Space Theme

 The children are currently interested in Space - planets, stars, rocketships, and aliens.  There is a fantastic song on Youtube, The Planet Song that teaches facts about the planets - and another one about the Dwarf Planets.  One of my favourite songs is another educational song by They Might Be Giants - Why Does The Sun Shine?

Galaxy Bottles

 As part of our interest in Space, I made Galaxy bottles with the children.
We used:
Empty plastic bottles
Synthetic stuffing (you could use wool roving, unspun sheeps wool, or cotton wool balls)

Water storage crystals - the kind you put into your pots when gardening, to retain water during the hot sumer months.
Acrylic Paint - I used purple, dark blue, burgundy and black. You could use food colouring instead.
Water
Jugs
Teaspoon
Glitter
Star sequins


Mix a bit of paint with water.  You can use a lot of water with acrylic paint. Have jugs of each colour available for children to pour into their bottles.

Layer in paint/water; water crystals; wool/stuffing; another paint colour; more wool /stuffing / water crystals / another paint colour.
The wool/stuffing helps to keep the colours of paint separate so that you retain the different colours within the bottle.
Don't fill the bottle right to the top - allow time and space for the water crystals to expand. I ended up pouring out a bit from each bottle and filling up an extra bottle with the excess.
Add glitter and star sequins.
This is great for children developing their fine motor skills - pouring, scooping, measuring, pushing, which are essential for pre-writing.  I found it was easier to use a pencil or the handle of a paintbrush to push the stuffing into the bottle.

 Ice Cube Stars

 I found these ice cube stars at The Warehouse for $2 a bag. They are the sort with water in, that you freeze and pop into your drink.  I thought they were perfect for a bit of fun with ice.

 I cut up 2 litre plastic milk cartons and used the bottoms as containers for making large blocks of ice.  I put in the ice cube stars and a bit of blue glitter and put in the freezer to freeze.

It then provided children with sensory exploration, scientific exploration, numeracy (counting how many stars they could see in the blocks, as well as how many stars they managed to get out); vocabulary - hard, melting, frozen, clear, wet, slippery, etc; sorting of colours; comparing whose block was the biggest, etc. We also talked about constellations, as each block resembled a constellation of stars.  We talked about how Matariki is a constellation of 7 stars, (actually it's 9 stars according to some) so children began counting to see if they had 7 stars like Matariki.

You can add salt to the children's ice experiments but I didn't do that with them today.

Bottle Rockets

These bottle rockets were quick and simple to make with a bit of adult help.  You could be fancy and paint the rockets, or you could even put a photo of the child on the rocket! A parent had kindly given us a book of paper samples, including metallic paper, which we used for the circle that we glued onto the bottle.

You will need:
Plastic bottle
Craft knife
Card - parents had recently donated empty cerealboxes, so we used these for our wings.
Pencil
Scissors
Coloured Paper (metallic paper looks great)
Glue

I created a basic template for the wings, and the children  (aged between 3-5) drew around the template and cut them out.  I try to find ways as much as possible for children to do their own work, rather than done by an adult. I like to empower children and let them do it and feel the sense of pride you get when you have made something, rather than when someone else makes it and gives it to you.  I want children to realise that they are capable and able, and to give things a go.  It doesn't matter that it is not perfect.  If a child hasn't cut around the template properly, it doesn't matter - it is their work and that is what is important.  They are learning to use scissors and pencils, and imperfection is part of this learning.

While the children were busy drawing and cutting their wings, I was busy cutting slits in the bottle with my craft knife.  When someone was ready, we inserted the wings into the slits and adjusted the length of the slit as necessary.  We only did 2 wings but 3 would look great as well.  Then the children cut out a circle, and glued it onto their bottle.

While I was having lunch in the staffroom, I was laughing at the sight of children chucking bottles around the playground.  It would look like chaos to anyone who happened to walk into the room. I redirected the random chucking of bottles by grabbing a couple of tires and hoops to be planets, and children stood in one hoop (Earth - Nasa Space Station) and took turn launching their bottles into the tires.
This promoted:  taking turns; waiting; patience; learning about how to keep themselves and others safe; physical skills - aiming and throwing; cheering each other on; good sportsmanship; persistence - not giving up if they don't get their rocket onto Mars; and a feeling of pride when they finally do hit Mars.

Rocket Ship

We are lucky to have parents who donate large boxes to us to use.  We received this wonderful big box and the children helped to make it into a rocket ship.  We had another parent who donated a book of sample metallic paper, so we used that paper to glue onto the outside of the box, and glued a paper plate onto the front of the box.  Two children could fit inside the box and this provided days of fun and counting down from Ten to blast off!

Of course, once we had made the rocket ship, we then needed to make a space control panel....

I made the control panel from two boxes, tinfoil and glue. I put it together, and then I provided glue, brushes and lids to the children to glue on as knobs and controls.  As children were having trouble counting backwards from 10, I made a display on the top of the panel with the numbers on them, to help support counting backwards and number identification.

Some Other Space Crafts...

My colleagues have also been busy doing an assortment of space related crafts to help support children's learning... 

* they painted planets on black card using paint thickened with cornflour

* they made rockets using cardboard rolls, metallic paper, crepe paper, coloured paper and paint

* UFO's made from paper plates, paint and foil paper

* Handprint aliens using hands, paint and googly eyes

* Stars made by bending pipecleaners around a star shaped cookie cutter

* Stars painted on a black background, using a star shaped cookie cutter to trace around, then children painted the inside of the star.  Gold paint mixed with glue in a squeezy bottle was then used to go around the outside of the star. 

Plaster of Paris Moonscapes

This was a great little science experiment that I got from a book full of fun science experiments.

You need:

Plaster of Paris

Hot Water

A foil tray (preferably circular shaped)

A stick for stirring

Pour half a cup of plaster of paris into the foil tray.

Pour hot water over the top (I can't remember exactly how much water - maybe half a cup - 1 cup?)

Stir briefly to mix and wet the plaster of paris. Don't stir it smooth - the lumps will help to form volcanoes and craters, which is what we are after - just like a real moonscape.

Let dry. 

You may need to pour off excess water as it dries.

Jet Packs

I don't have a photo of these, but I made jet packs for the children using two plastic bottles taped together, and wide ribbon attached to go over each shoulder, so they could wear them on their backs. Then they were off running around outside pretending to go to the Moon.

St Patricks Day activities

 It's not St Patricks Day without leprechauns, and these little fellows were fun to make with help from my favourite book, Forest Fairy Crafts (see link on right).  The following are some learning experiences that I have created to help celebrate St Patricks Day this week.  I haven't really celebrated St Patricks Day in the past with children, but I have a couple of children who are part Irish, so I have been coming up with ideas to celebrate it.

This rainbow was easy to make using craft foam.  Craft foam is great to work with, a pack is just $2 at the $2 shop, and comes in rainbow colours, plus black and white - perfect for making a rainbow! Craft foam is pretty durable, doesn't rip or tear, and is easy to cut and draw on.  I created a stencil to figure out what size to make the shapes, and just cut out semicircles in the different colours that decreased in size.  It is an easy, self-correcting way for children to learn the order of colours of a rainbow, plus you can use the shapes to create circular patterns.

 Small World Play & Numeracy  

 This simply consists of a green fabric base, laminated black pots with numbers written on one side (I use these for Halloween as well), circles of yellow card for gold coins (I used my cuttlebug and a circle tag punch because that's what I have, but I would love to get a circular punch), green pom-poms, rainbows, and leprechauns.  I am wondering about adding green ribbons and other green bits and pieces, but the ribbon is likely to disappear into handbags very quickly.

Children can count out gold coins and put them in the pot, they can line the pots up in numerical order, and they can make up their own stories. 

 Felt Rainbow

This rainbow is simply cut from the different colours of felt and placed together to create a rainbow.  It is best to make a stencil to do this and give your rainbow some overlap.  As it is made of felt, it is great to use with a flannel board or that other stuff that schools often have on the wall that is easy to Velcro - felt sticks to it.  (I can't remember what it is called but it is great for felt!) If you have off-cuts, cut them up into rectangular boards to use for story-telling or for children to use with scraps of felt and felt shapes.

 Colour Mixing on the Lightbox

 I created this rainbow for the lightbox.  It uses red, yellow and blue transparent paper, with the aim of teaching children how the rainbow is made up of the primary colours, and their overlapping creates the secondary colours.

I had red and yellow transparent paper (Chromatico paper is great to use and is tear resistant) but I didn't have blue, so I used blue tissue paper and covered one side in clear contact paper to make it durable. Hence you don't see the green and the purple in the photo, but once you put it on the light table, you will be able to see it.

These things will be set up all week, but we will also have a Green Day on the 17th where everyone can come dressed in green. We will have green playdough with mint leaves available to put in it, green water in the water trough, green slime, blue and yellow paint...  The last time I put mint leaves in our drinking water, children exclaimed "What are all these leaves doing in the water!" so I am yet to decide whether to do that again. 
I have a heart punch, and 3 hearts put together makes a clover, so I will get the children punching hearts out of green paper and creating their own clovers.  Craft punches are great for developing children's strength in their fingers and hands.

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Light Table Ideas

 I saw a post on Facebook about one family who were using strips of tissue paper on their lightbox to create patterns, weaving, colour mixing, etc.  This then inspired me, and I was off rummaging through my craft room looking for various papers suitable for the Light Table.  Tissue paper tears really easily, so I stuck a sheet of tissue paper onto Clear Contact Paper to help protect it (the clear adhesive contact paper that you use for covering schoolbooks with).  I only put the Contact Paper on one side of the tissue paper, as I like children to be able to feel the texture of paper rather than the plastic.  I then cut the tissue paper into shapes and strips.

Transparent papers (available from stationery stores and art stores, eg. Gordon Harris) are great for the light table, and they are not as fragile as paper, although they can still tear. 

Printed plastic bags are a great source for the light table.  The rectangle of purple and white polkadots below is a cut-up plastic bag.

 I cut out heart shapes for Valentines Day, to inspire transient art.  The pale pink hearts are cut from the paper that comes from florists, that flowers are wrapped in.  This paper is transparent but also waterproof and very sturdy and resilient.  I am one of those people who saves everything, even wrapping paper, so of course I had some florists wrapping paper lurking around!   I had never thought of it before in relation to the light table, but it is perfect material.  Next time you get given a bunch of flowers, save the wrapping for your light table!

The purple hearts are cut from tissue paper covered in contact paper, and the dark pink hearts are cut out of plastic packaging that a Royal Albert china ornament came in.  The packaging was wonderful - plastic with a velvet coating on it, and it had a transparent quality to it.  I cut it up into various shapes.

Coloured plastic plates and cups are perfect for the light table, and so is the cupcake packaging when you buy a pack of cupcakes in the supermarket.  The mini cupcake containers are great for sorting transparent counters.

A variety of items in use on the light table: transparent papers, plastic plates, cut up plastic bags, plastic cake packaging.

A cheap plastic tray. This tray had been sitting in my garage for quite some time and was about to be thrown out, when I thought it would be great for sand trays and making zen sand gardens.  It is also great on the light table because it lets the light through.  The tray pictured above has a mixture of sand and cornflour in it, and children can draw shapes and patterns, using their fingers, sticks, feathers... I had a few different items available on the light table to use to decorate the sand tray, including glass nuggets, pebbles, shells and branch slices.


I like to mix sand and cornflour (called Cornstarch in America) together, as the cornflour gives a nice soft texture to the sand and makes it light and smooth to work with.  I don't use specific measurements, maybe 2-3 cups cornflour to 5-6 cups of sand? I just usually chuck a pile of cornflour into a bowl and fill it up with sand from the sandpit and get the kids to help mix it.  You could add glitter to it as well.

Click on the link for rmore of my teaching resources