Space Day

We are counting down the days now until Harry starts school, and I'm trying hard to make them memorable. It's getting a lot easier as Mia gets older, I have struggled in the past to come up with things that entertain them both at the same time. I thought it would be really fun to have a whole day themed around a particular topic. Pinterest is the place to go for amazing crafts and activities, and a space rocket I saw made from toilet rolls inspired me to come up with 'Space Day'.

I did some planning the day before, and enlisted Harry to help me. We made some planet bunting by cutting out and colouring in circles of card to string up, and also built our own rocket from things in the recycling box. We even made a space themed cake, which was iced with black icing and decorated with lots of chocolate stars. Once the children were asleep, I covered the kitchen table with tin foil and collected together some of his space themed toys. Then I came up with a list of activities ready for the next day.

Our first activity was making a Solar System wall chart. I used a long roll of paper that I bought from Ikea, painting first with black paint and then over with glittery paint. Fortunately it was nice enough to paint outside, and yes, they are still in pajamas, I know from experience that black paint is very messy! They both loved the painting.

Then I used some free planets colouring posters (free download) which I found on the Twinkl website. Harry coloured them in according to colours which I found on-line, cut them out and then stuck them on to the background. I made him some name labels to go with them. You will notice that our Solar System includes Pluto, which is technically not a planet, but I'm afraid that I couldn't bear to leave it out!

We've stuck it up in Harry's bedroom, which will be looking like a classroom before long!

We also did some baking. As well as the space cake we made planet biscuits - circular shortbread recipes with a mixture of green and blue icing and melted chocolate drizzled over the top - delicious!

For some educational activities for Harry I found some more resources on the Twinkl website. We used the space themed pencil control worksheets (Platinum resource) and a space word mat (Platinum resource). I also printed out a split pin astronaut (free download) to make that is really sweet and that Harry has been playing with a lot. There were lots of other space themed resources over there too, we just didn't have the time to get to them all!

As a final craft, we made alien masks from paper plates. They are very easy, just paint a paper plate green and when it's dry decorate with various bits and pieces. Cut eye holes, add a pipe cleaner for antennae and knot in some elastic. If you don't have any elastic you can just use a stick or wooden spoon to hold it in front of the face. They both made these and ran around with them on.

I really, really enjoyed our space themed day. It was great to have a whole day's worth of activities planned in advance, and no-one got bored. I'm now planning plenty more themed days!

If you feel inspired, here you can find the posts about our other themed days:

Antarctic Day
Under the Sea Day
Dinosaur Day
Transport Day
Australia Day
Roman Day
Disney Frozen Day Beach Day

And some tips on how to hold a themed day at home for children.