Planets/Solar system/Space shuttle art&craft project at home

[Zana]

DS is really into this stuff now ..any cool links for something pretty simple that we can make at home? TIA

[Raidra]

I think the best project by far is to get a big box and decorate it to look like a space shuttle. You can cut out windows, use extra flaps to make wings, print out NASA logos to tape on the outside, pictures of planets and whatnot to tape on the inside, make knobs and dials out of paper or bottle caps. I also punched holes in the 'roof' to look like constellations, and we attached a measuring cup to it with a string to be the radio. Great fun. :)

We've also studied craters by dropping marbles into flour/sand/whatever, or you can glue a bunch of dried beans onto a disk (like a plate or cardboard circle), cover it with tinfoil, and pretend it's the moon.

For a bigger project, we got a tri-fold cardboard display and painted it black. We then cut variously sized stryfoam balls in half, painted them, and glued them on to make a model of the solar system. You can also buy inflatable planets to hang from the ceiling, or make your own.

You can take a glass jar (like baby food sized) and fill it with water, baby oil, blue food coloring, glitter, sequins, beads, etc. Hot-glue the lid on, and you'll have a galaxy 'snow globe'.

You can get glow in the dark stars to put on your child's bedroom walls/ceiling. You can make rockets out of toilet paper tubes and construction paper. You can make a paper rocket by folding and taping a square of paper, but leaving one side open. Then put a straw into the opening and blow.. the rocket should take off across the room. Or you could tape a straw onto a balloon, thread string through the straw, and when you stretch out the string and let the air out, the balloon (which you can decorate to be a rocket) will zoom across to the other person.

Um.. what else. You can use YouTube to watch space shuttle launches. NASA's website has a good kid section. Zula Patrol on PBS is a great show about aliens and teaches science concepts.

For books, check out Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! I'm Off to the Moon by Dan Yaccarino, On the Moon by Anna Milbourne (Usborne), I Want to Be an Astronaut by Byron Barton, Magic Schoolbus books, and a bunch of others I'm forgetting.

Hope that helps some. :)

[deannanb]

I think I remember seeing a solar system kit at Michael's or another craft store - it had Styrofoam balls in different sizes with materials to decorate for the planets