Children compare rockets and shuttles, investigate the force behind launch, and learn why specialised vehicles are needed for space travel. Construction, experiments, dramatic play, research, and movement activities introduce astronaut roles, spacesuits, and daily life without gravity as described in the plan.
What children learn
- Distinguish rockets from space shuttles by their purpose, crew, and reuse.
- Explain that rocket engines carry oxygen and push hot gas backward to propel a rocket forward.
- Investigate how expelled air propels balloon and straw-launched rockets and how added weight affects a paper rocket.
- Describe astronauts' work, specialised roles, and the protective purpose of a spacesuit.
- Explore how the lack of gravity presented in the plan affects movement, balance, eating, and drinking in space.
Key activities
- Exploring Space Vehicles through pictures, video, playdough, and comparison
- Building a model rocket from paper tubes and geometric paper shapes
- Demonstrating rocket propulsion with released balloons and Space Centre dramatic play
- Building and launching straw-powered paper rockets, then testing added paper-clip weight
- Researching astronauts and constructing paper-plate astronaut figures
- Simulating disorientation and viewing how astronauts live, eat, and drink in space
You’ll need
rocket, shuttle, and astronaut pictures and books, playdough, paper tubes and plates, coloured paper and cut-outs, paint and crayons, scissors, glue and tape, balloons, bendable straws, paper clips, cardboard rocket and space-centre props
Structure: 5 days; each day: Thought of the Day, Tuning-in Time, Warm-up, Social Studies/Science, Creative Learning, English, Maths