Space inspired craft : Pluto

We did this project a day after the spacecraft New horizon reached planet Pluto. We were so excited and my  little one enjoyed watching the pictures of Pluto send by the spacecraft. Sunny boy(3yrs) is total planetary science enthusiastic... So he wanted to do some Pluto inspired art /craft. 

For this project, you will need:

Paper and colors(black and white)

Flour

Water 

Lid 

we started by making the background space first. Sunny boy painted the paper black. We kept it for drying while we made the mixture for making Pluto. I kept the ingredients on the table and  he had to scoop flour into a bowl, added water , some glue and squeezed some white color from the  color tube. He mixed it with a spoon till it formed a sticky dough. This activity helps in fine motor skills.

This dough was pressed on a lid. We discussed about the features of Pluto and its surface. We made craters, bumps and texture with hand...

The flour dough gave out a pungent smell the next morning.. so it went to the dustbin.. 

Planetery science: Making a solar system display with clay planets

My son got interested in planetary science just after his 2nd birthday in January. It was end of his fire engine obsession and beginning of stars and planets obsession. He knows names of all planets, sequence,their colors and relative sizes, their moons etc. (I read planetary science websites and books everyday to keep up with his questions.. ooh these never ending questions..sigh) 

So early in June, I had made planets from air dry clay. I made them in relative proportion of their sizes. Over the coming days in our afternoon activities , Avaneesh had painted them as per their colors. Then I kept them in a box on his table for many days. He would play with them everyday.

After a month. I thought we should glue them on to a board so to make him understand how planets rotate around themselves and around the sun. So I cut a big circle from a Styrofoam board.It was hard to keep Avaneesh away. He was jumping with excitement. I drew orbit around a imaginary sun in the center. Avaneesh kept on saying Where is Sun? I told him that you will paint it later lets first just put these planets all in place.  

 I put glue drops on the orbit circles and told him to press the planets in place. He placed all the planets in sequence. 

Then I made a big ball from the extra clay I had and gave it Avaneesh that this is Sun. He was happy to finally have Sun in the solar system. 

We also talked about how planets go round and round around the sun and around itself. Then I told him that imagine this is sun and we are planets. Avaneesh and I went round around the table and then going around the table going round ourselves. Oh my God, my head started spinning. I stopped Avaneesh as well. 

Linking to Science Sunday!

DIY/ recycled craft : Rocket

I had saved the cardboard tube of the kitchen roll to be used when I will get a idea to do a recycle craft. Today I finally got the idea. 

A rocket- yes the tube perfectly fits the shape of a rocket. My planet loving son is very fond of rockets and UFOs.  I cut a yellow paper according to the size of the tube to cover the tube. Then two sets of blue and green strips, a few stars and circles to decorate the rocket. I also cut 3 legs for the rocket with a free hand design. A cone was made of the same orange card stock which I used for the legs. 

First glue all the decorations on the base paper. By this time my son who was sleeping got up. He wanted to be part of this activity. So I told him to apply glue all over the back of the yellow base paper. I glued it to the cardboard tube. With a sharp knife I made 3 insertions a little above the bottom of the tube for the legs in a way that the legs would touch the ground once inserted. Insert the orange legs inside. The conical top was glued to the top part.