Days of Creation Stations: Day 4 Moon, Stars & Sun

We're back! And it seems we brought along the northern weather with us. It's cold and rainy here and with the recent time change, it's dark in the afternoons, too! Perfect time to play indoors and to get back to our Days of Creation Play Stations, which brings us to Day 4, the Creation of the moon, stars and sun! Indeed, there are so many great play activities you can do with a space theme. With a little preparation and imagination, you can spend an afternoon in play that will take you out of this world! In the interest of being a bit more present in their play and also a bit more protective of their privacy, I'm including fewer photos of my boys' adorable little faces (biased opinion, I know) and more photos of the activities themselves. Here's a peek at our day of space themed adventure through process art and sensory play:

I always introduce our afternoon Days of Creation Play Stations by going through the 7 days in song along with some of our related play materials and previous art projects S has made. I love including his artwork in this and he feels proud to see it on display.

S made this one last year with our Bereishit unit using washable black marker, a spray bottle of water, stickers, pre-cut paper shapes of the sun and moon and glue.

S's preschool class made this great hanging book of the Days of Creation this year. We use it daily to show what day of the week it is and it is also a great material to add to our play stations.

In advance of our Day 4 Play Stations, I prepared this galaxy sensory bottle. I confess that I have no idea what baby oil is for. I'm on my second baby and to date I have only ever used baby oil for removing stubborn sticky spots left on the skin from bandages and for sensory bottles. That is combined with water, red and blue food coloring to your desired shade of purple and silver glitter to create a sparkly night sky in a bottle. I was, um, quite generous with the silver glitter! I just love watching it adhere to the tiny oil bubbles and the boys both get a kick out of observing it as it is shaken (usually by S) and as it swirls and settles. I added some star stickers to the outside of the bottle and some duct tape to secure the lid, because I love glitter, but not all over my living room rug!

Our newly revamped art center has also been a great venue for inspiring artwork in the theme of the moon, stars, and sun. Y had some fun exploring fingerpaints and color mixing with this mess-free paint-in-a-bag activity. It's a great activity for tummy time. It can also be used sitting either hung from a vertical surface for use with hands or set on the floor to explore with hands and feet! Slip a piece of white paper or cardstock inside a ziplock bag and add a squirt of your desired colors of paint (we used blue and yellow). Seal tightly and if you wish, add a layer of tape to secure. Please supervise your little ones with plastic bags.

After Y was done playing and exploring, I took out the paper from inside the bag and it was quite thickly covered in paint--perfect for making prints! I made a couple of prints on large white paper and left both paintings to dry. His "original" was added to our wall (or door) of fame! And the remaining sheet of prints was upcycled into a "moon" and "sun" for S to glue on to the next page of our Days of Creation Process Art Book:

Our Day 4 page is ready for the next artist in line. Y helped with the "moon" and "sun," and S will get to glue them on along with adding some star stickers and foam shapes.

S was so drawn in to our current art center options. He especially loved "carefully carrying" this frame with a copy of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" to his little table to use as inspiration alongside chalk pastels and a sheet of white paper. He tested out the chalk pastels on their side to create wide smudges and upright for darker lines. He used his fingers to blend colors and got to experience hands-on color mixing right before his eyes! Chalk pastels are a great art material for early budding artists. They produce a result without having to press very hard and are easy to manipulate for small hands. We found ours quite inexpensively at our local Five and Below. 




To include an element of pre-writing, I set up this constellation picture with star stickers and white chalk and crayons for both boys, featuring the first letter of their names. Y needed my help to connect the stars, but will enjoy (with my help and supervision) using chalk on the black paper. S with some modeling and support will be able to connect his own stars and explore the chalk and crayon on black paper.

Lastly, I got out our bag of kinetic play sand and some moon and star cookie cutters and plastic wands--the perfect setup for a "moon sand" sensory bin that S will surely enjoy digging into while I tend to dinner preparations later on. We will be back with more soon and until then...

Happy Playing!