We also picked up new words, such as meteor, meteorite and gravity, and learned what they mean. Using inflatable planets, we took a trip outside to orbit our inflatable Sun. We were amazed to find that Venus has been shining brightly next to the Moon on several nights recently. We even watched video clips of astronaut Tim Peake in the space shuttle. It was incredible to see him floating around, making a water bubble, and playing space ping pong—it looked like so much fun! However, we weren’t too keen on the idea of eating food from packets.
Our creativity was on full display as we designed our own Solar System art scene. We painted a space backdrop and used collage materials to create our own planet Earth and rocket. We also had a STEM activity to test how far we could launch our rockets using straws and paper.
One of the highlights of the week was making space jelly. We started by weighing 200g of jelly crystals and measuring out two pints of boiling water. An adult carefully mixed them together until the crystals melted away. Then came the exciting part – space dust – and as the sunlight shone through the windows, it looked like tiny stars twinkling above us. We added it to the jelly, watching it swirl through the orange liquid. To turn it into solid jelly, we decided the fridge would be the best place. We were thrilled to find that our plan worked—the jelly set into a wobbly, space-themed treat!
Finally, as it has been Children’s Mental Health Week, we have talked about how it’s okay to have all kinds of feelings, such as happiness, sadness or anger. Everyone has big feelings sometimes, and that’s completely normal! We discussed how important it is to talk to a trusted grown-up if our feelings ever feel too tricky to handle alone.
We continue our space topic next week with a focus on Aliens Love Underpants!
