Rainy day or quarantine day, it’s always an imaginative day when you open up Studio 5’s At-Home Activity Plan.
Instagrammer Daisy Phillips (@crappy2happy) has created and curated a long list of excellent ideas themed on Out of This World Space Fun. They are all easy to do at home, without making a trip to the store.
At-Home Activity Plan: Outer Space
Crafts
Upcycled Jet Pack
You’ll need two 2-liter soda bottles (or alternatively a large container or 2 small soda cans). I’m trying to get creative since shopping for materials is limited now. You’ll also need spray paint, duct tape, or foil.
Depending on what you have on hand, cover your jet pack materials and glue them together, if necessary. Add a piece of cardboard to the back of the bottles so you have a base to glue your straps on later. Then, I used leftover felt in red, orange, and yellow to cut out flames, and then glue gunned them together and to the bottom of each jet pack. You can also use tissue paper, construction paper, or use markers to draw flames on paper. We made straps out of elastic and ribbon, using the resources we had on hand, and then added a piece of felt for added security over the elastic onto the cardboard.
For our bigger container, we just cut holes using an exacto knife and slipped ribbon through to make straps. Print out the NASA logo and use packaging tape to attach to bottles for that extra jet pack boost!
NASA logos with four on a page which I made quickly using logos available online, download here.
Control Board
Grab your old computer keyboards or old laptops. Let children pretend they’re in a spaceship or at the ground floor monitoring space activity up above, by using old cardboard boxes as their dashboard. We used an exacto knife to cut out holes for our USB ports to make it more believable, the kids really do love it when it’s more “real.”
Doubles as a craft if you pull out old cartons and cardboard boxes, and let kids paint and then with your assistance, glue on a variety of trash. We used bottle caps, milk lids, and applesauce tops and bottoms, and wrote numbers on some of the lids for an additional educational value.
Alien Trash Friends
Grab poms or use a crumpled up piece of construction paper or trash, basically anything you have on hand! We used an old strawberry container and old snowballs I was about to donate, then glued googly eyes on top, pipe cleaners for random antennas, and ripped up construction paper attached with white glue.
Space Art
On white cardstock, have kids color in strips of different colors. Then, cover entire thing with black crayon or paint. Use a toothpick to carve out designs and see the magical space art that you can create! This project is better for your older kids, ages 6-8.
Origami Stars
Try using thicker stiff ribbon or colored A4 sized paper and cut thin strips about 2×29 cm. Loop paper around itself to create a simple one loop knot, but flatten the knot to form a pentagon. Wrap remaining paper ends around the pentagon tightly, and then pop each of the pentagon sides inwards to make a 3-dimensional star origami. See instructional video for further details. How to Make a Star Origami
Activities
Moon Rock Attack
Save all your old foil for little moon rocks (can use crumpled up paper if foil is not readily available). Put one larger toy out as the space alien, use different sized pillows to lay on the ground as space rocks, and kids must jump around the space rocks and attack the space alien with their foil moon rocks.
Moonwalk Fun
Tell kids about gravity and how the first man to walk on the moon was kind of hopping because of the difference in gravity. Talk to them about how the famous moonwalk dance move came from mimicking the lack of gravity on the Moon. Show the kids this moonwalking video and ask kids to try their moonwalks, record them for a fun activity. For an added bonus, you can show them the first videos of Neil Armstrong as he “hippity hoppotied” on the moon too.
Simple Snack
Space Platter
Use whatever vegetables you have on hand to create a rocket! We used carrots and grape tomatoes and then punched stars out of salami and cheese. You can also cut stars out with a knife if you don’t have a star punch on hand.
Learning Activities
Blastastic Numbers
A free printable perfect for 3-5 year olds, cut out the numbers, the rocket top, and flames. Then, using a glue stick and another piece of paper, arrange the numbers in order and glue to form a rocket! Download here.
Planet Song
A free printable for words to sing about the planets, sung to the tune of Farmer in the Dell. Bonus points for discussing how Pluto has become a non-planet, then a planet again (methinks?). Download here.
Media Moment
YouTube Channel
We spent way too long on the NASA YouTube channel. It’s a great time suck while you’re stuck inside!
Out & About Activity
Hunting for Space Rocks
Grab space rocks made for activity, and hide it around your yard while the kids are inside (as quick as you can, good prep for upcoming Easter egg hunts). Have kids go outside to find and collect all space rocks.
Add comment