Preschool space math activities
Outer Space Preschool Theme
Preschool Themes | Space
BySara
Learn all about the sun, the moon, the stars, and planets with your preschooler using this Outer Space Preschool Theme! Your kids will love these engaging activities, printables, and crafts.
Little kids love learning about the sun, planets, stars, and basically anything to do with outer space! Perhaps it’s because stars are so fascinating. And it’s fun to think about what may be out there. Either way, children have a natural interest and curiosity which makes outer space a great topic to include as a weekly theme. Whether you are a parent, teacher, or homeschooler – you will love all these clever resources to make your own outer space preschool theme.
Use these fun, free, and delightful ideas for making your outer space lesson plan for preschool or toddlers and pre k.
Outer Space Preschool Theme
Use one of these two options for using books in your outer space theme:
- Read a different book each day of the week, Monday through Friday.
- Or read your favorite book each of the week. Don’t worry about boring your kids as they love repetition so don’t worry about boring them!
Pick one or all of these 5 excellent books to read with your preschoolers:
Outer Space Crafts for Preschoolers:
- Make Toy Story inspired rocketships
- Have fun with this constellation craft for kids
- Put together a paper plate UFO
- Make a paper space shuttle
- Try your hand at making puffy paint planets
- Check out this puffy paint paper moon craft
- Use popsicle sticks to make a rocket ship
- Make a rocket ship
- Weave a rocket ship from paper
Preschool Outer Space Math Activities:
- Play a moon and star muffin tin number game
- Enjoy using some space pattern block mats
- Measure space objects with a fun printable
- Play a sun and planets matching game
- Print outer space math worksheets
Preschool Outer Space Literacy Activities:
- Practice handwriting with a solar system packet
- Write silly space sentences with your kids
- Learn about opposites with a space-themed pdf
- Try a fun outer space prewriting practice printable
- Make Star Wars bookmarks
- Check out these free solar system worksheets
Outer Space Activities for Preschoolers:
- Make a yarn solar system
- Try a paint stick solar system project
- Do a swirling galaxy science project
- Make space slime
- Send straw rockets into the air
- Learn how astronauts eat in space
- Make a DIY astronaut glove box
- Play with outer space play dough
- Enjoy this moon dough and space sensory play activity
- Learn how moon craters form
Outer Space Printables for Preschoolers:
- Solar System Printable Worksheets
- Space Do a Dot Printable Set
- Cootie Catcher Constellation Printable
- Printable Outer Space Jokes
- Astronaut Do a Dot Printables
- Solar System Bingo
- Preschool Space Activities Learning Binder
- Printable Stargazing Scavenger Hunt
Sara
Sara Dennis is a homeschooling mother of 6.
Her goal is to help moms simplify their homeschools so they can give their kids an excellent education and thrive at home. She blogs at Classically Homeschooling.
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Math Space Activities for Preschoolers You'll Want in Your Class
It has happened: The moment when your baby suddenly becomes a person. All of a sudden, she’s a sweet goofball, and I’m just supposed to be okay with her growing up!?! Well, I’m not. The only thing that makes this kinda okay is that I get to see her grow and learn. And learn she does! Woo! She has caught right on to many math skills very quickly. I have really noticed it with these math space activities for preschoolers that we did this week. Check out what we did with math for our space theme!
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Space Lesson plans
Orbiting Planets
Math Space Activities for Preschoolers
As one of our science activities this week, I demonstrated how planets orbit around the sun by rolling a marble around a circular cake pan.
I just added one of the blank suns from this activity to the center of the pan, and boom! Easy exploration to add to the science center.
After learning the definition of orbit, we brought out our paint palettes for a pompom planet counting activity. Don’t have paint palettes? This also comes with a printout for a print-and-go option. Choose to just count out the planets or extend learning by having students count and write the total number of pompoms used.
Skills:
- when counting objects, say the number names in the standard order, pairing each object with one and only one number name
- demonstrate an understanding of addition and subtraction by using objects, fingers, and responding to practical situations
Shuttle Link
Fine Motor Counting Activity
Anyone else terrified of outer space after watching Gravity with Sandra Bullock? How awful that would be! Luckily, that terrifying thought didn’t seem to enter my little ones’ minds when telling them to hook the astronauts on tight so they don’t float away.
Eek! They just thought it was fun to make the space shuttle fly through the air as the astronauts did their spacewalk.
With this space math activity, the kiddos first counted the number of windows, which are set up as a ten frame. Then, they found the matching numbered astronaut to hook onto their spaceship. There’s even more counting by linking the corresponding number of linking chains from the space shuttle to the astronaut.
So many skills wrapped up in this Shuttle Link activity. This comes with numbers 1-20 to easily differentiate for your little learners!
Skills:
- when counting objects, say the number names in the standard order, pairing each object with one and only one number name
- manipulates small objects with ease
Mission Control
Math Through Play
I am constantly looking for ways to incorporate learning through play.
Astronauts have to learn a ton of math and apply it constantly throughout their missions, so tying math into this space station dramatic play was the perfect opportunity! Plus, I got the genius giggles when I came up with this one, which can only mean it’s really good.
First, we flipped over a mission number card that included tally marks to let us know which mission we were on. Very important information, indeed. Then, we spun the arrow on the dice dial to match the mission number. Next, we added magnets to show the number as ten frame buttons. Oh, man, the excitement is building as we prepare to launch. Flip the switches to start the system, start the engine, increase power levels, and hit the thrusters. Finally, count backward from the mission number: 3-2-1 Blastoff!
This Mission Control board is full of so many ways to learn through play. It can be used in your space dramatic play center as well as in math. Mission accomplished.
Skills:
-
- count to answer "how many?" questions about as many as 10 things arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle
- count to answer "how many?" questions about as many as 10 things arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle
Missing Planets
Missing Numbers Activity
Build number sense and learn the order of the planets with this next math space activity: Missing Planets.
The cards are missing either 1, 2, or 3 numbers to easily differentiate this for your students.
We started out with 1 missing number for my littlest one and used magnetic numbers on top to show the missing number. As we went along, we sometimes had to count backward to find the first blank number. And if she got stuck, we referred to “The Solar System” poster to see the order of the planets, which we also incorporated into a fine motor science activity here.
Skills:
- know number names and the count sequence
Shape Constellations
Math Space Activities for Preschoolers
What is it about stickers that capture a toddler’s attention? Fun designs? Fascinating to peel? Self-sticking without glue? Whatever the reason, stickers are always a win in our house.
Our last math activity this week was spent tracing shapes and adding star stickers to create Shape Constellations.
An easy way to practice fine motor skills, shape identification, and tracing during a space preschool theme.
Skills:
- correctly name shapes regardless of size
- uses materials such as pencils, paintbrushes, eating utensils, and blunt scissors effectively
- uses pincher grasp (index finger and thumb)
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MORE Space Activities
Make it hands-on, make it engaging, and make learning fun with these math space activities for preschoolers! I hope you got some ideas to inspire your next outer space unit! Don’t forget to check out more of the space activities in my bundle by clicking on the buttons above.
Did you know if you buy the whole outer space bundle, you save 20%? Click below to check it out and let me know if there’s anything you need to make these activities work for your preschoolers!
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"SPACE MATHEMATICS" | Plan-summary of a lesson in mathematics (senior group):
Municipal educational preschool institution "Zhemchuzhinka"
SPACE MATHEMATICS
technological map of directly educational activities for the formation of elementary mathematical representations
in children of senior preschool age
Prepared by the Queen
A.
A., educator
Kharp settlement, 2021
Technological map
| Topic | “Space mathematics” | |||
| Educational region | Formation of elementary mathematical representations in children |
illustrations of cosmic bodies, solving logical tasks. | ||
| Technologies | ||||
| The purpose of the lesson | Strengthening mathematical knowledge and skills through the game - travel. | |||
| Tasks | Teachers | Developing | Educational | Health -saving . |
| - clarify and expand children's knowledge about space, about the planets of the solar system. - to exercise in counting within 20, in the ability to distinguish between quantitative and ordinal counting within 10. - to consolidate the ability of children to measure the length of objects using a ruler; continue to form the skill of drawing on a ruler; - to consolidate knowledge about the seasons. | - develop ingenuity, visual memory, imagination, attention. - contribute to the formation of mental operations, the development of speech, the ability to argue one's statements. - develop hand motor skills. - to develop control skills, to teach how to properly evaluate one's own and other work. - activate and enrich the vocabulary of children: space, planet, training center. | - to cultivate friendly relations between children, to provide all possible assistance to each other. - to cultivate interest in mathematics. - to cultivate independence in work. | - relieve fatigue and stress; - introduction of an emotional charge | |
| Equipment | Slides with episodes of space travel; cards with the task "Connect the numbers"; examples with gaps; pencils; strips of paper; rulers; blanks for the scheme of the seasons; colour pencils; medals. | |||
| Expected results | -Strengthening the ability to apply acquired knowledge to solve problems in the course of GCD. - Consolidation of elementary mathematical knowledge through the game. - Development of interest in research activities. - Development of thinking and imagination. - Formation of skills to establish the simplest connections and patterns. - Strengthening the ability to follow instructions. | |||
Structure of direct educational activities
| Stage Duration | Stage | Methods, Forms and working techniques | Activities |
Children | 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000. psychological attitude, motivational) 5 minutes | Greeting, establishing visual, auditory contact. Creation of a problem situation | Verbal: introductory - organizational word of the educator; questions. | Emotional support for children Creating a situation with a problem | Participation in the greeting Answers | Psychological readiness Desire to participate in joint activities. |
| Stage 2 Content, activity 20 minutes | Systematize and enrich children's mathematical concepts; - to develop interest in cognitive activity; - develop thinking and imagination; - to form the ability to establish the simplest connections, to draw conclusions; - to form the ability to establish patterns based on the identified properties | Verbal (discussion, questions) Practical (practical activity) | Organization of solving examples and problems. Conversation Issues of questions Family Organization | Conducting examples and tasks Answers Supplements to solve the problematic situation | -Council of skills to apply assigned knowledge to solve problems during GCDs. - Consolidation of elementary mathematical knowledge through the game. - Development of interest in research activities. - Development of thinking and imagination. - Formation of skills to establish the simplest connections and patterns. - Strengthening the ability to follow instructions. |
| III. Final stage 5 minutes | Develop inference skills, the ability to speak and draw conclusions | Verbal (conclusions, questions, discussion) | Questions | Answers Conclusions | Consolidation of the skills to apply acquired knowledge to solve problems in the course of GCD. - Consolidation of elementary mathematical knowledge through the game. - Development of interest in research activities. - Development of thinking and imagination. - Formation of skills to establish the simplest connections and patterns. - Strengthening the ability to follow instructions. |
The course of direct educational activities
Educator: Hello guys! I received a letter today, I suggest we read it together
(the teacher reads the message)
“Hello guys, we are inhabitants of the planet of mathematics. On our planet, we love to count, play with geometric shapes, visit each other. But we had a disaster, a strong wind rose and scattered the seasons all over the planet. We ask you to help us! Return the seasons to their places!
Educator: Guys, can we help the inhabitants of the planet with mathematics?
Children: Yes!
Educator: To get to the planet of mathematics, we need transport. And what, we can find out by connecting the dots by numbers.
(each child connects the dots according to the numbers on their sheets).
Educator: That's right, it's a rocket! Silence and order must be observed on the rocket.
Now we are ready to travel. In order for the rocket to fly, we need to count from 10 to 0.
(children count, the slide turns on, rockets at the start, and the image of the starry sky)
Educator: Guys, here we are with you and the real team, and I'm your captain. On board the ship, each team maintains its own log book, and we also have it. But in order to complete it, we need to answer questions.
- What season is it?
- How many months are there in a year?
- Name the winter months
- What time of day is it now?
- If today is Tuesday, then tomorrow...?
- And the day after tomorrow?
Educator: now our journal is full, we can move forward. Look guys, we have a big meteorite in front of us, and in order to get around it, we need to complete several tasks.
- Children must list all the numbers in order - from 1 to 20 and from 20 to 1.
- The teacher calls the numbers from 2 to 19, and the children call the number 1 more (less) than the one named.
- Children fill in the gaps in the examples:
7….1= 6 2….2 = 0
5….2 =7 0…..2= 2
Educator: Now we have completed the task and we can fly this meteorite.
Guys, look, we have a cosmic meteor shower. To pass it, we need to show how smart we are. You and I must solve problems.
- 5 sparrows and 2 titmouse were sitting on a tree. 3 birds flew away. Was there at least one sparrow among them?
- There were 10 pears in a bag and a vase. From the package, all the pears were transferred to a vase. How many pears are in the vase?
- 6 girls with pigtails and 3 girls in white blouses were playing on the playground. And there were 7 in total. How can this be?
Educator: You are so good! And let's show how strong and dexterous we are! Let's workout! (physical minute on the video slide).
Educator: Well done, you have shown your dexterity and your strength. We're flying on! Guys, let's get up with you and look through our porthole, what is there? (the teacher shows a slide), look at the constellation in front of us, in order to pass this constellation, you will also have to complete the task.
1. Children receive two pencils. It is proposed to measure them with a ruler and say which pencil is longer and which is shorter.
2. Children receive strips of paper (5 pieces each). It is proposed to measure them with a ruler and choose those whose lengths are 3, 6 and 10 cm.
Educator: Well done! You are real astronauts. Bold, smart. And we have very little left. But what is it? Big comet, it's fast and we need to overtake it to continue on our way... but guys, we're out of fuel. But the fuel of our rocket is not simple. It's from a math problem.
- Seven crows sat on the roof,
Another one flew to them.
Answer, quickly, boldly,
How much of the village on the roof?
- Vasya collected ten leaves,
He gave one leaf to Natasha.
Tell me how many leaves he has
Is there a total of leaves left?
Teacher: by solving them, you will replenish the rocket with fuel.
Well done! Good girls! Look, here it is the planet of mathematics.
(Planet slides: with trees, with a lake, with flowers.)
Educator: look, these are the inhabitants of the planet of mathematics, remember what request they turned to us with?
(children's answer)
Educator: Guys, what month does the year start from? What month ends? What seasons do you know? What months does spring (summer, autumn, winter) consist of? (children's answers). Now let's make a round diagram of the seasons. The year is divided into 4 seasons. Therefore, we will divide the circle into 4 equal parts. And now we will paint each part with our own color: winter-blue, spring-green, summer-red, autumn-yellow. The scheme is ready!!
Educator: now you guys are doing great. Mathematics helped the inhabitants of the planet.
They are grateful to you. For your help, they want to reward you, but they would like to know how difficult the path to them was. What tasks did you complete?
- what was difficult for you?
- what was interesting?
- What was new?
(children's answers)
There are cards with "+" and "-" signs in front of you. If you liked everything and it was easy, then you can choose a card with a “+” sign. If something was difficult or incomprehensible, you can choose a card with a "-" sign.
Educator: You guys are great! I had confidence in you! And for your exploits you are rewarded! Gold medals!
(teacher presents awards!)
Now, let's go home! To do this, we will again make a countdown from 10 to 0. And we will fly.
(children count)
(Music sounds the earth in the window and space slides.)
Cognitive development (on the development of elementary mathematical concepts) "Space adventures" with children of senior preschool age | Outline of a lesson in mathematics (senior group):
Municipal budgetary preschool educational institution “Rovensky kindergarten“ Fairy Tale ”
Cognitive development
(for the development of elementary mathematical representations)
“ Space Adventures ”
with children of senior preschool age
prepared:
Sadovnikova Svetlana Alekseevna, Svetlana Alekseevna, Svetlana Alekseevna.
educator
MBDOU "Rovno Kindergarten "Skazka"
Rovenky village, 2021
Purpose: To generalize the mathematical representations of children of the older group.
Learning Problems:
*Exercise quantitative and ordinal counting within 10 in forward and backward order.
*Fix the concept of "neighbors" of the number.
*Fix ideas about the sequence of days of the week, seasons.
*Fix ideas about geometric shapes.
*Exercise orientation on a piece of paper.
Developmental tasks
*Create conditions for the development of logical thinking, ingenuity, attention.
*To contribute to the formation of mental operations, the development of speech, the ability to argue one's statements.
Educational tasks
*To develop independence, the ability to understand and perform the task independently.
*Cultivate a desire to interact with peers.
*Cultivate interest in mathematics.
Methodical techniques
Game (using surprise moments).
Visual (use of multimedia presentation).
Verbal (reminder, instructions, questions, individual responses of children)
Problematic (solving problem situations)
Encouragement.
Reflection.
Preliminary work
Talk about space and astronauts.
Didactic games: “Live week”, “All year round”, “What, where?”, “Spot the differences”, “Who is attentive”.
Equipment: space illustrations, multimedia projector, presentation, robot toys.
Demo: Letter
Handout: a set of numbers for each child, pencils, sheets of paper.
Planned results:
Children know direct and reverse ordinal and quantitative counting, “neighbors” of numbers, solve simple arithmetic and logical problems, are able to give a detailed answer to a question, distinguish geometric shapes and their features, navigate on a sheet of paper.
Stroke NOD.
Educator:
Guys, what season is it now? What month? And who will tell me what holiday we celebrate on April 12? And who are the astronauts? What qualities should astronauts have? Guys, would you like to fly into space? Today I propose to you to make a space journey.
Are you ready to fly? Before the flight, we will do a little warm-up. Show your strength: clench your hands into fists and then relax. Repeat one more time.
Line up before flight. Listen to my command: "Stand in one line! Calculate in the order of numbers! I ask who is first, third, what is Sasha, Dima, Nastya? know a lot,
You have to be able to do a lot. - jokes
- Dasha's grandmother has a granddaughter Masha, grandson Misha, cat Fluff, dog Druzhok. How many grandchildren does the grandmother have? (2)
- Birds flew over the river: a dove, a pike, two tits. How many birds? (3)
-There were three apples on the table, one was cut in half. How many apples are on the table? (3)
I see you are ready to fly. Take a seat behind the instruments, put on space helmets. (Children go to places)
Educator: - Get ready for the takeoff of the spaceship! Count down from 10 to 1, start! Takeoff!
Relaxation (slide 2)
Educator:
- We fly past mysterious planets, stars wink at us, meteorites rush by.
- So, we flew to some planet (slide 3). Look, someone left a message for us "Hello, young astronauts! We fell into a black hole. Help us return to Mars. You can help us if you complete the tasks. We wish you good luck."
-Guys, let's help the Martians
Task number 1. Well, let's count.0003
Task number 2. Put the numbers in order. (Work with numbers)
Educator: -What number did you put between 3 and 5? (4) Between 7 and 9? (8) between 1 and 3, (2) between 4 and 6? (5) What is the neighbor of the number 6 on the left (5), on the right (7), a number that is greater than 2 by 1 (3), greater than 7 by 1 (8)? Well done, you did an excellent job with the task
Task number 3
Find the differences.
-Do you see the pictures, look carefully, are they the same? (slides 9,10)
For the next task, let's prepare our hands. Let's play with a pencil.
"Sliding" - I'm sliding along the pencil, I'm in a hurry to go down.
"Palm" - I'll draw a palm, then I'll rest a little.
"Making fire" - I will roll the pencil, maybe I will get the fire.
"Iron" - I will roll the pencil on the table as I want.
Task #4. Orientation on a sheet of paper.
- Guys, what geometric shapes do you know? (Circle, square, triangle, rectangle, trapezoid, oval). Put the landscape sheet in front of you. Take a blue pencil, draw a circle in the center of the sheet. With a yellow pencil in the upper right corner draw a triangle, with a red pencil in the lower right corner draw a square, with a green pencil in the lower left corner draw an oval, with a purple pencil in the upper left corner draw a trapezoid. Exchange sheets and check with each other the correctness of the assignment. (slide No. 11)
You completed this task as well.
Task No. 5.
And now everyone stand in a circle and answer the questions.
-If you hear what you think is right, clap your hands, if you hear something that is wrong, stomp your feet.
- The sun rises in the morning.
- The moon shines brightly during the day.
- In the morning the children go to kindergarten.
-People have dinner at night.
- In the evening the whole family gathers at home.
- There are 7 days in a week.
-Monday is followed by Wednesday.
- After Saturday comes Sunday.
- There is Thursday before Friday.
- There are only five seasons.
-Spring comes after summer.
Well done, guys, you have successfully passed all the tests, freed the Martians from the Black Hole.
Robots (toys) appear and thank the children.
-It's time for us to return to Earth.
Get ready for takeoff! Turn on appliances! Countdown from 10 to 1 start!
Music sounds. (slide 12)
Reflection.
Did you guys enjoy your trip? What did you like? What do you remember?
List of sources used:
1. I. A. Pomoraeva, V.A. Pozina "Formation of elementary mathematical representations in the senior group", M.
