Outer Space for Preschoolers - Part 3

Outer Space Week ended last week for us but it must really have made an impression because my son has been asking for the space cards and outer space puzzle daily despite the fact that we moved on to a different theme this week so if you wonder if preschoolers might be a bit too young to appreciate the density of a topic like space...don't! Just go with it! :)

Space Shuttle Craft

I always try to find cute crafts and projects to accompany our thematics and this one was just too cute not to try. I found it at A Little Delightful. It uses a footprint cut from aluminum foil, star stickers, glue, glitter, pre-cut construction paper shapes and silk paper your child can crumple him/herself.

Constellation Pin Punching 

First saw these on Counting Coconuts. Just had to print these for pin punching as well. I used styrofoam as a backer and a regular pin for the punching. Adrian loved punching and punched every card in the deck and liked counting the number of holes pierced.

Giant Floor Puzzle

This giant Melissa & Doug puzzle was a gift Adrian received this summer for his birthday. He has since put it together a few times but I made a point to bring it out this week so we could discuss the solar system a bit more. Adrian fell in love. He's put it together every single day since.

Counting Moon Rocks

Knowing other planets have moons, I pretended these gems and pebbles were "moon rocks" from Ganymede (one of Jupiter's moons - pictured on the left) and from Phobos (one of Mars' moons - pictured on the right). Adrian simply had to count how many moon rocks came from each moon.

Star to Star

Once again, this is something we did during our "In the Woods" week but that was worth re-visiting. I thought it was so cute how it's star to star and not dot to dot and that the work links constellations. Print your own free copy on Crayola's website.

Lacing Constellations

Lacing is a very nice dexterity activity. Here is a very nice way to put it out during outer space week: constellation lacing! I found this Big Dipper card (and a few more) at Mrs. Home Economist.

This concludes our unit on outer space. Please visit us again in a few days to see our Winter Unit!

This post was shared at Discover and Explore!

Outer Space for Preschoolers - Part 2

Outer Space is a HUGE topic to cover, even for preschoolers. Moon, stars, planets, moon dust, moon rocks, and all. I was full of ideas when I brainstormed last week's activities. Here are a few more I came up with...the remainder to be presented later this week.

Lunar Soil

I recently "splurged" and bought a "special" case of PlayDoh featuring metallic and neon colors. My kids love Play Doh and I still haven't found any time to make my own so that was my reason to buy a new case of colors. To my greatest joy, there was a can of metallic grey in it! Shiny, glittery grey that was simply perfect to mimic lunar soil! So I thought I'd show Adrian pictures of the moon from afar and then close ups and then of its craters. Then, using a marble, I asked him to make him own lunar soil. Picture cards used are from a set I bought at B.J.'s last year at the beginning of the school year.

How many Moons does this Planet Have?

Children love the moon and don't necessarily know that there are many other moons out there. Adrian was surprised to hear that if he lived on Mars for example, two moons would keep him company at night and that over 60 would surround his planet if he lived on Jupiter! Using silver marbles from a marble maze we have, and planet cards (purchased at Target at the beginning of the school year in the dollar bins), Adrian had to distribute the right amount of moons for each planet. I stuck to the planets with less than 20 moons but informed Adrian that some had over 20.

Hunting for Stars

Here's an activity we have done in the past (during our "In the Woods" unit) that was well loved and worth repeating. I cut up some stars and stuck them on the walls in a darkened room. I gave Adrian a flashlight and told him how many stars were awaiting him on the walls. I wish I had taken the time to make the stars yellow as I had in the past but I was all out of yellow construction paper. :(

Matching Phases of the Moon

A yummy activity. Adrian loves the moon and has been wondering why it changes so this strip was a good way to show how the moon changes through the month. I thought that introducing creme sandwich cookies (Oreo Style...ours were from Back to Nature) to match with the phases would make it a bit lighter...and yummier! :) I must admit the idea of the cookie wasn't entirely mine. After looking for various ways to engage Adrian with the phases of the moon through Google Images, I saw so many "Oreo" phases of the moon that I just had to find a way to include it as well. I thought matching pictures and a more tangible item (the cookie) would make it easier to"digest"! :)

Cutting Strips featuring Planets

Still working on our scissor action here. Although the motion is getting better, it is still hard work so I still like to put cutting strips out there. I'm thinking of putting real metal scissors too now that the maneuvering is not as dangerous awkward for Adrian's fingers. These Melissa & Doug plastic scissors work well but not as well as a real pair. I printed these "strips using a generic planet collage I printed on simple paper (not even cardstock). You can print your own by visiting a page maintained by the University of Oklahoma's Dept. of Astronomy.

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Loving the Outer Space Unit? Here's a little extra for you and your little ones: A short version from IMAX's 2006 's Roving Mars found on YouTube by my uncle who happened to send the link at the most appropriate time. Adrian has been watching the video everyday since. Enjoy!

I'm linking up to Montessori Monday today... 

as well as I can Teach My Child!

and Discover and Explore!

Outer Space for Preschoolers - Part 1

I remember being fascinated by space and planets when I was in elementary school. I can't remember exactly how old I was but I thought an early introduction could be fun for Adrian. He loves looking for the moon in the sky and likes stars and so I thought... why not bring in a bit more astronomy? Needless to say, he won't remember everything but overall, he loved the subject and now talks about the planets as if he'd visited them. :)

Writing in moon dust

It's the first time I have Adrian practice writing in a tray and it was such a success that we'll repeat. I had no idea how fun it would be and how EASY it would be for him to trace letters with his finger. It's a struggle for him to write with a pencil (the pencil grasp still hasn't been mastered) but writing with a finger makes him feel empowered and proud. To make this "moon dust", I used regular table salt, glitter and a drop of green food coloring mixed with blue and red to darken it a bit. Black would have been better to make it grey but I had no black food coloring on hand! *crying* I mixed it all up and it was ready to use. I then would trace a letter and asked Adrian to trace next to me. He got 90% of the alphabet right...For the ones that gave him trouble, I asked him to trace over mine to practice them some more. 

Sweeping "meteors"

Stelline pasta (pasta stars) is not only edible but also pretty cute when you work on shapes and space weeks! Here, a popular Montessori practical life activity involving sweeping on a small scale. Adrian is not fond of cleaning so he didn't quite like this one and even claimed it was difficult. Using the paintbrush, he had to sweep the pasta stars into the taped square. It really gets the little fine motors going! :)

How many stars in this night sky?

Quite simple but still involves quite a bit of math skills and fine motor. Believe me: peeling off these tiny sticker stars from the paper was no small feat and sticking them in the sky gave Adrian his fair share of problems! :) But he liked it. Sticker activities are always fun to him.

Moon Landing Craft

I love how this one turned out, don't you? Wish I had come up with the idea myself! :) I gotta thank Growing in God's Grace for it though and BusyBeeKidsCrafts for the graphics. I liked that the circle was pre-drawn (by me) and that Adrian had to take care to paint (a mix of white tempera and flour) within the circle only. Very simple craft but it was a new medium to use and Adrian had to use proper strength to remain within the lines.

Graphing space related items

Not the prettiest graph but I couldn't get my hands on any other free graph going all the way up to 20. I guess next time I'll just draw one myself! :) Adrian had to compile all the stars, moons, planets, astronauts and space shuttles and register their quantity by coloring the right amount of boxes. I made this graph go by 5 since we'll be starting to tell time soon so I want him to practice counting by 5 a bit.

More astronomy activities coming your way soon...

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I'm linking up to No Time for Flashcards and Discover and Explore Today!