2 years old

Play Dough Constellations

12:01

We love learning about space, Ethan has always been completely fascinated by it, but at 4 he's really starting to ask more questions and want to know more about it.  The other day we were talking about the stars and I was explaining that sometimes they make shapes, and he surprised by saying 'you mean constellations?' Clearly I don't give him enough credit for what he already knows about!  So this seemed the perfect opportunity to make our own constellations.


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What you'll need:


We started by looking at our space book and talking about the constellations.  I showed Ethan a few pictures of them in the book as well as looking them up online to find some detailed images.  I then gave each of the children a ball of play dough.  (I made it with my Kool Aid play dough recipe, but of course there isn't any black Kool Aid, so I used grape and black cherry, I would have liked it darker, but love this play dough recipe too much to try using one with food colouring instead.  I did add some glitter to it to make it sparkle though!) Then the children each rolled out their play dough to look like the night sky and started placing their stars on it.


First they made their own constellations, lining up the stars however they liked to create their own pictures.  Then we looked in the book for some inspiration.  Ethan liked the look of the Southern Cross, so he made that one first.


Ivy mostly enjoyed hiding the stars inside the play dough and rolling over them.  As she's so young and absolutely loves play dough of course that's perfectly fine.


Ethan also made the big dipper, looking carefully at an image of it on my phone and copying the number of stars and their placement onto the dough.  We also enjoyed taking the stars off of the play dough and seeing the impressions that they had left.


It was a great start for discussions about stars and constellations, maybe next time we'll try putting some planets into our space play dough!


This post is part of an outer space activities blog hop, check out these super fun ideas!



FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Outer Space Bingo // Playdough to Plato
Rocket Name Puzzle// Teach Me Mommy
Space Theme Sensory Bin // Pre-K Pages
Space Counting Mats: Addition and Subtraction // Liz's Early Learning Spot
Solar System Scavenger Hunt // Mom Inspired Life
Space Themed Matching Cards // Powerful Mothering
Outer Space Pattern Block Mats // The STEM Laboratory
Stars in Space Sticky Wall // Modern Preschool
Space Theme Grid Games // Stay at Home Educator
Counting On Planet Puzzles // The Kindergarten Connection
Play Dough Constellations // Play & Learn Everyday
Solar System Bracelet // Still Playing School
Space Sensory Bin // Sugar Spice and Glitter
Space Syllables // Fairy Poppins
Space Themed Number Writing Practice // Preschool Inspirations

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1 comments

  1. Wow, Ethan's a smartie! This is such a great activity for focussing on small details. I love the idea of re-creating a part of space on your own kitchen table!

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