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Contact_FullName: Melissa
Contact_FullName: Liz Contact_Email: mullypup@ix.netcom.com date:: 03/08/02 Area: Space-Misc Idea: This is an idea for a space bulletin board. We cut out the shape of an astronaut in his spacesuit and made his helmet area large enough to fit a slurpee top. We took head shot pictures of the kids and glued them under the slurpee top. We then had the kids decorate their space suit with stars, American flags, markers, etc. We then glued the pictures with the slurpee helmet to the head and they became astronauts. We then made a star for each of them with their name on it. We stapled the astronauts to a dark blue background bulletin board and had the kids place their star names near their astronaut. The kids really loved this bulletin board.
1-18-01We've all made helmets from plastic milk cartons and aluminum foil. And made air tanks from soda bottles. I added large 2" thick car washing sponges with rubber bands and had the kids wrap them on their stocking feet or shoes to do a moon walk! I purchased enough for 4 children when we changed the Home Center into a Space Shuttle!
1-16-01During space week I transform the block center into a spaceship. The large blocks become the body of the ship. I use an old computer keyboard to operate the ship. We make helmets out of plastic milk jugs and air tanks out of 2 liter soda bottles.
1-13-01Napping in Zero Gravity Before having all the children get on their cots/mats read "I Want to be an Astronaut" by Byron Barton. Talk to the children about why the astronauts are upside down sometimes and why their food is floating in mid-air. Discuss how zero gravity makes everything float instead of fall. Then ask your astronauts to get ready for bed. Let them know how important it is to strap themselves in so they don't float out of the room or into the wall while they're asleep. The kids don't always fully understand zero gravity but they think it's a blast just the same. Make sure you play "spacey" music while they're resting.
7-10-00For a fun space activity with my Pre-K class, we read a story about our solar system and then I had the children imagine what other solar systems would be like. The children then decorated a black piece of construction paper with all kinds of space stickers. (Easily found at your local craft or discount store) Next to their space scenes, I wrote down their descriptions of the solar systems they had created. It was a great whole language activity and the parents loved reading what their children had written.
5-20-00Glow in the dark box. materials 1 shoe box per child black paint (tempra or spray) glow in the dark stars, planets or insects white contact paper Cover the outside of the shoe box and the lid with white contact paper. Allow the children to decorate with markers, crayons, or stickers. Paint the inside of the shoe box (including lid) with black paint. Allow the paint to dry. (this can be to time consuming for younger children, so you can spray paint the inside of the boxes ahead of time). After the paint is dry cut a small hole in one end of the box (about the size of dime). Then glue the glow in the dark stars (or other objects) in the back half of the box. Be sure to glue some on the lid as well and on the sides. Expose the box to light for a few minutes then put on the lid. Have the children look through the hole and they will be able to see all the objects glow in the dark. BE SURE NOT TO GLUE THE LID ON THE BOX. THE ITEMS INSIDE WILL NEED TO BE EXPOSED TO LIGHT IN ORDER TO GLOW.
5-8-00Jars of Stars You need clean glass jars, karo syrup, blue water, and star confetti. You need to have just enough karo syrup to suspend the glitter in the jar. This is really hit or miss, I've never found an exact amount that works each time. Glue gun the tops on the jars for the children, and they have beautiful jars of stars to take home with them.
Date: 4-5-00Make alien headbands! It's very simple and easy. You take various colored pipe cleaners and form a circle for the child's head (usually need just two) Then twist the other pipe cleaners into interesting "alien" shapes and twist onto the headband. Some interesting shapes were triangles, crooked antennae, or a shape you can get by twisting a pipe cleaner round and round a pencil and then attaching to headband. Neat shape. These were really neat and the kids really had a blast with them.
Date: 3-20-00To make great space ships, cover Styrofoam bowls with foil. Push pipe cleaners through the Styrofoam for decorations or to attach two bowls together. String beads or pom- pom beads onto the pipe cleaners for decorations.
Date: 3-18-00For a fun souvenir of our space exploration, I ran off a picture for every one in class an actual photo of an astronaut on the moon in black and white. I then copied my students' school picture and cut their faces out. We pasted them over the face mask in the picture, mounted them on construction paper, and glued some glitter around the border. The kids seemed to get a bang out of this.
Date: 3-17-00For our space unit, I made a space shuttle out of two cheap, white shower liners (3 would have covered things nicely) and draped them over some boxes and desks arranged to form the shuttle. The boxes and curtains were taped to the table with postal tape. I used black cloth tape along the bottom edge, stuck on United States in adhesive black lettering, and taped a 5" x 7" American flag to it with clear postal tape. I cut the front windows from black trash bags and taped them to the curtain going over the nose. I intend to cut another black piece of trash bag for the nose next year. On the inside I taped up more pieces of trash bags with glow in the dark stars for windows. What made this nice is that it withstood a week of hard play without a tear. At the end of the unit, the curtains were compactly folded and stored away. The boxes went to the dumpster where I found them.
Date: 2-29-00i made a spaceship for our dramatic play area. took large (4 ft. diameter) cardboard circle to form cone, covered w/ silver contact paper & suspended from ceiling for capsule. took cardboard box (cut on side & opened) for wall & attached control panel inside w/ gadgets to twist. made helmets from 5 gal ice cream containers w/ cutout for face, covered again w silver contact paper. lot of work initially but this is 2nd yr I use it in my classroom.
Date: 1-30-00ROCKET SHIP- I taped 2 large boxes together, then cut out an area large enough for a child to sit, but small enough to make a "shelf" for the control panel. I taped anything that looked like buttons (old phones, half of a rubber ball) provided a "hatch" (circle cut out of back with black paper covering it for a more convincing outer space look, and silver star stickers making constellations). The inside top half is lined with aluminum foil, and the bottom is lined with packing bubble sheets. The kids just can't wait to be astronauts!!
Date: 1-24-00Teach the children how to talk on the moon! Since there are no vibrations on the moon, we practiced moon screaming...open your mouth and no noise comes out!! The loved it!
Date: 1-24-00I suspended lots of play food in the housekeeping area to simulate gravity. Tape fish wire to the food and tack to the ceiling!! The effect is great!
Date: 1-24-00When we learned about space and gravity, I let each child have a tie. At the group table, we had to tie ourselves (loosely) down so that we didn't float away!!
Date: 1-11-00To make space ships to place in dramatic play. Buy an inexpensive rubber garbage can, the large kind. Cut a hole big enough for a child to crawl through, cut a window for them to look out. Use cardboard and silver paint to dress up the outside and paint stars to make it look like a space ship.
Date: 1-11-00Space helmets... Use milk cartons that have been cleaned out and cut out like helmets. Let the kids paste stars on the outside. These are terrific for dramatic play.
ideaFor a unit on the solar system, the children helped to create a new birthday board. Each child decorated rockets, stars, spaceships, astronauts and planets. On each item the child's name and birthday were indicated. The caption for the bulletin board was "Our Children are Out of this World". Not only did it engage the children in the making of the bulletin board, but it also taught them about the various parts of our solar system. It was a blast! Date: 10-31-99Contact_FullName:
Date: 8-19-99For our space theme, we cut enough dark blue paper to cover the bulletin board. But, before putting it up, we had the children dip the bottom of coke bottles in yellow paint and then press the bottles onto the dark blue paper. It makes a great star shape. Once the paint was dry, we hung the paper on the BB. The children had a blast and the board had lots of great yellow stars all over it- perfect for space exploration.
Date: 8-19-99A Bulletin Board about Space: I went to a local store and asked if I could purchase the tops to ICEE cups ( those that look like bubbles or the front of a space ship). I took pictures of my students and cut them into the size circle that would fit on the inside ridge of the ICEE top. It looked just like the kids were in spaceships. I put the bubbles with pictures on a dark blue background and glued silver stars around them. I made a larger paper space shuttle and placed it in the center and added newspaper clippings of John Glenn's space shuttle trip last year. The kids loved seeing their pictures in these space bubbles.
Date: 7-25-99We blew up some balloons and paper mache them with the children. They really loved putting the paper on, and loved the feel of the glue. When they were finished with the newspaper, we put white paper on and then painted each balloon. The children decided on the color, so we ended up with some blue, some black and some grey(silver) planets. We put glitter over each planet, and then hung them in our space center. The space center was made up of black garbage bags that I had slip down one side, and across the bottom. I hung them from the roof of the kindergarten, and along the ceiling, so that the light was blocked out in that particular corner of the room. We hung stars and the moon as well as the planets. I had large outdoor blocks around the area, to make a little room, and provided space books and a large space floor puzzle.
Date: 6-29-99To duplicate the feel of walking on the moon, I brought in a foam mattress pad for my preschoolers. They enjoyed bouncing on it. Date: 6-29-99Simple rocket -- Take a sheet of computer paper. Start in one corner of the paper and roll it tightly around a pencil and tape the end point. Remove pencil. Trim both ends off square so paper is about the length of a drinking straw. Fold one end over about 3/4 of an inch and tape with clear Scotch tape. Using two triangle measuring about 2" x 2" x 3 1/2" fold each in half and attach to sides of rocket toward open end. Insert a regular drinking straw into the open end. When you're ready to blast off, just blow on the straw. The rocket blasts off! Kids will send their rockets flying over and over again.**Make sure to wrap the paper nice and tight or it won't blast off. Date: 5-25-99We are doing an outer space theme this week at school. I took a washing machine box, and spray painted the inside black. I bought a LOT of glow in the dark stars and planets from the dollar store. I let each child pick something to stick on the inside of the box, I cut a door in the side of the box that can open and close, one or two at a time they entered the box with flash lights, and placed their glow in the dark item in the box. I also put a chair or two (child sized) in the box, so they could pretend they were in a space ship. I had cut outs of planets, and stars, and let them stick those to the outside of the box. I also had a large cutout of a space ship. Then I had paint out for them to paint the sun and moon, and additional stars. They are having a ball with this item in our class room. I suppose you could also use a refrigerator box, but due to our space a washer box works better. The language that developed about, space, and stars and planets was amazing! I have a feeling this will last until the end of school in May! |
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