After watching the launch last weekend, I was inspired to put together a space themed weekend for the kids. It was a bit harder than I expected, mostly because many of the activities seemed to be targeted at boys. I did my best to approach it as gender equally as possible, and my daughter had a blast.

I was hoping for an easier plan, decor wise, but my husband was committed. So he cut and paint the planets to scale on Friday night. I added tiny gold stars the next day.

After the kids came back from outside, they had a snack of a rocket made out of fruit!

Then we jumped right into a moon toss! We just bought our first new TV so we had a large box that was perfect for this. For the astroids we wrapped paper in foil. Our kitty also really like the box and the foil balls!

Next we tried out a space shuttle repair activity. The idea was that astronauts worked in space with gloves on, so we simulated that hard work with nuts and bolts (plastic and wooden ones from one of their toys) in a tub of water with yellow gloves on. My little one thought he couldn’t do it, but he managed.

Usually tempers are likely to flare just before lunch so we watch about 30 minutes of videos. We watched this one and this one. Maybe the first time I didn’t find pink fong annoying!

After lunch and nap we started on galaxy playdough. We’ve never actually made playdough before so it was a bit of an experience. But they liked the process and playing with it when it was ready.

My husband pre-made galaxy popcorn— which may have been my favorite thing (chocolate popcorn is my jam). We watched while we watched moving stars– kind of like a light show.

Then we had to dance of that sugar! We did this one and a cosmic yoga.

Afterwards we quickly made Alien balloons, using some leftover balloons from last weekend. I prepped the eyes ahead of time, so this only took about 15 minutes or so, but the effect was pretty cute.

Finally– it was time to watch Wall-E, which I had never seen. It was sweet! Then time for dinner and bedtime.

The next day we started with rocket jet packs! I thought this was super fun. We didn’t have 2 liter bottles, but we emptied out some water bottles we had on hand and wrapped them in duct tape (ran out) and foil. We used white duct tape for the straps and attached it to a piece of cardboard. We also had a fair amount of felt on hand to make the fire (even some red chevron, which I thought was a stroke of genius!).

After that was an extension on the same theme– dress up play (the kids started playing in the rocket on their own!) to simulated walking on the moon by walking on an air mattress. I was hoping to fill the time we usually spend in the water pool or table (there’s no water in space!) but we didn’t quite make it. I’m hoping I can make water fit for next weekend. (It’s usually good for an hour of quiet).

Finally it was time for videos! We watched this one on food in space, and this one on gravity, which my 5 year old loved. Then it was lunch and nap– thank goodness!

After nap we made earth cookies by making green and blue sugar cookie dough. We put the doughs together and they don’t blend much while cooking, giving a great earth effect.

Next we made rockets! This one came out of my head– no link, sorry! Using toilet paper rolls for the base, we pre-cut the cone for the top (although they had to glue it) and the black base at the bottom (they had to assemble it) with notches in the toilet paper roll for the base to sit in. They colored their rocket then we put it all together!

Lastly, we did a moon rock hunt. My husband and his mom collected some rocks from the condo and painted them green. I hid them around the house and Rush collected them, then counted them.

We were supposed to play “cold” potato (like hot potato but instead it’s too cold to touch), but we didn’t have enough people to play, so we cuddled watching Lilo & Stitch and ate pizza.

Overall, it was a fun weekend and I hear the kids spouting random space facts, so some learning snuck in. I’ll take it!