Our Year 2 children have had an investigative week exploring a range of space activities, whilst working in teams. Their first space mission was to think of their very own investigation into how craters on the moon were formed using rocks as asteroids in a tray of flour ‘moon dust’. The teams enjoyed exploring dropping, placing and skimming the stones to create a moon surface, which they documented by taking photographs using iPads.

Their next mission was to help an astronaut fix their glove. The teams were given ‘space gloves’ with a hole in. The children had a super understanding of why the glove was unsafe for an astronaut to use, with comments such as “their skin would burn or freeze” and “the oxygen would escape”. In teams, they used bandages, plasters, duct tape, masking tape and string to fix the glove and investigate which would be best to make the glove impermeable. They tested their gloves in a bowl of water. Some succeeded, whilst others learnt they needed to use different materials and techniques to fix the glove.

Finally, the children became ‘astronauts’ in the ‘International Space Station’. The new role-play area in 2C, in which the children could use photographs from space to create their own view out of the space station’s window. Here they used the new language introduced to them such as nebula, black hole and planet names, whilst creating their view of space.