Outer Space

My boys are always pretending they are blasting off to space or walking on the moon; it was so natural for me to tackle this theme. I am going to share what we did in class and then give you some fantastic links to other kinder bloggers who have great ideas that I wanted to share.

I am apologizing for picture quality today, not so great.

Books: Good Night Moon for my 1-2 year olds, Aliens Love Underpants for my 2-3 class.


Cloud Dough: I got the recipe from Tinker Lab. I have had the commercial Moon Dough and it drove me nuts. It is fun for the kids, but a huge mess for the parents to clean up. I always joke if you don't like someone, give their kids moon dough. Terrible, right? I do think this is great for my sensory table though. It is powdery, yet moldable.

*My friends had a blast at the sensory table today, they enjoyed the feel of the dough, but loved that it molded to the shape of their cups.

Alien Headband: I love the ones No Time For Flash Cards created. I am taking inspiration from this and will have my older kids make a headband.

Star Sponge Stamping: My little friends are going to stamp with sponges that I cut out in the shape of stars. I did this during the holidays with my boys at home and made wrapping paper. ti was so much fun.

Rocket Ship Craft: I don't recall where I got this idea from as I did it with my oldest a couple years ago. I have a rocket ship cut out (2) and had him glue windows and flames to it. I put the two cutouts together around a straw, which acts as a handle. Both my boys love to play with it!

In my class I did one rocket cut out. I had the children glue a circle to it for a window. I asked them to draw themselves, or to decorate the rocket any way they liked. This is the first time I have really given them instructions on how to do something. Then we taped the straw to the rocket. My son promptly got up and started running around the classroom with his rocket ship; the rest of the class followed. I will get pictures of the actual craft tonight.

 

We also did color recognition by asking what color the rockets are, since I gave the kids several choices of color. We listened to Laurie Berkner's Rocket Ship Run song and danced along. I had some simple fingerplay's and we sang Twinkle Little Star.

Below you will find some of the great resources available for Space ideas.


Other great resources:

Outer Space Printable
Space Play Dough from Nurture Store
Pinterest Board all on Space from Rockabye Butterfly
Pretend Play from Imagination Soup
Toilet Paper Tube Craft