All of this page comes directly from my very good friend, and MuddlePuddle member, Tula. She is Montessori trained and experienced and what follows is a fantastic space project she put together and would suit a range of ages. I hope you enjoy it all. Huge thanks to Tula for her time and effort and allowing me to publish it.
Maths
Counting backwards from 10 “10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,BLAST OFF!”
Investigate Zero – Play the ‘Zero Game’….Ask the child to bring you a set number of objects, e.g. 3 cars, then ask again, e.g. 6 crayons. Eventually ask for zero objects…the child may laugh or be confused & you can play it up as much as you & the child like…the end result is that it is a ‘trick’ as zero means ‘nothing’! (Most children love this sort of joke game especially as they can play it back on you!)
Make dot to dot puzzles in the shape of simple constellations. Older children can map out the night sky, using constellations. Use of a ruler can be employed here, either for measuring or simply drawing a straight line.
Can you design a game together? Perhaps it is a race across the galaxy past all of the planets or a trip around your favourite stars…don’t forget to add little bits like ‘roll again’ and ‘miss a go’.
Discuss ‘circles’. Draw them, using plates of various sizes, compasses for older children. Examine size, in relation to others, ‘large’ ‘larger’ ‘the largest’. Older children introduce concept of diameter, circumference & radius.
Language
Way to remember the order of the planets in our Solar System: ‘My Very Easy Method Just Start Understanding Nine Planets’ with each capital letter representing ‘Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto’.
LOTS of new vocabulary to explore…not just the planet names but ‘galaxy’, ‘universe’, ‘milky way’, ‘constellation’, ‘asteroid belt’, etc,etc,etc!!
We made a book of the planets on black card with cut out pictures of the planets in order. All of the writing was in silver and gold pens, which the children loved. The effect was stunning. The younger child can perhaps write over pencil words, or dots, whilst the older ones can add more information as they discover it.
There are so many great books available; especially recommended are any by Dorling Kindersley. The local library should have a good supply of Space books suitable for all ages. (Try not to underestimate what your child will like – my son was engrossed in the complex non-fiction books long before he could read & it is amazing how much he has retained due to interest)
Science
Raid the library for great ideas, as well as the sites listed at the end. We made balloon rockets out of tissue paper, decorated with shiny stickers. Take a long balloon & inflate & tie up. Wrap tissue paper around it & stick with celotape – DO NOT ATTACH TO BALLOON! Add other features as desired, e.g. a pointy front for the rocket (technical terms of course!!), windows,etc. Then POP the balloon. Add some torn tissue streamers to the rear of the rocket. Attach a drinking straw to one side of the rocket & thread with a long length of string. (We made ours long enough to go through the kitchen, dining room & into the living room!) Inflate another long balloon but do not tie up…insert this into the rear of the ‘rocket’ and countdown…54321 BLAST OFF! The air pushes the tissue paper rocket along the string – We had loads of fun with this & measured how far we could get it to go, how many puffs it needed to get to the end, etc,etc.
Banana Rockets – you need:Bowl, bananas, chocolate, lolly sticks, sugar strands or chocolate sprinkles, a freezer. Cut the bananas in half and push the lolly sticks into the end. Put into the freezer for 2 hours. Melt some chocolate in a bowl & dip the frozen bananas in at one end & then dip into the sprinkles………YUM!
Investigate gravity with some simple experiments (can be extended for older or more able children) E.g. Which will hit the ground first? A leaf or twig? A feather or chicken bone? A 50p or a £5? A flat or crumpled piece of paper? Can you guess before you try?
Make a rope plan of the Solar System: Mercury: a knot at 2 feet, Venus:knot at 3 ¾ feet, Earth: knot at 5 ¼ feet, Mars: knot at 8 feet, Jupiter: knot at 27 ½ feet, Saturn: knot at 50 ½ feet, Uranus: knot at 101 ¼ feet, Neptune: knot at 159 feet, Pluto : knot at 210 ¼ feet. (Yes I know it is a LOT of rope but beautifully clear & simple for a child to understand) If you have enough children this rope can be held on to at one end (the Sun) whilst the others make a circle around the outside – a child holding each planet. Younger children can use balls to represent the Earth’s rotation of the Sun & the Moon’s rotation of the Earth. Be creative!!
There are so many wondrous facts to learn about the Solar System These can be made into crosswords or word puzzles (use Internet sites e.g. puzzlemaker) How many moons does Earth have? Saturn? Mars? It’s amazing to think of seeing 2 or more moons in the sky!
Art
We made junk model rockets, covered them in pva glue & tissue, painted & decorated them. Use air drying clay or play doh to make ‘Moon Footprints’ in. (The footprints made by men walking on the moon will always remain as there is no wind or weather to blow them away). We trod on the clay in our boots and trainers, leaving beautiful prints, then painted them silver when they were hard.
Make a mobile of the planets in the solar system. Cross two sticks together & suspend the planets beneath. We painted numerous rockets/ spaceships/ planets etc, etc. Sainsbury’s sell space shaped pasta. We placed it onto black card and sprayed it with silver. When the pasta was removed it left eerie space shape stencils. These shapes can also be used as collage.
Music
Twinkle Twinkle (of course!)
The Planet Song
-
- (sung to the tune of The Farmer’s in the Dell)
- >”The family of the sun,
-
The family of the sun
-
There are nine planets in the family of the sun.”
-
“Mercury is hot & Mercury is small
-
Mercury has no atmosphere
-
It’s just a rocky ball.”
-
“Venus has thick clouds
-
That hide what is below
-
The air is foul the ground is hot and it rotates very slow”
-
“We love the Earth our home,
-
It’s oceans & it’s trees
-
We eat its food we breathe it’s air, so no pollution please “
-
“Mars is very red,
-
It’s also dry & cold
-
Some day man might visit Mars if he is very bold”
-
“Great Jupiter is big,
-
We’ve studied it a lot
-
We’ve found that it has 16 moons and a big red spot!”
-
“Saturn has great rings,
-
We wondered what they were
-
Now we know they’re icy rocks, which we saw as a blur.”
-
“Uranus & Neptune,
-
We don’t know much about
-
Maybe you can study them & then we’ll all find out”
-
“Pluto’s last in line
-
It’s farthest from the Sun
-
It’s small and cold and icy too, to go there wouldn’t be fun.”
-
“The family of the Sun,
-
The family of the Sun
-
There are nine planets in the family of the Sun”
-
(N.B. NOT my lyrics!!)
- (sung to the tune of The Farmer’s in the Dell)
Listen to The Planet Suite by Gustav Holst (can be used for movement too!)
Also the theme to Space Oddity or Thunderbirds or Starwars.
