Our Space Adventure month is coming to a close, but we couldn’t leave without exploring Rocket Ships!
This day was a blast (literally and figuratively) thanks to some awesome ideas in my Experience Preschool teacher guide and some added fun with a Christmas present that was aching to be revisited.
Rocket Ship Math
After reading If You Decide to Go to the Moon, the kids eager to build rockets with their light board shapes. These were our manipulatives for the month and I love them! The kids built their rockets using the both the cards as guides and then made their own. Playing with our light table shapes reminded them of our shapes blocks that we have outside…. so that is where we headed next.
Building Rockets Outside
Outside, the kids built rockets in all sorts of ways. We used our Rainbow Blocks that we used when we talked about light and shadow, and brought out our Mega blocks as well. My girl decided we needed a Moon Rover because what is the point of going in a rocket ship if you aren’t headed to explore somewhere amazing like the moon?!?! We also practiced drawing rockets out of simple shapes and she even sounded out how to spell “Blast Off!”
Make and Play: Rocket Ships
Creating her own 
Working on tracing
After lunch we worked on creating rockets from the templates Experience Preschool sent us. My 6 year old drew her own designs while my son worked on tracing windows and doors I drew on his rocket. Every rocket needs some flames because how else is it going to get into space? So scissor cutting skills were put to the test. My son cut along some lines I drew while my 6 year old creatively added some zig-zags to her flames. But the best was when we turned on our Track 1: Blast Off on our Space CD from Experience Early Learning and the kids raced past the dog as their rockets soared behind them. Check it out below!
Blasting Toy Rockets
For Christmas, we bought this toy rocket launcher for my son. They love playing with it, but it had been put away and forgotten for a little while, but they definitely remembered it by the afternoon. We each took turn launching our rockets down the driveway trying to fly them further with each launch. I love how we can experiment with this toy and adjust how far we push down the rocket, the angle the rocket blasts off in, and how much pressure we put on the pump. It’s a fantastic STEAM toy.
Whew! Rocket Day was a blast as you can see! Our month of Space Exploration has finished, but if you missed my posts on Galaxy Salt Painting, Making Moon Craters, or Exploring the Rocky Red Planet Mars, be sure to check them out.
Next month we will be on an Ocean Adventure you do not want to miss! Until then friends, Happy Learning!
