These fun space activities for kids, including phases of the moon, planet suncatchers, and moon rocks, are the perfect crafts and science experiments to teach your kids about space.
Actionable tips on setting up student groups, choosing literacy centers, and effectively organizing materials and classroom space!
Outer Space activities are a fantastic introduction to STEAM, encourage creative thinking, and appeal to every preschooler's sense of wonder.
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Start your kid's homeschool study about space with these fun space games for kids! These space theme games will take your kid to a unique outer space journey!
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Ready for liftoff!
Amazing classroom decoration ideas including how to add a class fireplace, a beautiful teacher space, a classroom fridge and more!
Laura @inspiremyplay Founder of @inspiremyplay, Early Years teacher for 11 years and mummy to three gorgeous girls. I'm passionate about about the benefits of play in early childhood. This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and go on to make a purchase, I may receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you). Please read my disclosure policy for more details. Today I'm talking small world sensory bases! Basically that's the stuff you create your small world on! Whether you're setting up a farm, seashore or dinosaur land there are so many great options to bring small world play to life and ignite children's senses at the same time! I share some of our favourites here. There are numerous benefits to small world play. Nurturing imagination, exploring new materials, acting out scenarios from real life, building language and developing social skills are just some that come to mind! In my previous post in the Resources for Play series I talked about some of the key resources needed to set up small worlds. Today I wanted to give you some inspiration of the types of sensory bases that you can use alongside these to set up amazing small worlds! Some of the sensory bases I've included are edible or taste safe, which are perfect for little ones who are still mouthing. Others are brilliant quick fixes on those days when you haven't got a lot of time to set something up. And there are several options that offer amazing sensory experiences, but are on the messier side! Whatever you're looking for I hope it sparks some ideas and encourages you to incorporate more small world play into your day! Wherever relevant I've included recipes so you can try it out for yourself. You can find links to all of the supplies mentioned in this post via the buttons below. Buy Sensory Play Supplies (Amazon US) Buy Sensory Play Supplies (Amazon UK) 1. Water Nothing beats play involving water! It takes minutes to set up and is guaranteed to keep little one's entertained. We often add blue food colouring to our water to enhance the look. Plastic animals, sea creatures, shells and pebbles are great additions to these play set ups. Buy Small World Play Supplies (Amazon US) Buy Small World Play Supplies (Amazon UK) Freezing water is another option and great for setting up polar small worlds. Or make an ice rink like we did for these penguins! 2. Bubble Foam As an alternative to water why not make up some bubble foam? It's great fun and makes a wonderful base for some ocean play. To make bubble foam put 1 part tear free bubble bath (or washing up liquid) to 2 parts water into a bowl. We usually do 1/2 cup of bubble bath and 1 cup of water at a time. If you'd like to colour your bubble foam add a little food colouring at this stage. Mix it up using an electric hand mixer until you start to get stiff peaks and then scoop it out into a tray for play. We usually make 3 or 4 batches of different colours to fill a tray. Get your FREE ebook For more simple DIY recipes & ideas for sensory play at home download your Beginner's Guide to Sensory Play by subscribing to Inspire My Play today. Get Yours Now 3. Play Dough It's no secret that we absolutely love play dough set ups in our house. I can't think of a more versatile resource! It also makes a great base for children to make their own small worlds. Homemade play dough takes a matter of minutes to make and you can easily change the colour to suit your small world theme! You can find our play dough recipe on this post 4. Sand Sand is great to incorporate into small world set ups. I especially like using kinetic sand because you can mould it and shape it easily without needing to get it wet. Because kinetic sand clumps together it also tends to create less mess than real sand! 5. Soil, Mud & Grass Small world play doesn't need to be indoors! You have a whole host of ready made sensory bases in your garden! A flowerbed, plant pot, pile of stones, collection of bark or garden lawn are great places for small world play. You could also collect up a selection of these resources and set them up in a tray inside. For indoor play a length of artificial grass is an easy option to have at your finger tips! We have a roll of artificial grass under our sofa, which gets used with our train track, building blocks and all sorts of small world set ups. 6. Cloud Dough This is one of the messier bases on this list but is such a great, sensory experience! Cloud dough is powdery but can also be moulded into shapes. It keeps for up to 6 months when stored in an air tight container, which means you can get lots of use out of the same batch. To make basic cloud dough simply combine 4 cups of flour with 1/2 cup of oil. If you're intending to use the cloud dough with a child who is still mouthing, cook the flour on a baking tray first at a temperature of 160F/70C for 5 minutes, in order to ensure any bacteria is killed. You can make brown or 'soil' cloud dough by substituting one cup of flour for a cup of cocoa powder. This is one of our favourite ways to use cloud dough! For some really messy play you can turn soil cloud dough into mud by adding a few spoonfuls of water, like we did for this farm small world above. Cloud dough can also be coloured by adding powder paint or grated chalk to the mixture, but be aware that this won't be taste-safe. To make this space scene I grated some charcoal into the flour and oil mixture. I also added a bit of bio glitter to give it a sparkle! 7. Artificial Snow It's not often that we get a chance to play in real snow in the South of England so I love to use it as a base for small world set ups. The quickest and easiest method is to buy some instant snow. Instant snow comes as a powder and all you need to do is add a bit of water and it expands in size. It's great fun and a good one to have in the cupboard for small world and sensory play. If you have time for a bit of DIY you can also make your own artificial snow. To make ours we used 4 cups of shaving foam mixed with 4 cups of cornflour (cornstartch). This should make a powdery snow that's also mouldable- a bit like cloud dough. It's not an exact art so just keep adding a bit more shaving foam until you get the desired consistency. 8. Rice Coloured rice is such a fun base for sensory play but it can also be used very effectively in small world play. Green rice works especially well as grass or use brown rice to emulate soil. Learn how to colour rice on this post here. 9. Spaghetti I just love the colours in this spaghetti ocean! And spaghetti is a great way of adding an interesting sensory element to small world play. To colour spaghetti simply cook the spaghetti as usual and then add a few drops of food colouring. Use tongs to toss the spaghetti in the food colouring and then remove any excess by rinsing the spaghetti. To make this spaghetti ocean I divided the spaghetti up and coloured some green and some blue. 10. Cereals If you're looking to set up small worlds for a toddler, sensory bases made of cereal are a great place to start. Because these are edible you can be confident that little ones can play safely and it won't matter if they have a little nibble too! Crushed up shreaded wheat, cornflakes or porridge oats all work really well. We love this type of base for farmyard play, diggers or a dinosaur themed set up. Looking for resources to pair with your small world bases? Do check out our post on the best resources for small world play.
At Mother Goose Early Learning Campus in Hiawatha, Iowa, the Pre-K teachers worked extremely hard to enhance their classrooms for a space theme the class did! Everything came together wonderfully an
In this blog post from Modern Teaching Aids, we introduce the concept of Makerspace, outline the benefits and suggest ideas to set up a Makerspace in your school.
Fun STEM activity for outdoor play and makes a great science lesson! (Includes a printable rocket template).
I created this maker space in my classroom almost two years ago. I am soooooo glad I did. We use it for really cool STEAM projects. It makes it so easy to do one anytime I want. It is always there, stocked and ready to go. I originally envisioned this as an independent activity in my classroom. But, the reality of the mess isn't always possible during a busy kindergarten day. So, I use it more often as an adult supported activity. The kids are still working independently, but an adult is there to remind kiddos to keep it tidy. That, and having a low heat hot glue gun makes creating so much easier. The adult uses the glue gun, but the students are the design directors. It works perfectly that way. So, yes, you will need an aide or parent volunteer to do this with kinder kids. In an older grade level, this would be easier to manage as an independent center or station. Here is how I set it up. Maker Spaces are as individual as the makers who make them. So, when you set yours up, get some inspiration and then do what works for YOU using your available resources. I have three big drawers for the kids to pull materials from... above is cardboard. Below is plastic and paper. It is actually easy to fill the space when you get in the habit of saving cool recyclables and scraps from other projects in your classroom. You can also ask families in your class to donate materials. I use a fourth drawer for storage. I change up the materials in the little bins, so it's nice to have a place to save things like corks hardware, twigs, etc. I like to provide special materials that will aide in making each project. Here are just a few of my bins up close... OK, let's move on to some great projects... Making bridges is usually one of my first projects of the year. We do it as a part of my Fairy tales/ Folk tales unit. I use a comprehension assessment for The Three Billy Goats Gruff , so we spend some time to go in depth with that story. Creating a bridge makes a great extension activity. Here are few more kindergarten kid designs. And of course we had to get out the plastic goats to test them. Don't you love the "No Crossing" sign? Written in Kinder writing of course! At the end of that unit, we also make boats for the gingerbread man to create a safe way for him to cross the river. Here are a couple of those... The tests on the boats are fun, but you have to prepare your kids for disappointment. I read Rosie Revere, Engineer to my class this year when we tested our boats. It was the perfect prime for accepting failure as part of the designing, learning, re-designing process. We use the little Pepperidge Farm gingerbread cookies in each boat for the test. So, of course I give a cookie to each of my little makers too! That book cover is an Amazon affiliate link for your convenience. You can grab it by clicking on the image. It's a must have if you are doing STEM projects in your classroom. For the boat tests, I use a large plastic storage container that I fill with water. We sit in a circle around it and each child gets to put a cookie in their boat and float it (or not) across the water. It's also a great idea to give your kids time to look at each design and talk to each other about how it was made. It's a little makers' convention. It only takes about 30 minutes. I think it is time well spent. Here is a precious video of one or our boat tests: Here are some adorable kid made leprechaun traps. This is the original STEM project. I have been doing leprechaun traps in my classroom for years. I like to have the kids make them in the classroom better than doing it as an at home project. The one year I had kids do them at home, I could tell that parents helped too much! You can tell these were made by little learners... It was great to hear my sweet students explain how each trap was going to work. We usually leave them out around the classroom on March 16th. I put some Rolo candies inside each one. (They are chocolate caramels wrapped in gold foil). I also sprinkle a little gold glitter around. It's lots of fun when students come into the classroom on the 17th and find the GOLD! Things can get pretty messy when the kids are working at the Maker Space. Here is the table during leprechaun trap production. There is a place for everything and we put everything in it's place when its time to clean up. The kids love using the space, so they are usually very willing to help clean up. We have little recycle and trash bins in the space so it is easy to put scraps where they belong. We also made bird feeders last year as a spring project. We had been learning about the season of spring and animals that lay eggs, It was a great extension for our unit. Plus, we have windows in our classroom where we can see so many birds outside. Those little tubs have bird seed and Cheerios cereal. You can also see the big jar of peanut butter. We spread the PB on to the cardboard pieces and then dipped them in the seed. I love this little engineer's design. Those are just a few ideas for your little makers. You don't have to have a Maker Space in your classroom to do these projects, it just makes it easier for me. If you haven't already, I hope you will try some STEAM projects with your kindergarten class. Thanks so much for stopping by. Happy teaching!
Ready to launch into an unforgettable learning experience? Explore our guide on How To Make A Space Dramatic Play Area! From rocket building to astronaut training, inspire endless exploration and
A fun and interactive way to learn about moon phases, using plastic cups! Turn the cup to see the moon change. Learn how to make one here.
Go out of this world with this free space themed I spy printable! Perfect for little or big explorers who love the hunt of a look & find!
Start your kid's homeschool study about space with these fun space games for kids! These space theme games will take your kid to a unique outer space journey!
My kids love to read and hate to read at the same time. It's kind of odd, really. They love when I read to them and when they are engrossed in a book. But sometimes they just don't want to read. I typically lay off because they will not learn to love reading by me
Do you have a calm down corner or area in your classroom? It’s probably well-intentioned space for students to go when they are upset or need a break. Kids might even use it effectively to self-regulate their emotions when they get upset in class. It’s important to give students a safe place to be sad. […]
Check out the most creative and hands-on activities for your preschool space theme! Perfect for your classroom or homeschool.
Start your kid's homeschool study about space with these fun space games for kids! These space theme games will take your kid to a unique outer space journey!
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
This chalk pastel galaxy art project is out of this world! Kids will love using easy chalk pastel techniques to create this stunning galaxy craft.
Printable outer space word search puzzle for kids. There are 20 space-themed words to find and some elements to color. A fun activity for kids.
Eight free worksheets to download - grab these fun printable space activity sheets for kids with coloring, maths and more.
Need set-up ideas for your elementary special education classroom? This classroom tour is packed with photos and ideas for how to set up a space dedicated to your students needs. Lots of structure, visuals, and centers in this space. #backtoschool #classroomtour
Learning about space has never been as much fun as it was recently at Wonder Years Preschool Townsend in Townsend, Massachusetts!There the students had a whole week dedicated to space where they d
5, 4, 3, 2, 1...BLASTOFF! Create a Space Station dramatic play area in your pretend center! It's an easy way to embed math, literacy, science, and STEM into their play! Your students won't even know they're learning, AND they will have a blast. Kids are fascinated by space!
Looking for the BEST water sensory bins for your toddler or preschooler? Check out these amazing and super easy water sensory bins and soups!
Welcome to my pre-k classroom tour! Classroom spaces and and arrangements are so very important and especially in the early childhood years! Defined areas for learning centers allow for students to be gravitated to new provocations and it also helps them know where to return materials properly. I love to create inviting center areas that are already set up for play! It gives students kind of an invitation to play and a few ideas about how to get started. The center learning areas I have are: blocks, pretend, discovery, reading, abc's, art, ipads, math, sensory, puzzles, & light table. Sometimes I don't have the centers open all at one time. For example, at the very beginning of the school year blocks and pretend centers are open. Students learn to be responsible in that center and then a new center is open/added every couple of days. I also like to incorporate the topic we are studying into all the centers. Currently, we are learning all about the season of spring! There are so many seasonal concepts students are interested in. We are exploring insects, spiders, butterflies, and gardens! We are also learning new art techniques with our Andy Warhol bee prints and learning about garden artist, Claude Monet! First stop, our morning board area! Here we have our word wall which has our alphabet circle letters (purchase here!), sorted student names, environmental print from our community, and post-it note student drawings of vegetables we have been learning about! We also have our Smartboard, Wish You Well Board, and other carpet/circle time supplies. Here is our newly arranged blocks center! This is a new classroom and I finally came up with a solution of where I wanted our blocks center to relocate. For a few years I have had it open to the group carpet area. It allowed for students to have a lot of room to build...but when it was time to clean up (and even if I gave the blocks group a head start) ..students were waiting to sit because of the blocks on the floor. So during winter break I revised the room layout a little bit which allowed for a new reading area, separate blocks area, and larger discovery area. It is working quite well! I am trying to stay with a more natural theme this year.. I purchased the two burlap canvases (above shelf) at Hobby Lobby and they display photos from our buildings study and photos of our observation of a hobby farm construction. The carpet is from IKEA and I like how they colors and design are a bit toned down? ..unlike a regular primary colored transportation rug. I was also attracted to this rug because it features a castle (for fairy tale unit), an igloo (for winter unit), and neighborhood buildings. We were studying community, construction, and maps when the rug arrived so it tied in nicely! The mirror is actually a pretend dress up clothes cabinet that I flipped over. It makes the center appear larger and students can view their constructions from a variety of angles! The blocks always stay in the center but I rotate extras with the current topic of study throughout the year! The "extras" include road signs, cars, construction vehicles, flowers, stuffed animals, plastic toys, people...whatever fits the theme. The blocks center also includes baskets for storage and clipboards. We practice drawing out our "construction plans" on the clip boards and students also like to copy the vocabulary posted. Our newly expanded discovery area! I have a large wooden spool/table and 2 wicker Ikea chairs that I hope to add in soon. The discovery center is all about investigation & finding out! Students explore weight differences, measuring, size ordering, textures, etc. The discovery center permanently houses science tools like a microscope, tongs, tweezers, pan balance, scales, binoculars, and magnifying glass. The center also has baskets for storage, clip boards for observation drawing & writing vocab, pencils, sensory bottles, plants, and vocabulary. In our discovery are we also have informational picture books on insects and gardens, seed activities, a butterfly observation basket, During our spring unit of study the center holds: The Very Hungry Caterpillar butterfly life cycle cards, plants, mini pretend nature doll house, seeds & seed packets, real butterfly wings, and a basket of textures. Here is an example of another unit of study in our discovery area. This photo is from our summer ocean unit from last year. Items can easily be switched out and easily rotated to fit any theme! This is a photo of our spring math center that contains insect books (that focus on counting & time), folder games, a Hungry Caterpillar roll, count, draw game, a Hungry Caterpillar graphing game, chick eggs number match up, sensory numbers, and a few other spring themed math games. I love using trays for center games with little cups on the trays. Trays help students be ready to play with easy setup and easy clean up! Before we play in new centers for the new topic of study we ALWAYS have a class circle time meeting about center procedures. We go through how to play every game (teacher and students model) and how to clean it up! This is so very important and helps center time to run much more smoothly and students learn practical life skills. Our new reading area! It contains a Hungry Caterpillar felt board for story retelling and sequencing, Hungry Caterpillar sequencing cards, pillows from Hobby Lobby, rug from Ross, two wicker Ikea children's chairs, insect puppets, books about gardens and insects, and also spring themed QR codes that lead to stories on the ipad. Our sensory tub is filled with flowers, magnet numbers, green and pink pots for patterning, gardening gloves, gardening tools, and watering cans. It also has mini vocab. cards that I laminated and then taped to the side. Sensory is such a fun center and quite popular too! There are hundreds of sensory ideas on Pinterest. I store sensory materials in large plastic bags in a tub. I like to sprinkle in plastic magnet numbers and letters and also post vocab on the outside of the tub. Tweezers, tongs, chopsticks, and shovels can be added to help with fine motor! This is our ABC center which now features Hungry Caterpillar word cards, Eric Carle stories, rhyming cames, and alphabet matching games. I have my writing center and ABC games combined this year and we call the whole center ABC center. The writing supplies are located next to this shelf and contain whiteboards, a variety of writing utensils, paper, and wikki stix. The ABC center games can include: letter matching games, letter bingo, alphabet beading, letter i spy sensory bottles, letter formations sticks, letter tracing, etc. Our spring pretend center filled with farmer's market items such as flowers, pots, seed packets, and vegetables! We incorporated literacy into this center by having gardening books, seed packets, an open/closed sign, and vocabulary displayed. Pretend is such an important center to have for students to explore community roles, practice life skills, and just experience "play." This is just a glimpse of all the fun and exciting things going on in our classroom for spring! Thanks for stopping by to check out our classroom! Only a few more months till school is out, then summer, and back to fall again!
Blast off into the first week of school with this space-themed all about me foldable activity, designed to help you get to know your students. This printable resource is a fun alternative to a standard all about me worksheet. It is suitable for classroom use as part of your back-to-school activities, or send home as a transition activity over the summer break. In this set, each foldout displays a different letter so that students can complete one that matches their first initial. The inner section has meaningful questions on an outer space theme. The prompts Captain...... (children insert their name here) Age Things I love to the moon and back I'm a star at.... (for children to tell you what they are good at) My mission is to get better at... (for children to let you know areas that they might need extra help and support). Low prep! Print the pages you need on letter-sized paper (landscape). Students color the space scene, fill in their answers with words and pictures, then cut out and fold. No glue or tape required! Once folded, it can be closed to show the space scene and the first letter of their name, then opened to display their 'about me' answers inside. The questions and clipart cannot be changed/edited. A picture showing how to fold is included. US and UK paper size/spelling included. There are 26 pages black and white pages - one for each letter of the alphabet. What educators are saying: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'This went great to kick off my Outer Space unit on the first day of school. They really enjoyed the activity and they each presented the information about themselves to the class'. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'This was a perfect first day of school activity. It was also a good way to kick off our science for the year since we study the solar system. The kids loved it! Thank you for sharing.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐'This was a fun addition to our classroom theme this year! The students enjoyed the space theme activity to share about themselves. The folding to have their initial on the front is so cute!' You may be interested in these other back-to-school about me resources: Dinosaur themed all about me Self-portrait all about me Vertical folding all about me School supplies all about me
Looking for an easy to make calm corner activity? Set up these quick mini zen gardens for your students to use in the classroom or counseling.
This Space STEM Activity takes us to the stars! Build Pipe Cleaner Constellations three different ways, includes free printable task cards.
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These 16 sensory room products can provide a multisensory experience while decreasing sensory processing and autism meltdowns.
Educators, need ideas to set up your indoor learning environments for children? Find all the inspiration you need in this blog post!
