We got to see the new movie during the Seattle premiere and absolutely loved it. No spoilers here, but just know that it is purely magical and it transports you to places beyond your imagination. For those of you who loved the book as a child like I did, go in with an open mind. It may not be a direct adaptation of the classic book, but we loved the modern take on L’Engle’s masterpiece and I hope you do, too.

The story

The movie is based on Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 young adult novel “A Wrinkle in Time” that examines the nature of darkness versus light, good versus evil and, ultimately, the triumph of love. The novel covers theories such as tessering, or a wrinkling of time and space through which intergalactic travel is possible, and deals with the what-ifs of time travel and the structure in all life. The book spawned four additional books featuring the same characters known as L’Engle’s Time Quintet, and a recent graphic novel {seen above}.

The film centers on a typical middle schooler named Meg Murry {played by Storm Reid}. As the daughter of two world-renowned physicists, she is talented and gifted, but as with most adolescents, she’s struggling to see her own gifts for herself. She’s awkward and doubting her self worth, and the kids at school aren’t very forgiving of her missteps. To make matters worse, it’s been 4 long years since her father has disappeared without a trace after discovering a way to travel through worlds and time and her family life feels very broken without him. Her little brother, Charles Wallace introduces her to three ethereal beings named Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, and from them Meg learns that her father is trapped somewhere in the universe. Together with her brother and a friend, Meg ventures on an epic adventure through time and space to find and rescue her father.

9 great A Wrinkle in Time inspired activities and crafts inspired by the movie
“Some things have to be believed to be seen.” ― Madeleine L’Engle

Since I’m in charge of entertaining large groups of children on the regular, I’ve been thinking of some awesome A Wrinkle In Time learning we can do, both in and out of the classroom. I came up with this list of ideas that would make any kid want to learn more about the science and speculation of time travel.

1. A Wrinkle In SLIME. Very rarely do I advocate for the glittery and messy project that has captured the hearts of everyone under the age of 12 for what feels like forever, but I’m making an exception when playing with slime also helps with the concept of time travel. In the movie, the idea of the wrinkling of time and space is introduced with a rudimentary animation showing of how that might work where two sides of a plane meet when the middle “wrinkles”. Discuss the theory of time and space “wrinkling” by folding slime and shaping it, having two objects meet within it. For our purposes we used model train N-scale people to represent Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace as well as Mr. Murry.
2. Create a galaxy in a jar. The first time I saw a Galaxy In A Bottle, I bought it right then and there. We’ve used it for our little ones throughout the past decade as a way to calm them down or an alternative to time outs, but I never really thought of it much as a learning experience. Since the whole premise of A Wrinkle In Time is that time and space isn’t necessary a linear path, I used our galaxy jar as a way to explain how matter can move in unpredictable ways while still forming, shifting, separating, and even folding {or wrinkling}. For a great tutorial for making your own galaxy in a bottle, click here.
3. Drops of IT. This simple lesson is also a great art project, which I love. Grab some water color paints, some nice thick paper, and a glass of water to paint with and let the creative juices flow. Start by painting the whole sheet of paper with just water, letting it saturate the top of the sheet. Then, add water to the water color paints and drop paint on the paper using a paintbrush. You will see how when the drops hit the paper the paint spreads much like the IT did in A Wrinkle In Time. Use a non- water saturated piece of paper to show how drops of paint behave differently when the paper is dry before painting. Use this contrast to discuss how negativity can spread and quickly corrupt all that’s around it, but how you can also contain it by not giving it a medium in which to spread, in this case, the water on the page. I love it when science, art, and literature combine, so you can bet I love the idea of painting an IT and teaching kids a valuable lesson about helping control those negative thoughts and feelings at the same time.
4. Create your own tesseract. In the story, Mrs W’s explain to Meg that they will be traveling by “wrinkling time” through a tesseract. This “wrinkling” is done so you can travel through space without having to go the long way around. The book uses the idea of a tesseract to represent a fifth dimension rather than a four-dimensional object {and also uses the word “tesser” to refer to movement from one three dimensional space/world to another}. The basis of their model is depicted as a cube within a cube, or a dimension within a dimension. Discuss what all this could mean while constructing a tesseract using toothpicks and gummy candy.
5. Map out A Wrinkle In Time. Many of the kids I work with are very visual learners, so I love to give them the tools they need to help create those visuals. By helping to create a visual guide to the A Wrinkle In Time galaxy, it can help kids better understand how the characters and objects “tesser” from one place to the next.
6. Wear your love of A Wrinkle In Time. Check out this awesome A Wrinkle In Time craft from As The Bunny Hops that walks you through how to create your own mini book charm.
7. Make your own fortune teller. In the movie, Meg has a paper “fortune teller” that she uses when she is anxious or scared. You can create your own using this handy little guide so you can discover your own fortune. 
8. Read up on time travel. There are so many great books for young readers that explore time travel. Check out a few of these from the library and read them as a Time Travelers Book Club. Once you’ve read your selected books, compare how time travel is treated in these books versus A Wrinkle in Time. This awesome 3 Theories of Time Travel poster explains some of the most common treatments in popular culture and can be a great guide for kids. SOURCE: Harrison Densmore
9. Color A Wrinkle In Time. Check out these awesome coloring pages that can help keep even the littlest fans busy. Have them label the characters and the places as a learning opportunity or you can just let them create.

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