Excitement about outer space exploded in our home when my child was a toddler. I nurtured that interest by finding fun and engaging space-related art projects to work on together at home.
Learning for young kids is about the experience, the textures, and the creative storytelling that happens as you work together. Don’t worry so much about the actual science and facts when they're toddlers — it’s far more interesting to hear what your toddler thinks and why!
A version of this article was originally published in 2022. We are sharing it again in advance of National Space Day on May 3, 2024.
I asked Rachel McMinn, an early childhood educator from Buckle My Shoe Preschool in Tribeca, N.Y., for ideas on space-related art projects. Here are three she loves in her classroom.
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Soda bottle rocket ship
What you need:
- Empty and clean plastic soda bottle
- Acrylic paint
- Paintbrush
- Star stickers
- Construction paper (red, orange, yellow, or any of your child's choice)
- Tacky glue
Directions:
1. Peel off the label from the plastic bottle.
2. Paint the entire outside of the plastic bottle in a color of your child's choice. Allow it to dry.
3. Decorate the rocket ship with stickers and cut out red, orange, and yellow construction paper to look like flames. Glue them to the bottom of the rocket ship.
4. When everything is dry, blast your rocket ship off for creative play or hang it from the ceiling for decoration.
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Splatter paint galaxy
What you need:
- Black canvas (you can paint a white canvas black, acrylic paint is best)
- Neon paint colors, silver, gold, and white (IKEA mala paint is amazing)
- Paintbrush
- A garbage bag or washable mat to place under the canvas to reduce mess
Directions:
1. Prepare your black canvas and set up a workspace (we opted to go outside on the sidewalk). To reduce mess, put a garbage bag or mat you can wipe off underneath.
2. First, dip your paintbrush into the white paint. Either dribble the paint onto the canvas or flick it, Jackson Pollock-style.
3. Continue to add more colors in the same way. For added sparkle, you can sprinkle a little glitter too!
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Earth squish painting
What you need:
- Blue, green, gold, and/or brown paint
- A recycled plastic lid (large yogurt container size works!)
- OR you could use a muffin tin and make many planets at once
- White paper or canvas
Directions:
1. Squirt a little bit of blue, green, gold, or brown paint onto the outside of the plastic lid or upside-down muffin tray (if you’re using the muffin tray, you may want to use red and yellow as well to make a variety of different planets).
2. Turn the lid or tray over onto your prepared white paper or canvas. Squish it down and you can even turn it a little bit to swirl and mix the colors. Lift up the lid or tray and – voila! – your Earth or planets will appear.
Anu Kapur is the publisher of Macaroni KID Lower Manhattan - Downtown, N.Y.
