Lesson #35: Rocket Day

Objectives: To understand personal and general space while practicing locomotor skills and patterns.

Materials Needed: Aluminum foil

Toy rockets (or paper towel tube; 1 per child)

Plastic/paper plates (1 per child)

Balloons (1 per child)

Hula hoops (1 per child)
Class Outline:

A. Warm-ups* (See App. 1)
B. Activities

1. I Am... THE SUN: Children sit on bottoms with arms wrapped tightly around bent legs. Tuck heads down to knees. Lift feet off floor and balance on bottoms; hold position as long as possible. Let feet down and start again. A STAR: Children stand tall with legs wide apart and arms lifted out and above heads. Raise heels off ground and balance on toes; hold position as long as possible. Lower heels and do it again. THE MOON: Children lay on stomachs with heads lifted tall and legs bent up touching bottoms. Reach back and grab toes, then rock back and forth for as long as possible. Rest on stomachs for a minute, then repeat.

2. Astronaut. Children mold a large piece of aluminum foil to head for a helmet. Discuss gravity: on the moon, astronauts move in slow motion but on Earth, we can move as fast as we like. Use music that switches from slow to fast about every twenty seconds. Pretend to walk on moon, then back on Earth.

3. Countdown. Holding toy rockets vertically on floor, countdown from 10 to 1. After saying “one,” everyone shouts “Blastoff!” and throws rocket in air. Repeat.

4. Adventures in Space. Teacher tells story while children pantomime* (See App. 3).

5. Space Boots. Each child uses two plastic plates as ‘moon boots’ to walk around room without lifting feet off plates.

6. Space Buggy. Use plate as steering wheel of space buggy. ‘Drive’ around room without bumping into each other. Drive on flat and bumpy moon surfaces.

7. Bumping Asteroids. Children pretend balloons are asteroids floating in space. Encourage them to work together to keep balloons in air and off ground.

8. Flight of the Spaceship. Children move in ‘spaceship,’ (hula hoop) not touching other spaceships. If their spaceships bump, both ships must ‘land’ (sit down) inside their spaceship with hands on knees. Spaceship takes off again when touched by Teacher.

9. Musical Asteroids. This is not a competitive game – no one gets OUT. Place several ‘asteroids’ (hula hoops) around room, one for every 1-2 children. As music plays, children walk around asteroids. When music stops, everyone must jump on an asteroid (inside a hoop); there should be more than one child in a hoop. Each time music stops, remove a hoop. Play until only one hoop is left. Children must work together to ensure that everyone gets in hoop when music stops.