Outer Space Activities for Preschoolers

"Twinkle Twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!"

Remember when you were taught this nursery rhyme? It was probably during your preschool years, right? This was when you were first introduced to the concept of the outer space and you probably never realized it! What is outer space? For the preschoolers, it is an unsolved mystery. Preschooler activities should prove being their endeavors in the exploration of the outer space. Don’t you think so? But don’t you worry; for I am not suggesting you a trip to the outer space. I am neither going to talk about sending the little ones to space! We are going to look at some interesting activities for preschoolers that can help them know their solar system and the outer space that surrounds the planet. We will be going through some creative activities, which will invite the kids’ interest into the exploration of outer space.

Outer Space Activities for Preschoolers
Outer space is the region of perfect vacuum, which enables the stars, planets and their natural satellites to move along their trajectories. Obviously, you cannot bombard the preschoolers with such scientific terms and expect them to understand what outer space is. How about creating an artistic model of our solar system to help them understand space? Create a model of The Milky Way and depict our solar system as a small part of this huge galaxy. A 3-D model made of clay or paper can help the young minds grasp the concepts related to outer space.

You can organize an art and craft activity for the preschoolers, where they shall prepare small models of the solar system. You can choose to split them into teams and get them work on the seemingly complex and nevertheless interesting model of the solar system. For this activity, ask them to get balls of different sizes, or supply them with the different-sized balls to give them a rough idea of the sizes of different planets.

Perhaps the preschoolers are too young to learn the names of the planets and their spellings. But you can try asking them to learn a simple sentence like "My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nice Pudding". The first letter of every word in this sentence stands for the name of a planet. The words are arranged in such a way that the names of the planets get arranged in their serial order. I am sure you have figured out which planet each word represents.

Here is an easy and interesting activity for the tots. Get them together for creating drawings of the outer space. I know you cannot ‘draw’ vacuum. But you can always get their imagination working to portray what they feel is there in the outer space. Ask them to draw the stars, the Sun, the planets and the moon. Ask them to color the celestial bodies they draw. This activity can thus help them distinguish between colors of the different stellar bodies. You can furnish them with the details of the colors and help them know that the Mars is red, the Earth is blue, and the Sun is yellow while the Moon is white.

You can involve a little Math in the activities by helping them learn numbers from the names of the planets. They can be taught to count from 1-9 while they also learn the planet names.

The outer space is not just about the celestial bodies. It is also about astronomy. Show the children interesting videos or pictures of astronomers and give a brief account of their work. A visit to a nearby planetarium is perhaps an excellent outer space activity for the preschoolers.

One of the most fascinating aspects of outer space is aliens. The children are bound to have questions like, how do aliens look; what do they eat and how do they communicate. You can organize short story-telling sessions and narrate to them interesting stories about aliens. To add some fun to this activity, get some space suits and masks for the tots to wear. You can turn this activity into a fancy dress competition based on the theme of aliens!

Space research and astronomy are interesting subjects but also very vast and complex. It is best to introduce them to young children through fun-filled outer space activities.