Activity: Space and aliens
Before beginning the lesson- Play the song ‘5 Little Men in a Flying Saucer’ https://youtu.be/2E3p_51tJx0?si=93csQJoTddG_ooL1 to begin the lesson. The song starts with 5 aliens in the flying saucer and they end up leaving the space craft one by one. (integrating maths)
Have a discussion as to ‘why do they think when the aliens were flying around the earth, that they didn’t like what they saw and one of them would fly away?’ ‘Would earth be a scary place for aliens?’ ‘What do they think is in space?’ ‘Do they think there are aliens in space?’ Display pictures of space, rockets, astronauts and aliens as prompts for discussion and for stimulus.
Read a space/alien themed book such as ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ by Claire Freeman and discuss with class the characters and the setting. This would then lead us into our activity of creating our own aliens. Each child is provided with materials to create their own alien. Teacher to encourage them to use their imagination. They can use googly eyes, pipe cleaners, glitter, crayons, paint, toilet roll tubes and colourful paper to make their aliens. Ask each child to name their alien and share a fun fact about it with the class like ‘what planet do they come from?’ to try and make links to previous lesson about the solar system. Children love this activity as it is fun and engaging, they also love to see what sort of aliens their classmates have made and to listen to the stories about the aliens.