Glittery Galaxies Thanks to Robyn for this idea which I saw in your room. Look at pictures of the milky way. Talk about the stars and planets that can be seen and the swirling shapes made up of the milky way. Look at pictures of comets and asteroids. Give the children a square of black card each and some PVA glue. Also provide spice bottles filled with different coloured glitter. Tell the children to design galaxies, comets and asteroids very carefully with the glue. Then help them to carefully shake glitter over their glue creations. Shake off the excess glitter, and the result will be lovely, sparkly galaxies.. k here to add your text. |
Shooting Stars Cut out star shapes from stiff card. Prepare paints in various colours eg red, yellow, grey, white, orange. Put a little strong PVA glue into the paint also. Prepare long strips of foil ribbon in various colours, and also provide some glitter. . Have the child paint their star in the colours they choose and then sprinkle glitter onto the paint. When the star is mostly dry, have the child choose some ribbon pieces and staple these onto one of the points of the star. The result will by a glittery star with a flaming tail. |
Firery Comets Ciut circle shapes from stiff card. Provide red, yellow and orange paints for the children to paint the comet. Sprinkle gold and red sequins or glitter onto the comet. Attach strips of red, gold and orange crepe paper to make a fiery comet's tail. |
Rockets Long before this lesson start collecting 1 litre milk cartons (if parents are donating them make sure they deliver them clean - you would be surprised how many parents never think to wash the milk carton before giving it to you!). Once you have collected enough milk cartons, cut pieces of aluminium foil, large enough to be wrapped around the sides and top of the milk carton. You may also like to cut windows and doors from gold paper, and strips of red crepe paper to make fire for the rocket. If you have a picture of an astronaut, you could maybe make mulitple copies of it and cut these out too. Help the children to apply glue to one side of the milk carton and then place the foil firmly on top of it. Repeat this with each of the four sides. There should be excess foil left at the top of the carton. Help the children to apply glue to the pointed part of the carton and then firmly glue the foil down in this area. Once the foil has been glued down, the children can glue on windows, a door and an astronaut. Around the bottom edge of the milk carton they can glue the red crepe paper strips to make "fire" shooting out from the bottom of the rocket. These rockets look great once they are finished, and the children will be really impressed with how they turn out. Handy Tip - If you are planning on hanging the rockets, its a good idea to poke a hole through the top flaps of the milk carton and then thread string through BEFORE you put the foil on. Doing it after the foil is glued is really difficult! |
Crazy Aliens Read the children some stories about space aliens and then have them draw an alien that they would like to cteate. The teacher can write a description of the child's drawing. Next, provide a range of scrap materials for children to use to create their alien. Useful materials include: boxes, egg cartons a nd egg carton pieces, bottle lids, straws, popsicle sticks, bubble wrap, wool, foil and paper cake pans, crepe paper, sttreamers and corks. Markers and paint can also be provided so that children can add further decoration. When the child's alien is finished they can give a short presentation to the class of their picture and their alien. Take a photo of the child's alien and put it in to their portfolio along with their alien drawing. ere to add your text. |
Big Box Rockets Salvage a large rectangualr box from a department store that will be big enough for the children to stand in. Spray paint the outside of the box silver and cut out 2 windows. Cover the windows with coloured cellophane. Inside the box glue in knobs and design a keyboard panel to create controls. You have now created a rocket that the children will really enjoy playing in!. |
Explaining Day and Night on Earth Have one child hold a flashlight to represent the sun, and another child hold a globe. Have the child with the flashlight shine it on the globe. Explain to the children that when the sun is shinig on that part of the earth it is day in those countries and night in the countries where the sun's light does not reach. Then explain how the earth rotates slowly so that the other side of the earth faces the sun and has daylight and the countries on the opposite side of the earth have nightt-time. |
Flying Saucers Purchase small coloured disposable bowls as these make a good UFO shape when turned upside down.. Cut some square shapes from gold or silver paper for children to glue on to the edge of the dish to make windows. Give the children coloured circle stickers to stick on to make UFO lights. Lastly, cut strips of silver, red or gold ribbon to hang from the bottom of the saucer to make fire or light beams. Poke a hole in the bottom of the bowl and thread some string through to hang the saucer. |
How the Moon got its Craters Talk to the children about the surface of the moon and the fact that it has craters. Explore ideas on how the craters were created. Look at pictures on posters and in books. If you have a sandbox outside, dampen down the surface with water. Talk to the children about how asteroids are moving about the atmosphere in space and that occassionally they crash into the moon. Next give the children small balls to represent asteroids and have them throw the balls onto the sand's surface to show that when the asteroid crashes to the moon's surface a crater is created. |
- Portfolio Activity |
