Class Plan to Incorporate Space Week:
English: Role-play: Use relevant strategies to build vocabulary. Create a passport to go to space and while doing so make a list of things you might take to space. Use a checklist for the inside of the rocket.
Poems/Writing poetry: Look at words that you might use to describe space and what you might see in space. Get the children to write poems about space using an acrostic poem or a shape poem. eg. a rocket shape.
Diary entries: Look at features of diary entries and get the children to think about how they might feel going to space. Think about what they might do in space and get them to write a fictional diary entry.
Postcards: Write a postcard, from your point of view or the point of view of an alien, back home about time in space.
Descriptive writing: Think about what it might be like to go into space. What would you see? Hear? Smell? You could also describe an alien that you encountered. Use of word mats/word walls will inspire the children in their writing.
Fictional books: Exposure to lots of space themed story books – library, class readers, storyline online, YouTube. Stories include – Whatever Next! Aliens love Underpants and We Are Off to Look for Aliens.
Maths:
5 4 3 2 1 Lift Off – Forwards and Backwards counting
Rocket Cubes – Balance the cubes in a tall tower, like a rocket. Count each cube as you add it. How tall can you make your rocket before it falls?
Alien Theme – Practice number bonds to 10 or 20.
Space Race – roll the dice, add the numbers, first to 10/20/30 wins the game.
Space Scavenger Hunt – Can you find all the planets?
Use pictures of planets, regular and irregular shapes and get the children to fold or cut them in half and quarters – can they all be split into quarters and halves?
Counting in twos and tens; Count in multiples of twos, fives, and tens. Use aliens with different numbers of eyes and arms to practise this way of counting.
Outer Space Themed board games – snakes and ladders, bingo, memory.
Science: Light sources: Identify different light sources including the sun and investigate shadows. Shadows can be investigated using torches on a dull day in the school playground.
Planets: Look at the different planets in the solar system and through the questions, get the children to identify the different planets. Create a simple fact file about a planet of their choice.
Rockets: Describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials. Design and build a rocket. Competition for the best rocket – display in hall. Science experiment – rocket blast off in yard under teacher supervision.
P.E – Do some moonwalking or walking around pretending you are a spaceman with no gravity holding you down.
Art: Create a rocket using finger painting. Create planets using crumpets as sponges. Create large planets for a display using balloons and papier Mache. Display in hall. Invite others to see space week exhibition in hall.
