SPACE DAY ART AND CRAFTS FOR PRESCHOOLERS
Did you know that National Space Day is celebrated on the first Friday in May? It was created to inspire all of us in the pursuit of knowledge and progress and I couldn’t let the occasion pass us by at Mini Makers.
Don’t worry if you couldn’t make it along; I’ve popped a few of the activities we got up to below so do give them a try at home. Share your creations with us on the Facebook group or tag us on Instagram - we’d love to see!
Planet Wreaths
Cut a wreath shape from some cardboard and add some black paint.
We used these planets to cut around and stick on to our wreaths.
Add some star stickers and ta-dah, your very own planets wreath.
Simple Snipping Sun Activity
On yellow paper, draw around a roll of tape. Place a plate on the paper and draw around that too. Cut the outer circle, leaving the rest for your child to snip away from the outer circle into the middle circle making their very own sunshine. Want more ideas for your little one to practice their scissor skills? Then check out this blog post.
Space Themed Sensory Rice Tray
Sensory rice trays are an absolute favourite at my preschool classes and they are so easy to put together. I dyed some rice black, used some scrunched up foil as moon rocks, adding an old baking tray, some silver cups, teaspoons, some star-shapped cookie cutters, glittery pipe cleaners, a little jug, some gems and covered it all in glitter! The children had fun making moon tea and ‘baking’ moon cakes too.
Junk Modelling Challenge
Little goes to waste in this house! This week, we gave the children a rocket making challenge and they didn’t disappoint. You can use ANYTHING for this. We had cardboard, scraps of coloured paper, washi tapes, some Easter egg plastic inserts and a few other random bits and pieces. This is such an easy activity to set up at home. You don’t even have to give children an idea or challenge; I promise you they will be much better at thinking up their own ideas!!
Observational Drawings
The simplest activity of them all… we used a beautiful book about the planets, leaving it open on a page with lots of incredible images. Plain paper and oil pastels were left out too. Children may choose to draw something completely different, which is more than ok, or they might be encouraged to copy some of the images or even indulge in some mark-making or writing skills.
And finally, a super easy art and craft activity to try at home is telescope making. Pringles tubes, kitchen roll tubes, or just some A4 card rolled up and taped all work perfectly for this. Then use what you have at home - stickers, felt tips, paints, crayons - anything goes!
So, there you have it - a whole host of easy art and craft activities for toddlers and preschoolers. They all need minimal equipment, minutes to set up and provide lots of learning opportunities for little ones. You can find out more about our Mini Makers sessions in this blog post.
