Solar System and Space Preschool Mini Unit

Introducing our SPACE UNIT for kids from 3-5 years of age! Lots of hands-on learning activities!

 

Fun Thermometer Reading in Space

Vito loved our penguin thermometer reading activity , and because of this, I have to include something similar in our Outerspace Preschool Mini Unit.  This is great for learning how to recognize “tens” and how to read a thermometer.

Montessori Inspired Space Themed Learning Activities

We are moving to new things this week as Vito’s interest is starting to be directed more about his body and senses.  For the past few weeks, we’ve been doing work about the moon, the planets, and space.  Here’s a roundup of our activities in learning about the solar system and space in general (in no particular order).

Hands-on Learning of Constellations for Preschoolers

Vito and I were exploring constellations earlier this week as we were reading about the Big Dipper.  He was fascinated that I extended our activity into pin poking to recreate the formation of the stars (constellations).

Phases of the Moon Learning Pack

The changing of the moon’s shape has fascinated Vito.  Early this year, we’ve been seeing the moon as early as 1 pm in the afternoon, so he gets to identify and describe its shape.  He would call the shapes “small moon”, “half moon”, and “circle moon”.  With the knowledge that the moon changes its appearance, I read a few books to Vito to explain why this is happening.

Now, this post contains some of the activities we did to learn about the moon phases.  These are hands-on activities, and we used most of our printed materials from my shop.  Continue reading the post to learn more about it.

Sparkly Planets for your Solar System

We’ve done this before (in 2013) and we made another one again! Creating our planets for our solar system using aluminium foil. Have done this before?  I mentioned the source of this activity in my previous post, read it here.

Introducing the Solar System to Preschoolers

In line with our Days of Creation activities, the boys and I talked about how the universe came to be.  Mavi used his Usborne Fact Cards once again to review some solar system concepts and this made Vito get into the mood of exploring the planets as well.  

How to Introduce Space and Planets to Toddlers

Vito can finally identify the sun, moon and earth, and can’t stop saying the word space whenever he sees a rocket ship!  With engaging activities, you can definitely expose your kids to the concept of space and planets. 

The Perfect Moon Sand (Cloud Dough) Recipe

Dear friends, I’m very busy and I don’t have an easy access to products that are sometimes required to create a dough or a slime.  So when I discovered this 2-ingredient cloud dough from Happy Hooligans, I was ecstatic!  To make a moon sand or cloud dough, you just need a lot of plain flour and baby oil. That’s just it!  Check the site for the measurements, the outcome was fantastic!

Painting the Moon

Vito is 28 months old.

We have an amazing full moon during Holy Week so I encouraged the boys to the paint the moon.  I can’t believe that it turned out so beautiful and realistic!  The craters are naturally formed and the color combination of paints were fantastic.  The best part about this is that it’s so simple to make!

Science Experiments: Twinkle Twinkle Stars and {Learn & Play Link Up}

I love simple and easy to prepare experiments.  That’s why when we received a Janice VanCleave’s book as present last year, I was so elated! I love her books of experiments!  So we are trying some of it and so far the boys are enjoying it!
Objective:  To simulate the twinkling of stars in sky.

Materials needed:

a large square foil

glass bowl (preferably 2 liters)

tap water

a torch/flashlight

pencil

Procedure:
1.  Crumple your square foil and place it on a table or on a floor.
2.  Fill your clear bowl with tap water and place it on top of the crumpled foil. 

3.  Darken the room by turning off the lights.  Hold the torch or flashlight above the bowl.  Distance from the bowl  is about 12 inches.
4.  Observe the foil through the undisturbed water.

5.  Now using your pencil, tap the surface of the water gently.  Observe the foil through the moving water.


What happened? 
The light rays reflecting from the foil when there was a movement in water appears to blur or twinkle. 

Why? 
The movement of the water causes the depth of the water to vary.  The light rays twinkle because they bend or refract in different direction when it passed through the different depths of water. 

This is similar to the light rays of the stars.  They appear to be twinkling when you are observing from earth because they refract differently as the light rays move through the different thickness of air in the atmosphere.  Scientifically, this twinkling phenomenon is called ‘scintillation’. 

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Source:  Janice VanCleave Astronomy

Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!

In relation to our activity this week, I am featuring space and astronomy themed activities!

Relative Size of the Sun Activity from Research Parent

The Earth, The Sun & Stars from Every Star is Different

Space Explorer Toolbox from Montessori By Mom

Sensory Play for Earth Day from Mama’s Happy Hive

Earth Day from Child Led Life

Now it’s time for this week’s link party! This is a BRAND new link up for all blog posts that include learn and play activities and hands-on education for kids. We are excited to read your blog posts and to see what you have to share! Please link up below and grab our button to display on your blog.

If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

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• Fine and Gross Motor Activities
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Healthy Recipes for Kids
• Arts and Crafts
• Natural Living
• Free Educational Printables
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• Healthy Living

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Guide to Space and Heavenly Bodies Study for Kids (with FREE Resources)

I’ve been planning this unit since last month because I wanted to prepare ahead of time. We’ve done A LOT of space and heavenly bodies unit in the past and I wanted to upgrade the lesson, add something new for Mavi to learn.  So right now, I’m sharing our Space and Heavenly Bodies Study for this year. I’m also putting a bunch of links from our previous lessons and activities for your reference. I hope you find this post helpful.

Space and Solar System

               
Solar System and Planets Part I
Solar System and Planets Part II
Planets and Solar System for Preschoolers
Moon Phases

        
The Moon
Phases of the Moon
A look at the Northern and Southern Sky
We looked into the star constellation maps seen in the northern and southern hemisphere.  This is to make Mavi aware that there are stars that can be seen in the northern part of the world but not visible on the other side.

                   
Stars and Constellations
For the details of our constellation study, click here or click the image below.  The material we used here is the Fantacolor pegboard.
Space Exploration History
I made chronological cards of the space exploration history.  The pictures and the fact cards were all taken and referenced from Wikipedia and Wiki Commons.  Though Mavi can read this straight from the site, I wanted to have something tangible and something that we can work on, like arranging the timeline and matching it with objects.

The cards I created contains the year and a title of the major event that occurred in that year.  The description is very much readable by kids though there were a few words that Mavi couldn’t pronounce well or he needed to ask me for the meaning.  Such a good material to improve reading skills, spelling and vocabulary!
After which, I showed him how we can arrange the cards according to their timeline.  This gives him a visual presentation of the order of events. 

Aside from arranging the cards chronologically, you can also use them to match objects.  Here we used Safari Toobs Space, Safari Toob Insects (fly) and Safari Toob Farm (dog).

So if you wanted to have a copy of the cards for Space History Timeline, click here for the link.
Parts of a Space Shuttle
The parts of a space shuttle is something that Mavi really looked forward to.  Oh boy he was so happy that I made him another “flying object”.  The first one was the Airplane Nomenclature Cards, and here’s the newest Space Shuttle Nomenclature Cards.  This is based on the NASA’s space shuttle design.  Using the cards, a child will learn the different parts of a space shuttle.  I wrote the parts’ functions in a notebook because I was out of ink.

To get a copy of the Space Shuttle Nomenclature Cards, click here.
Sensory Tub
Now, this is something I prepared for both of the boys to play with.  Xavi had his own Letter S: Star Unit study last week so it was timely that I prepared this Space Sensory Tub for the boys.  Figures are from Safari Toob Space, homemade PlayDoh planets and homemade Earth felt.

FREE Space Exploration History Learning Cards

We recently concluded our First Great Lesson part 3 which is all about the space and the solar system.  We were able to reuse our material of Space History Cards which I made years ago because Mavi was asking me all about how did NASA came to be.  

FREE Space Shuttle Nomenclature Cards

We are learning about space exploration and currently discovering how a space shuttle works!  Click the cards for your free copy or the link below.

Download your FREE copy of Space Shuttle 3-part cards! Hope you like it. Enjoy!

Study of Star Constellation Maps for Kids

To appreciate the study of stars and outer space, we looked into the star constellation maps and understand how people of long time ago interpreted them.  As we all know, constellations were made up by astronomers, travelers, farmers and ancient people to identify stars: basically to tell the directions, seasons and weather.  So Mavi and I explored some of the known constellations, learned when and where they appear and identified their brightest star.

Our materials for the study include homemade star constellation maps and Fantacolor pegboard. 
The cards are so easy to prepare: black cardstock, silver or gold star stickers and a silver/gold marker.

The Fantacolor pegboard was used by Mavi to recreate each constellation…

…and identify their brightest stars.

Ursa Major, Ursa Minor and Polestar (Big Dipper, Small Dipper and Polestar)

Scorpius

Common Name	The Scorpion
	This constellation contains some of the most spectacular stars, nebulae and star clusters.  Closest to Milky Way
Visible from	Worldwide
Location	Southern Hemisphere
Best time to see	After sunset of April to September
Brightest Star	Antares

Leo

Common Name	The Lion
	Lies afar from the band of Milky Way.
Visible from	Worldwide
Location	Northern Hemisphere
Best time to see	After sunset of February to June
Brightest Star	Regulus

Sagittarius

Common Name	The Archer
	This has a vivid constellation and lies in the southern half of the sky. It is rich in star clusters and nebulae.  This constellation shines brightly because the middle of the Milky Way lies in its borders.
Visible from	Worldwide
Location	Southern Hemisphere
Best time to see	After sunset of July to October
Brightest Star	Kaus Australis

Orion

Common Name	The Hunter
	This is the brightest and most popular constellations in the entire sky.  It is exceptional since it can be seen from both the North and South Poles.
Visible from	Worldwide
Location	Mid Latitude
Best time to see	After sunset of December to March
Brightest Star	Rigel

Taurus

Common Name	The Bull
	The constellation looks like the front of a mighty bull charging towards the Orion.
Visible from	Worldwide
Location	Northern Hemisphere
Best time to see	After sunset of November to February
Brightest Star	Aldebaran

Cygnus

Common Name	The Swan
	This constellation contains many fascinating stars and nebulae.  The pattern creates a distinct cross (known also as the Northern Cross)
Visible from	Worldwide
Location	Northern Hemisphere
Best time to see	After sunset of July to November
Brightest Star	Deneb

We are continuously learning about space. Currently, we’re looking at the chronological timeline of space exploration history and how space shuttles work.  This has been a very fruitful topic for Mavi, and I am learning a lot as well!  More posts about Space Study coming up in the next few days. Stay tuned!
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