Outer Space and Planet Preschool Theme Activity Ideas and Curriculum

Write the Room (Printable) – Place all the planet and celestial images around the room as students hunt to find them. Then they will find that image on their sheet and copy the word next to the matching planet.

Spaceship Letter Match –  Create a butcher paper activity with a space theme by drawing a spaceship and writing letters all over it. Students used letter manipulatives to match and practice letter identification.

Solar System Coloring Sheets (Printable) – Have student color the pages while learning about different planets.

Saturn Yarn Sewing (Printable) – Print out this sheet on a heavy card stock (you can even laminate if possible), cut out the planet, and use a hole puncher to punch out each hole. Have students weave a piece of string or yarn through the holes.

Planet Sticker Collage: Provide your child with a variety of planet stickers and a large piece of paper. Let them create a vibrant collage by sticking the planets in different arrangements. Peeling stickers off of a sticker sheet is a great fine motor task.

Puzzles – Work on hand-eye coordination while problem solving with a puzzle showing outer space. This floor puzzle has large pieces for little hands to manipulate and a large space for multiple students to work on it at one time.

Bead Stringing Counting Stars (Printable) – This activity requires visual motor skills to string beads onto a pipe cleaner, as well as number identification and counting skills. Print out the star numbers and paste each number to one end of a pipe cleaner. Have students identify the number and string that many beads onto the pipe cleaner.

Space Visual Perception Puzzle – helps kids develop and build skills such as visual discrimination, spatial reasoning, visual motor skills, and motor planning. Kids can work on pencil control and motor planning to connect matching planets and shapes, but be sure to go around the planets that are in your way!

Space Sensory Bin: Fill a large container with black beans or rice and hide small planet toys within. Let your child dig and explore the sensory bin, finding and identifying each planet as they go.

Galaxy Jars – These sensory jars can be used as calm down jars for little ones. You’ll need a jar, water, fine glitter, paint, and a ton of cotton balls. Start by adding water and tempera paint to a jar and shake until mixed. Add some glitter. Stretch add the cotton balls and add them in. Then add a different color paint. These look so cool!

Create a Paper Mache Solar System: Help your preschooler make their very own paper mache solar system by using balloons, newspaper, glue, and a couple more simple materials. Once dry, they can paint each planet in vibrant colors and hang them up in order for a stellar display.

Alien Paper Plate Art: Encourage your preschooler to use their imagination and create their own alien creatures using paper plates, construction paper, paint, googly eyes, and other craft materials. They can name their aliens and even describe the planets they come from.

Space Rocks Painting: Collect smooth rocks and have your child paint them to resemble different planets. Use reference images to make the rock paintings accurate and educational.

Spaceship Handprint Craft – Use construction paper and paint to create this spaceship and alien handprint craft. Cut out the spaceship from grey and white construction paper and have your student decorate it with lights. Use green paint on their hand to make the alien.

Balloon Print Art – Blow up small balloons and use colors correlated with each planet. Spread the paint on the balloons and have students place the balloons on a paper to create planets.

Moon Rock Fizz – A moon rock is a piece of rock or material from the Moon, our natural satellite in space. Grab simple supplies to whip up this fizzy mixture. Use baking soda and food dye to mold into rocks. Place them in the freezer in balls. Once formed and cold, drizzle vinegar onto them and watch them fizz.

DIY Constellation Flashlight – Using black construction paper and an old flashlight, you can make this fun constellation flashlight that kids will love as you shine stars on the wall.

Fizzing Planets – Make all the planets and the sun out of baking soda, water, dish soap, and food coloring. it’s time to turn it into a baking soda and vinegar experiment. Children will be delighted by this surprise twist to the project where they will cause the planets to fizz, bubble, and errupt. This baking soda and vinegar reaction will delight students of all ages!

Planet Hopscotch: Draw or place planet pictures on the ground in a hopscotch pattern. Instead of numbers, call out planet names, and have your child hop from planet to planet while learning about their unique characteristics.

Physical Orbiting – Have one student hold a picture of the sun. Students will take turns being the sun and have the rest of the planets “students” orbit “walk, run, skip, etc” around the sun. You can call out different movements for them to do and you can even have each student be a named planet.

Astronaut Dress-Up and Space Station: Create an astronaut dress-up station. Let your child dress up as an astronaut and explore their own imaginative space missions. You can use tents for a rocket ship and space station as well.

Solar System Dress Up – Have students wear all black and paste images of planets and outer space onto them. Kids will find this so fun to actually be the solar system.

Build a Rocket Out of Blocks or Tiles – Leave out a variety of building blocks, magnetic tiles, cardboard tubes, etc. and invite children to build different space rockets using the blocks.

Color By Number (Printable) – Have students identify the numbers and their corresponding colors and then color that space in. They’ll see a beautiful picture show up of space when finished.

Star Patterns – Set out some black play dough and star beads for a simple pattern activity. This hands-on and engaging activity is perfect for a space theme. If your students are struggling with patterns, you can have them started with a few beads, and students will work on finishing the patterns. If they are understanding patterns, they can create their own.

Rocketship Counting Mats (Printable) – Have students use the star number squares to complete the counting mat. Use any manipulatives in the ten frame to make the same number as the star that they pick. This practices one-to-one correspondance and early math skills.

Color By Addition (Printable) – For the pre-k students who are a little more advanced, they will love this color by addition activity. Have students color in the sections based on the matching color above. They can solve the equation first and then figure out which color matches.

Moon Rock Counting – You’ll need aluminum foil and egg crates for this activity. Crumble foil into balls to create moon rocks. Place number near each egg crate and have students place the correct number of moon rocks into that egg crate. Tongs are optional but add another fine motor element if you have them.

I Am the Solar System – In this simple Solar System book, kids are introduced to basic space concepts that are made easy to follow and remember. Starting at the Sun and working outward through the planets and belts, children will discover space objects and follow the flow of the solar wind, taking a fun and informative tour of the Solar System.

Hello, World! Solar System – Here’s a Hello, World! board book that teaches toddlers all about the sun, moon, stars, and planets—with colors, shapes, sizes, and super-simple facts. Told in clear and easy terms and featuring bright, cheerful illustrations. Each sturdy page offers helpful prompts for engaging with your child. (“Can you point to the red planet? That’s Mars!”)

Planet Sorting Game (Printable): Prepare the cut-out pictures of space objects and let your child sort them according to their category, for example, planets, astronauts, stars, etc.

Outer Space Sizing Sort (Printable) – Prepare the cut-out pictures of space objects and let your child sort them according to size and whether they are big or small.

3D Outer Space Maze – If you have Wikistix and a marble, this is a fun activity that works on bilateral coordination, sequencing, fine motor, and more. Cut out small circles of construction paper to represent planets and scatter them on black paper. Place wiki stix in circles as the Milky Way. You can write any new concept on the circles, numbers, letters, sight words, etc. Have students start the marble at the center sun and use both hands to tilt the paper and watch the marble roll from planet to planet as they say whatever is written on the planet.