Outer Space Books and Activities for Kids

Take your kids on an “out of this world” space day with learning activities, moon cookies and a list of picture books to begin the adventure. 

Sometimes us mom’s need to have a day where we set the chores aside, set the normals aside, and have an adventure. There will be future unit studies in science over outer space, and history lessons about 1969. But this is the best part of parenting: watching discovery. “There’s other planets?!” Imagine realizing that for the first time! We can’t remember it, but we can see it happening for them.  Join in for a big adventure together. 

Outer Space Learning Activities

With preschoolers, it can be a season of learning about your homeschooling community and gathering pieces as you begin. With another mom, we decided to spend a few weeks meeting together and doing a science unit on space with our boys. She found a booklet of curriculum to do with her older kids, and we tagged along with the reading and supplementing with books from the library. She hosted, and I was in charge of our space activities. The concept can be done with two moms and kids of mixed ages, or a coop at a park. Coming together to learn amps up the excitement of the discovery and the memories made. Here are some of the activities we did: 

• Mapping out the planets: I charted the miles between planets as steps or number of seconds of running (!) and we chalked the solar system at a local park.

• Oreo phases of the moon: using the icing on the black backdrop of oreos to chart the phases of the moon. (Could be done as a model or a snack, or reproduced with cheddar cheese on round crackers!)
• Flashlight constellations: using a hole punch to create the shapes of constellations on a round paper, placing it in front of a flashlight and trying to guess them.
• Field trip to a gymnastics center: using balance and jumping to practice being astronauts
• Moon sand: flour and baby oil mixed to create a fun kinetic sand as a sensory bin
• Astronaut hands: cutting holes in a box and taping in kitchen gloves then asking the kids to perform tactile tasks like uncapping a pen and writing their name, or stacking dice.

How to Source Clean Baking Ingredients

As our kiddos grow, it has become one of my goals to serve my family whole foods as often as possible. But at the same time, I want to have balance with celebration and time together in the kitchen. So, with baking, we have switched to whole food healthy ingredients (as best as we can). For the most part, we bake with maple syrup and honey, which works nicely as a substitute for sugar in most recipes. We also have found a good organic cane sugar in bulk at Costco, and an organic powdered sugar through Azure Standard. Both of these places have maple sugar and honey in bulk at good prices. We choose organic mostly because we are avoiding sugar made from sugar beets, which are grown from genetically modified seeds and inorganic growing practices. We still enjoy sweets, we just make sure they are as natural as possible for our bodies to process. And they taste great!

Chocolate “Moon” Cookies

Makes 36 small cookies

Ingredients

½ cocoa

1 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 c sugar

¼ c butter, softened

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

¼ c powdered sugar

Directions

1. Combine the butter with the sugar and whisk until fluffy.
2. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix until fully combined. 
3. Combine flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder. Then add to the wet mixture.
4. Once combined, chill in a refrigerator for at least 1 hour. 
5. When chilled, remove the dough and roll a spoonful amount into a ball. 
6. Roll the ball into the powdered sugar until completely covered.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool, then serve! 
8. Store in an airtight container for one week. 

Mini Space Book List

1. “Astronaut Handbook” by Meghan McCarthy 
2. “If You Decide to Go to the Moon” by Faith McNulty
3. “Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System” by Joanna Cole
4. “Mousetro­naut: based on a (­par­tial­ly) true s­to­ry” by Mark E Kelly
5. “Roaring Rockets” by Tony Mitton (Also comes as a sticker activity book!)

Read More

For books on bugs & blooms: Spring Picture Books for Kids

When the sniffles strike: Sick Day Book List

For a sweet drink: Mom’s Best Lemonade