Space Conundrums (Group/Cognitive/Writing)
All Ages

Space travel is a tricky business. It involves both carefully planning ahead and thinking on the fly to fix any problems that come up. Give your kids some practice at thinking like a space explorer by asking them what they would do if they were posed with the following problems.

• You have to design a probe that will safely land on another planet.
• You’re on a Martian habitat, but your air tent has sprung a leak.
• You have to establish a colony on Mars. What do you bring? How do you get it there? What will you need to build?
• You must land a spacecraft on a moving comet.
• You’re in charge of growing crops from Earth on a strange alien planet with two suns. What type of things would you need to think about?

 

With older age groups, you can take each one of these scenarios and turn them into a research and writing project, having them put together a short report on what they would do. This can be done individually or in small groups. Better yet, combine the two strategies: Go over a couple of these scenarios as a class, then assign the rest as an individual or small group assignment for the kids to do.

 

Paper Comet Toss (Large Motor Activity)
Provide your children with safety scissors, tape, steamer paper, and some scrap paper newspaper. Instruct the children to crumple the scrap paper into a ball. Next, put a strip of the streamer paper and tape it to the paper ball giving the paper ball a comet like tail. Once completed, set aside an open area of the classroom for them to through around and toss to each other. You might add buckets to try and toss them into, or hang hoops or hangers from the ceiling for them to toss the comet through.

 

Moon Paste (Science, Sensory)
Preschool & Kindergarten
Make up a batch of moon paste by mixing together flour and water until it has a gooey constancy. Mix in some white rocks or sand for an added sensory experience. Set the paste out in large bowls at the table and provide the children with trays or place mats to use. Let the children play with it, draw with their fingers in the paste, or mold it as they wish. You can also add some space figurines or pretend rockets to this activity to make it even more enjoyable.

 

 My Footprint on the Moon (Special Activity)
All Ages
Talk with children in group time about the first astronauts who landed on the moon and show them pictures of the missions. Then tell them we are going to pretend we are astronauts and going to make our own ‘footprints on the moon.’ Pour plaster of Paris mixture into empty meat trays, styrofoam plates, or any disposable container with a shallow 1 inch depth. Let the plaster sit until it is reasonably firm, and then have the children press down on the plaster with the bottom of their shoe to make a footprint. Clean the bottom of their shoes with water immediately afterwards (or just have them take off their shoes and socks and do an actual footprint). This activity makes a great discussion point for the children to take home regarding what they have learned about the moon. Although a close-ended activity, it can provide invaluable use for the purpose of accenting their other knowledge they learned.

 

Giant Box Rockets (Special Activity)
All Ages
Gather an assortment of medium-sized boxes and coffee cans or other cylinder containers of that sort. Tape the boxes closed. Make your rockets by gluing coffee cans to the bottom of one of the boxes, and then gluing one box on top of another to get the desired height of your rocket. You will need to use tacky glue or some other type of heavy duty craft glue. Top it off by cutting out cardboard pieces to make a cone head and fins for your rocket. The teacher will need to do the grunt work for the majority of this project, but let the kids dictate as much as possible, such as the shape of the fins, should it have windows, etc. When it is done, let them be responsible for decorating it or painting it.

 

Field Trip (Special Activity)
Meteorite Hunt
Meteorites are constantly hurtling down to Earth, and small ones the size of pebbles hit the ground dozens or hundreds of times a day. So set out to go look for them! Take a field trip to somewhere where you’ll have a wide open field to roam. Give children some signs of what to look for in a meteorite; maybe even show them some pictures. If you know somebody who can loan you their metal detector, this will be of great help. (Meteorites typically contain at least some iron and other metals.) Even if you don’t find any +actual+ meteorites, the kids should have fun with all the pebbles they find that they think look like meteorites.

 

Moon Paste (Sensory)
Toddlers/Preschool
Bust out some smocks and whip out the shaving cream. Spray an apple-sized amount of shaving cream in front of each child, and let them smear it around and mold it into shapes and designs with their fingers. Kids will have fun playing in their “moon paste”!

 

Orbit Balls (Large Motor)
Pre-K & Elementary School
Use packing tape to attach a 10-15 foot long piece of string to a round ball. (You’ll want to loop the string over itself several times where you tape it to ensure a strong bind. Wiffel balls work especially well for this activity. You can also use an adhesive like liquid nails if you don’t care about forever altering the function of the ball in question.) Take the balls outside, and have kids hold the other end of the string and twirl, so that the ball rolls or swings around them as if in orbit. For added fun, have some of the other kids pretend to be comets and asteroids, swinging in and out of the universe without striking the orbiting planet.

 

Lego Spaceships (Fine Motor)
All Ages
Get out your Lego collection and have children build their own rockets or spaceships. Encourage older kids to think about the aerodynamics of their design (and see if any are astute enough to point out that aerodynamics don’t matter in space).

 

Night Sky Watchman (Homework/Group Time)
All Ages
Give your kids the assignment of going home one night, taking a blanket outside, and laying down to watch the night sky for 15 or 20 minutes. Have them report back on what they see in group time, just like show and tell.

 

Universe in a Bottle (Sensory)
Preschool & Kindergarten
Peel the labels off of several plastic soda or water bottles. Fill them up with water, leaving about an inch or so of air at the top, and add food coloring to make them blue or purple. Now add a pinch or two of glitter. Put a bit of glue around the screw of the lid and secure the lid. (This should prevent the kids from opening it and making a big mess.) When kids shake the bottle, it will stir up the glitter. Put several bottles out as a sensory activity or let kids make their own to take home.