Space Playdough

To begin, the kids and I made a recipe of The Best Playdough (see recipe here) and I added chunky silver glitter and black food coloring to it.

I made a printable using these fun planets (you can find the Planet Printable HERE). I printed them on cardstock, cut them out, and hot glued them to popsicle sticks. For more of a challenge, you could leave the planet names off of the sticks and ask your kids to identify them based on the characteristics they observe.

We referred to our planet books to discover more about the planets & the sun and how they all relate to each other. The kids had fun discussing the planets and the order they go in. I also gave them our 3D Planets and they played with the space playdough and the planets together.

The Planet Printables are very diverse and could be used for a number of things.

–coloring page– use the black and white versions as coloring or painting pages.
–make a mobile with them using a paper plate and some string
–Make window clings– put them under some wax paper, then using the planets as a guide, use puff paint to color them in. once the paint is dry, peel them off and stick them to the window.
–matching planets– simply print them out, laminate them, and match the 3D planets with the pictures.

Planet-Matching Preshool Activity

We used The Big Book of Stars and Planets from Usborne Books as the basis of this activity. This is an excellent interactive book that both my kids love. We read the book and explored the information in the giant fold-out pages.

After exploring the book, I pulled out the 3-Part-Cards from Imagine our Life, I propped up the book and working together, we put the cards correct order.

Next, I grabbed some playdough, rolled it out, and stuck some golf tees in it. (Note: this would be another great place to use the Solar System Playdough!)

We put these 3D planets on the golf tees in the correct order, using the book and the cards for reference.

It was a tiny bit tricky to get the planets to balance on the tees, but it was good fine motor practice and good prep for golfing this summer!

We had a great time discussing and comparing the planets. It was a great opportunity for us to kick off our planets week and begin getting familiar with the names of the different planets.

Sensory Play with Moon Sand

Kids will seize any opportunity to make a mess, and my kids really went to town on this sensory play activity. It was nothing a quick vacuum couldn’t fix, and my kids were entertained for longer than usual. I count it as a win.

The prep for this couldn’t be any simpler- simply mix flour and baby oil in your container of choice. Because we are learning about planets this week, I added planets, marbles, rocks and other random things and called it moon sand. I also added nets and some other fine motor skills tools for them to play with.

For additional texture and sparkle, add some sand or glitter to it!

At first, I set the kids up at our kitchen counter. I quickly realized that there would be some cleanup involved and moved the party to the laundry room. I preferred the mess contained to a room with a door. Once the weather is warmer, I think I’ll do it outside.