This detailed two-week topic for Reception focuses on the topic of space. The EYFS space activities set out in the document integrate literacy, creativity and exploration.
Week 1: Learning about planets
Focus: Understanding the difference between fiction and non-fiction, exploring planets and creating factual posters.
Activities include:
- Watching a story, “The Baby and the Rocket,” to discuss fact vs. fiction.
- Using mnemonics to remember the order of planets.
- Making posters about planets using facts and visuals.
- Exploring the solar system through books and interactive play.
- Associated play includes role-playing as astronauts, designing planets and constructing models.
Week 2: Rockets and instructions
Focus: Discovering the features of rockets and writing instructions for building them.
Activities include:
- Shared reading of instructional texts and identifying key features like bossy verbs.
- Creating descriptive labels for rockets and noting their features.
- Building a large classroom rocket as a group project, with each child contributing.
- Interactive games like rocket hopscotch and memory-based planet sorting.
Key objectives for EYFS space activities
- Literacy: Distinguishing between fact and fiction, vocabulary development and writing captions, sentences, and labels.
- Creative expression: Designing rockets and planets, role-play and collaborative projects.
- Physical development: Engaging in outdoor play and movement activities like creating spacecraft setups.
Hamilton Trust is a UK charity working to support inspirational teaching and learning through its website and projects. Find more of its great resources at hamilton-trust.org.uk and follow on X at @HamiltonTrust. Browse more resources for World Space Week.
