Encourage your students to describe the secret and fantastical goings on in their own kitchens when everyone in the house is asleep. Mickey meets a group of bakers; who might each student meet in his own kitchen? What would be the fantastical aspect of this character? Instruct each student describe his imaginary kitchen invader in depth. Then have him create this character in whatever medium is available. The students could create a sculpture, a painting or a marker drawing.
Tell the students to list the ways in which the book mimics a comic strip (or cartoon). How does Sendak arrange his pages and his text so they resemble the comic strip format? Once they have identified some of the tools used by Sendak, have them examine other comic books or cartoons to increase the artistic tools used to create these sorts of art works. Instruct your students develop their own short comic strip, using their own nighttime adventures as their theme.
Have your students go through the events of the story from different characters' perspectives. What might it be like to be Mickey, the bakers or Mickey's mom and dad? Once students have explored these differing points of view, have them create puppets to represent a character of their choosing out of available materials (paper bags, socks, tennis balls). Tell them choose their materials carefully to help reflect the qualities of that character. For example, do they see the bakers as soft and doughy? Suggest they use socks to render this effect in their puppets.
Show your students some of Maurice Sendak's fabulous set designs for operas and ballets (His "Nutrcacker" is especially striking.). Have your students think of creating, as a group, a backdrop or other set pieces for their puppet show of "In the Night Kitchen." What ideas does looking at Sendak's theatrical productions give them? How do they see creating a backdrop as different from creating an illustration for a book? Instruct them to (using an old sheet or a roll of newsprint paper) create, as a group, the set for their puppet show.