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.

Sensory play ideas

Sensory play is such a crucial part of children's development.  According to Rudolf Steiner, the development of the lower senses (sight, taste, touch, sound, smell, and balance) affects the development of the higher senses.  The lower senses are developed during the early years, so it is important that we provide children with lots of different sensory experiences. 

 Water play. 

This was a water play activity that I set up today.  A selection of containers (large and small, tall and shallow), syringes, eye droppers, sponges, and icecube trays.  A couple of tubs filled with coloured water - blue, yellow, red.  I like to use primary colours with young children, so children can see the effect of using these colours and the multitude of colours that children can create using them.

One of the children started using the syringe and dropping coloured water into the icecube trays. By gradually mixing colours they were able to create a beautiful range of colours in their tray.  The child even said "Look at my beautiful colours that I'm making". They worked carefully and purposefully, to create colours and to explore what colours they could create.  One comment from the children was "We are doing science experiments". 

This was a popular table throughout the day, and to prevent the floor getting soaking wet and slippery, I brought the table outside. 

Lavender Scented Water Beads
I bought the water crystals at the $2 shop, and soaked them at home in water with a few drops of pure lavender oil.  The beads soaked up the the oil and had a really strong scent of lavender. I chose lavender because of its calming, soothing effect. You could also use roman chamomile, or a blend of calming essential oils.  I poured the lavender beads into the sensory tub at school, along with scoops, spoons and jars, and the children filled up the jars and then emptied them out, sometimes from one jar to another, or sometimes pouring them straight into the tub.  This was popular throughout the day.  You do need to watch out for water beads and crystals getting spilt on the floor, as it does make it slippery. We did it on the vinyl floor, and kept a dustpan and brush handy to sweep up the spills, and children also helped to pick up their beads that they dropped.


Bubble Blowing
A really simple but fun activity we did this week was simply containers of tap water with dishwashing liquid in it, and straws. The children blew through the straws to try to create bubbles.  And it was awesome! The bubbles rose really high and children tried to connect their containers of bubbles to other containers of bubbles.  Bubbles were all over the table, and you could actually see the water drip off the bubbles onto the floor, which looked really cool.  I put a towel down on the floor to catch the water.  Children worked together, and one bowl had 3 children blowing bubbles all at the same time, which created great big bubbles rising up over the top.  You do have to remind children to blow, not suck.  I get them to practice blowing first before giving them a tub of water.

Sand Play

 I mixed a tub of sand with cornflour, and provided a variety of containers, scoops (the scoops from tins of Baby Formula are great), tweezers, shells, pebbles and acorns.  I love mixing cornflour with sand, as it gives the sand a really light, fine texture and feels nice running through the fingers. This table was really popular throughout the week, and you do need to keep the dustpan and brush handy!

Flour and Glitter

 

I used a combination of flour and glitter, and strawberry-lime herbal tea to make it smell lovely. The herbal tea was about to be thrown out, so I grabbed it to utilise in our sensory play.  I added scoops, tweezers, containers, trays and dishes to fill up.

At the end of the week, I added warm water to give a completely different sensory experience. 

Rice 

 This was rice mixed with strawberry-lime tea, and filled with treasure.  Children were given tweezers and trays to fill with their treasure (The treasure was a mix of buttons, broken jewellery, pebbles, wooden bits, stars, beads, glass nuggets, and pom-poms).   One day the rice was filled with alphabet magnets and children found the letters of their names.  The strawberry-lime herbal tea added a really nice dimension to this as you could smell it every time you sat down at the table.

Oh, Lovely Mud!

This was a Mrs Wishy Washy provocation to allow children to retell the story themselves - I modelled using the tubs at mat time as I told the story (I adapted it slightly using the farm animals that we had), and then kept it at the sensory table for the children to play and engage with.  I filled the tub with a mix of bark and dirt from the garden and a bit of water.  I added farm animals, a tub of warm soapy water and an apron for children to wear and pretend to be Mrs Wishy Washy.  This table even got the most resistant, unwilling and unsettled child to engage and begin to enjoy themselves.

Cornflour Playdough

I really like using cornflour to make play dough with, as it is a pure white colour and is able to take other colours easily. I find when making playdough with flour, it is a creamy-grey colour, and  if you add red colouring, it goes pink, and black playdough turns grey.  But somehow the playdough made from cornflour allows the colours to keep its true colour - black playdough is black, and red is red.  

I wear gloves when making this so that I don't scold my hands, and the gloves also help prevent my hands changing colours when I add the colouring.

Cornflour dough also has a neutral smell, so it is perfect for adding herbal teas, scents, spices or essential oils to.  Playdough made with flour has a really strong smell that I find is quite overpowering when trying to add other scents - it doesn't work so nicely.

Ingredients:

3 cups Cornflour

1 - 1 1/2 cups Salt (experiment a bit to find out your preference)

3 teaspoons Cream of Tartar

about 2-3 Tablespoons oil

2 cups boiling water

Put all ingredients in a bowl.

Mix together.

Tip out onto table.

Knead and mix thoroughly with your hands - this takes time.  Knead, push, roll, pull, drop onto the table like making bread. You may want to add 1/2 cup more water - just add a little at a time.  

Add colouring and scents and knead through again.

When making playdough with flour, I find one cup of water to one cup of flour is perfect, as the flour absorbs the water, but the cornflour reacts differently, so experiment a bit to find out what works.  With the cornflour dough, you might need to add water during the week as it does start to dry out.  

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