Below are some of our sensory table time games we had for this unit. We found small eraser stars hidden in this special bubber dough, found colored stars in our rice and karo syrup sensory bottles, and cut out star shapes in flubber using cookie cutters. We picked out the colored stars in black beans with large tweezers or clips and then sort them into a colored tray. Playdough is always a favorite, especially when you have space molds! Our sensory tables were a hit as well. In one table, we had moon sand with all kinds of space men, marbles, and alien spacecraft (recycles cherry tomato containers!). If you are not familiar with moon sand, it comes in a bunch of different colors (ours was blue), and when you squish it, it molds together. In our other table, we had rice, moon rocks (aluminum foil balls), and more
Some "strong hand" activities included; using star and sun shape hole punches. Many children ended up making math patterns with their paper punches. We made solar systems by spinning the Lazy Susan while holding a marker to it to make the circles. Then we added space stickers and foam shapes. The kids really enjoyed carefully placing cool space looking marbles on top of golf tees. Cutting while following wavy curves, tracing star shapes, and decorating 3-D cardboard space ships were all popular activities as well. Kids made star bead necklaces, often times in math patterns again! The rolling giggles and laughter when the little alien creatures popped up after you pushed them down were just precious. I think it was the anticipation of waiting for them to pop was half the fun!
We matched star faces and the planets in the solar system orbit order. Making constellations with star erasers and black pipe cleaners produced quite creative "pictures in the sky". Some kids made star flyers that spin and wobble when thrown because of the straw center. We compared sizes of rockets using Unifix math cubes to build them a certain number amount high. Two big favorites were large motor activities. "Shoot the Moon" used foam rockets that we shot at a moon and stars board (made out of a large black trash bag, star stickers, and a moon print. "Catch a Comet" used water jugs with their bottoms cut off to use as a "catcher" and a giant aluminum foil ball with streamers coming out of it. Puzzles, creating rocket ships using math blocks, counting stars, space lotto, and spaceship "go fish" rounded off our unit.
