We are continuing our 🌌COSMOS Unit Study with this sensory invitation to learn about the Moon, Lunar Craters, Meteors and Meteorites with 🌑Lunar Craters No-Cook 🏡Homemade Play Dough 🌙 Moon COSMOS Sensory Bin • 🌌Unit Study. We are using National Geographic Kids First Big Book of Space book (buy here) as a reference. This book, with its colorful illustrations and simple text, introduces young children to the wonders of Space, explaining basic concepts of the universe, beginning with what is most familiar and expanding out into the cosmos. We learned that many chunks of rock float around in space. If the rock zooms into Earth’s atmosphere towards the planet’s surface, it is called a meteor. Usually, a meteor burns up before it reaches the ground. But sometimes, a meteor reaches Earth’s surface, and if it hits the ground it is called a meteorite.
A crater is a big, bowl-shaped hole on the surface of a planet or moon.
To learn about the asteroids and its impact on planets and moons hands-on, we made the Moon from home-made play dough and simulated the impact of asteroids with different colored marbles. We were inspired to create this invitation to explore and learn after working on KUMON Science Sticker Activity Book (buy here). “The moon has many holes on its surface. These holes are called craters.” [A child is invited to draw more craters on the KUMON book’s picture.]
We made no-cook home-made play dough, which came out very different from the one we used to buy, being much softer and lasting much longer.
Recipe:
- 1 cup of plain all-purpose flour,
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil,
- 1/2 cup salt (Ally suggests adding 2/3 cups of salt- read here, so you may experiment),
- 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar,
- up to 3/4 cups of boiling water (adding in increments until it feels just right),
- food coloring (optional),
- few drops of glycerine for extra shine,
- you may also add essential oils or spices like cinnamon to give your dough an olfactory dimension.
Method:
- Mix flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl,
- Add food coloring to the boiling water and then pour into dry ingredients,
- Keep stirring until the dough becomes a sticky integrated dough,
- Add glycerine,
- Allow the dough to cool and then knead it until all of the stickiness has gone – keep going until the dough is perfect consistency! (If the dough is still a little sticky, add a little flour until it feels just right).
Our black bean sensory bin has colored beads and pom poms to resemble stars.
Stars actually come in different colors depending on its temperature.
OTHER COSMOS BLOGS & RESOURCES
See HERE Solar-System-Space-black-bean-Sensory-Bin-Play-Tray
Round Kids’ Puzzle of the Solar System, 50 Piece, (buy here), features the Milky Way, galaxies, quasars, asteroids, and more. The color of each planet’s elliptical orbit matches the color of the planet to enhance the educational experience. (Adrian was able to first assemble it at 3.5 yo).
We love My First Discoveries Books. Buy The Moon Book here.
A hot glowing piece of space rock falling toward Earth is called a Shooting Star.
Transparent overlay pages add a new dimension to a traditional reading.
The Moon book illustrates hands-on the Moon and its effect on the Earth and oceans.
For more on Space Unit Study, see here 🌌COSMOS Unit Study.
See here a different recipe in a post “No-Cook Homemade 🌈 Play Dough.”
If in Holiday spirit, see here “🎄Holiday Inspired No-Cook 🏡Homemade 🍩Play Dough.”
For more on Science, see here Science 🔬⚗️⚖️ 101 🎥Series 🎇.
No Comments