Moon
I used to do cloud paintings with this easy mix yourself puffy paint, but it struck me while reading one of the books below that it would make a great moon surface! It’s a perfect space craft for kids. The paint dries puffy and looks like the uneven surface of the moon. All of that though is secondary to how much fun my son had, I was planning on posting this next week but couldn’t wait!
- Gather your materials. You will need some strong paper ( I am using craft paper but a cereal box or paper grocery bag would do), shaving cream, white glue, a marker and scissors. My son asked for crayons to color his moon first so I obliged.
- Start by drawing a “Big round moon” or any phase your child wants.
- If you want start by coloring it with crayons.
- Time to mix the paint. You will need 1/2 cup of glue
and 1 1/2 cups of shaving cream.
- Mix !
- Now explore. My son kept saying “Goopy mama, goopy hands!”
- Spread and explore it more on the paper.
- Let dry- I let it dry for 4 hours and the thicker parts were still goopy in the middle. I’d let it dry overnight to make sure.
- Cut out your moon !
Books!
“The Moon Might Be Milk” by Lisa Shulman was the inspiration for our activity. The book follows a little girl and her animal friends as they all share their opinions of what the moon is made out of. While reading this today with my son he kept saying “No no not milk, shaving cream!” The story has a cute ending and I like how no opinion is made fun of or wrong. When I asked my son what he liked about the book “The cat”. There youhave it, a cute book about a moon but the cat stole the show.
“Night Goes By” by Kate Spohn is a book that explains how the sun goes down and the moon comes out and the cycle continues. The sun , moon and a star are all very cheery and enjoy their lots in life. The star and moon play all night! The book is simple and while I wasn’t too into it, my son really liked it. I would suggest it for toddlers and young preschoolers.
Moon Rock
Pick Up !
“Night Goes By” by Kate Spohn is a book that explains how the sun goes down and the moon comes out and the cycle continues. The sun , moon and a star are all very cheery and enjoy their lots in life. The star and moon play all night! The book is simple and while I wasn’t too into it, my son really liked it. I would suggest it for toddlers and young preschoolers.
” The Moon” by Robert Louis Stevenson and illustrated by Tracy Campbell Pearson is a beautiful book. The poem was written in the 19th century but my two year old loved it paired with these stunning and warm illustrations of a family’s adventures at night. I really am so impressed with how well the words were put to life by the pictures, and my son loved it. It’s inspired me to find more classical literature and poetry to share with my son.
Moon Rock
Pick Up !
This is a fun fine motor activity that my son was all over. All you need are some mini marshmallows, a toothpick and 2 containers. Yes he ate many of the marshmallows but not all. He thought the toothpicks were very cool and when he was done transferring them we counted the “survivors”.
Crescent Moon!
This morning my son looked out the window and proclaimed ” Moon” while pointing out the window, sure enough there it was staring down at us at 6 am! For a simple art project like this I like to use different painting tools to enrich it.
- Gather your materials. You will need one yellow and one black piece of construction paper, a white or yellow crayon, glue, sparkly paint and anything else to decorate your moon. We used do a dot art dobbers, and a fun brush for our sparkle paint.
- Have your child draw stars in the night sky. Using the white or yellow crayon color on the black paper.
- While they draw stars draw a classic crescent moon , don’t cut it out yet.
- Time to decorate the moon, we started with the dobbers.
- Then moved to the fun brush and sparkle paint. Let dry.
- Cut the moon out and glue onto your starry sky!
~Phases of the Moon Wheel~
I do not suggest doing this with really young children, as you can see from the picture my son made a quick job undoing my work! However if you have a school aged child this is a fun and easy activity for learning about Earth’s moon!
- Gather your materials. You will need a paper plate, some yellow and black paper, scissors, a fine tip marker, glue , and a brad.
- Using the paper plate at the template trace a circle on the black paper. Cut it out.
- Fold the circle in half and cut a section out. This will be your viewing window. Set it aside.
- Using your yellow paper cut out the different phases of the moon, deciding if you will do all the phases waxing and waning .
- Write the phases name on the underside of the plate and glue the moon on, repeat for all the phases you are including. You may want to space this out before writing, to make sure you have enough space on your plate. Let dry.
- Poke a small brad through the center of the black circle with the viewing window and attach it to the center of the paper plate.
- Spin and enjoy!
Posted in Age 2-3 years, Age 3-5 years, Age 5 and older, Crafts, Moon, Naptime Creations, Phases of the Moon | 
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