Welcome to our “Out of this World Space Week” series – an at home camp filled with days of relaxed learning and fun themed activities on outer space! For this day, we learned all about the moon using fun activities – reading some fun fact books, watching some educational videos, and performing some fun experiments! Read through to check out the day!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 But the gist of our day is having our kiddos focus on some work books or online learning tools in the early morning, an intro to the day’s theme after they were done, some videos around lunch time, and themed activities (reading time, writing time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments) in the afternoon. Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
Most kids are likely familiar with the moon and some basic concepts. But it may be fun to talk about some things they already know or may be curious about.
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- Observing the Moon | PBS Learning Material by pbslearning.com
- Moon & Its Phases for Kids by generationgenius.com
- Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me (The Very Hungry Caterpillar And Other Stories) by Illuminated Films
- Max Goes to the Moon | Story Time from Space by storytimefromspace.com
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
During our themed snack of the day, we had a yummy dessert! You may have seen a version of this online if you’ve been looking at space themed fun. We found this one – Explore Phases of the Moon Using Oreo Cookies by gosciencegirls.com which has great explanations about the moon and its phases in addition to the oreo instructions. We did make one minor tweak – rather than have a paper with the sun and moon drawn on it, we used a yellow-ish fruit for the sun on one side of the plate and blueberries and grapes in a mini bowl for the earth.
READING
It’s no secret that reading helps prevent that summer slide. Some even say this is the most important. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned!
- Moonwalk: The First Trip to the Moon (Step-Into-Reading, Step 5) by Judy Donnelly
- If You Had Your Birthday Party on the Moon by Joyce Lapin
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing helps prevent that summer slide by both encouraging their creativity but also their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: SPACE, MOON, CRATER, GRAVITY
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- If you could play one sport on the moon, which one would it be and why? Do you think it would be easier or harder to play on the moon?
CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
For our craft of the day, we made a simple painting of the moon using one of our favorite craft items – pom poms! We found the idea on craftsonsea.uk.co: Pom Pom Printed Moon Craft – super cute, super easy, & the kids had so much fun!
STEM ACTIVITY
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
For our stem activity of the day, we borrowed one straight from NASA – Whip Up A Moon-Like Crater! This is a very easy (though messy) activity that teaches kids all about impact craters – there are some videos as well as some pdfs that can help supplement. Some of the supplemental pdfs and web pages might be a bit advanced for little ones, but you can always read through and talk through some of the concepts with the younger kids!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home camp article! We hope this article has helped you and your little ones find the JOY in learning and/or maybe even inspired more ideas for you! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest.
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Outer Space Ideas or DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
