Fun Space Crafts and Activities for Kids

My 4-year old son really got into our Blast Off! Week of MOMS Camp this summer. We did a few small projects I found at the Dollar Tree, such as a space sticker scene and some foam rockets that were fun. We also made a few crafts that we all loved!

One of my favorite things we made this week was Night Sky Play Doh! My kids really love play doh - especially my son. I found this awesome recipe on Pinterest that was perfect for this week and we had a blast. Here is the original Link  for the recipe I followed.  The only thing was, I didn't have any black food coloring.... or any black liquid water color! So I came up with a fabulous idea to turn the play doh any color I wanted!! Dissolve dried watercolor paints into 1 cup of water and mix into your play doh as it's cooking! Just pop out a little oval of watercolor paint from the pallet and stir it into a cup of water. For this night sky color I used one oval of black and one oval of purple paint.  When the play doh was cooling, I added TONS of glitter in all different sizes and shapes.

 

We used plastic gems and glow in the dark stars to make night scenes in the play doh which was a super fun way to play with it before we really started molding and squishing the play doh like normal.  Then we used those giant glow in the dark stars to decorate my son's ceiling! They cleaned up great after being in the play doh so it wasn't a problem.

I have been dying to paint with shaving cream for some time and was excited to come up with a craft project using it for Space Week.  We made Shaving Cream Painted Planets!! Start with a rectangle cooking tray covered in foil and fill it with shaving cream.

Then squirt several lines of acrylic paint on top.  Use something pointy to swirl it around - but not too much! We used plastic chop sticks but you could just use the tip of your paint brush.... or your fingers if you're not afraid of a little mess! 

Cut out circles of construction paper and press one down onto the shaving cream mixture.  Hold it there for about 10 seconds, making sure it touches everywhere.  Then gently pull it off and set it aside to dry. 

 After about five minute, use a squeegee to carefully scrape off the access shaving cream and you're left with an awesome swirly planet!

This was such a cool technique to create what looks exactly like a gaseous planet - I loved it! Not to mention my kids loved playing in the shaving cream afterwards and mixing it up even more.

Finally, we made some Paper Straw Rockets that I found on Pinterest. They were so fun and simple - we used crayons to decorate several small squares of paper. They were each about 4.5" by 4.5". Then wrap the paper around a pencil to help it hold a cylindrical shape.

Glue it down one side to create a tube. 

Once that's dry, fold over one end and secure with tape.

Stick it over the end of a straw and blow (just like you do with a new straw wrapper at a restaurant!) to launch your rocket! We used big plastic straws for ours but regular straws are fine too. This was a fun project to make and THEN play with! Here is the original blog where I found this!