Look, I’ll be honest with you. My kids’ obsession with space started the way most of these things do—completely by accident. We watched a five-minute video about astronauts brushing their teeth in zero gravity, and suddenly I couldn’t mention bedtime without hearing about how “actually, Mom, in space the sun rises sixteen times a day.”
Great, kid. Cool fact. Now please put on your pajamas.
But here’s the thing: space is magic for kids. It’s big enough to make their problems feel small, weird enough to hold their attention, and full of real things that sound completely made up. Black holes? Rovers on Mars? A planet where it literally rains diamonds? You can’t compete with that.
So whether you’re celebrating actual Space Week (usually early October, but honestly, any week works) or just need something to occupy those little astronauts, I’ve got you covered. These fifteen activities range from “set it up in five minutes” to “clear your schedule and embrace the mess.” Let’s get started.
FYI, I’ve tested most of these on my own kids. The ones that failed spectacularly didn’t make the list. You’re welcome. 🙂
Hands-On Galaxy Crafts
1. DIY Straw Rockets
This one hits the sweet spot—cheap, easy, and endlessly entertaining. You need paper, tape, markers, and a straw.
Cut a strip of paper and roll it around the straw to make a loose tube. Tape it so it stays rolled but can still slide off the straw. Seal one end with tape to make it pointy (or just fold it over and tape it). Let the kids decorate their rockets with fins, windows, and flames. Then slide it onto the straw, aim, and blow.
The engineering lesson sneaks in naturally. Longer fins make it fly straighter. Heavier paper goes farther. They’ll figure this out through trial and error while you sit there blowing rockets across the living room floor.
2. Glow-in-the-Dark Constellations
Grab a black paper plate (or paint a regular one black). Use a white pencil to lightly sketch a constellation—start with easy ones like Orion or the Big Dipper. Then poke holes with a toothpick where the stars go.
Here’s the cool part. Hold the plate up to a lamp or window during the day and you’ll see pinpricks of light. Better yet, grab a flashlight and shine it through the holes onto a wall in a dark room. Instant constellation projector.
My daughter got so into this that she made “constellations” of her own design. Apparently there’s one shaped like a unicorn. NASA hasn’t confirmed it yet, but I’m sure they’re working on it.
3. Marbled Planets
This looks way harder than it actually is. Squirt different colors of paint onto a paper plate. Drop a marble in, tilt the plate around, and watch the marble create swirly patterns as it rolls through the paint. Put a circle of white paper on the plate, press gently, and lift.
You just made a gas giant. Jupiter vibes all day. Do a few of these, cut them out, and hang them from the ceiling. Instant solar system mobile.
4. Alien Spaceship Craft
Save your recyclables for a week. Cereal boxes, milk jugs, egg cartons, bottle caps—all of it goes into a box. Then let the kids go nuts with tape, glue, foil, and paint.
The rule: it has to fly somewhere in their imagination. Where does it go? Who lives inside? What do they eat for breakfast? The craft is half the fun. The storytelling is the other half.
I once watched my son spend two hours on a spaceship made entirely from a tissue box and some straws. He named it “The Sneezer.” I still don’t know if that’s funny or concerning.
5. Puffy Paint Moon Painting
Mix equal parts white glue and shaving cream. Stir it up. It’ll be fluffy and thick and weirdly satisfying. Paint it onto dark paper in a circle shape. While it’s wet, sprinkle some flour or baking soda on top for texture.
When it dries, it looks legitimately like the moon’s surface. Crater-y and rough and space-ish. My kids kept touching it for days afterward because the texture stayed interesting.
Edible Space Explorations
6. Oreo Moon Phases
This one requires Oreos. That’s really all you need to know.
Give each kid a few cookies and a paper plate. Have them twist the cookies open carefully (the struggle is real). Then use a plastic knife to scrape off the cream filling to match the phases—new moon (all cookie, no cream), crescent (a little cream shaped like a banana), quarter, gibbous, full moon (all cream).
Then they eat the evidence. This activity teaches lunar cycles and also teaches that astronomy is delicious. I’m here for it.
7. Fruit Pizza Solar System
Start with a big sugar cookie or pre-made pizza crust as your base. Frost it with white icing (or cream cheese, if you’re feeling fancy). Then use different fruits to build your planets.
- Sun: a large orange slice or a peach half
- Mercury: a grape
- Venus: a strawberry with a dab of icing
- Earth: a green grape with a blueberry on top (or just use blue icing)
- Mars: a raspberry
- Jupiter: a kiwi slice (green with seeds looks surprisingly Jupiter-ish)
- Saturn: add a ring made from a sliced banana or a strip of mango around a fruit
- Uranus/Neptune: blueberries work great
Arrange them in order from the sun outward. Eat your way through the galaxy. This snack teaches planetary order AND satisfies their sugar cravings. Peak parenting.
8. Astronaut Ice Cream
Remember this stuff? Freeze-dried ice cream that comes in bricks and tastes vaguely like vanilla-flavored styrofoam? Kids love it.
You can buy it online or at science museums. It’s a fun way to talk about how astronauts eat in space—why they need dehydrated food, how they add water back to it, why crumbs are dangerous in zero gravity (they float into equipment and break things).
Warning: They’ll probably beg for more. Stock up.
9. Galaxy Jars
This isn’t technically food, but it’s kitchen-adjacent and looks incredible. Grab a clear jar or plastic cup. Drop in some cotton balls. Add a few drops of food coloring—blue, purple, black. Sprinkle some glitter. Add water. Repeat layers until you reach the top.
Seal it up and shake it. You’ve got a galaxy in a jar. My kids keep these on their nightstands and shake them before bed like they’re casting space spells. It’s adorable.
10. Star Cookies
Sugar cookie dough + star-shaped cookie cutters + silver and gold sprinkles. That’s it. That’s the activity.
Bake them, decorate them, eat them. While you’re waiting for the oven, talk about how stars are born, how they die, and why our sun is basically a middle-aged star with a comfortable life ahead of it before it eventually expands and engulfs the inner planets.
Too heavy? Save that conversation for when they’re older. Or just eat cookies and call it a day.
Active Space Adventures
11. Backyard Rocket Launch
The classic baking soda and vinegar rocket. You need a plastic film canister (remember those?) or a small container with a tight-sealing lid. Put a teaspoon of baking soda inside. Add a little vinegar, snap the lid on fast, flip it over, and stand back.
Whoosh. It launches. Sometimes. If you did it right. If not, you get a fizzing mess on the ground, which is also entertaining for different reasons.
Safety note: Stand back and don’t aim at faces. Also, do this outside. Ask me how I know.
12. Obstacle Course: Astronaut Training
Set up a “training course” in your yard or living room. Astronauts need to be strong and coordinated, right?
- Crawl through a tunnel (under chairs or through a cardboard box)
- Walk a straight line (balance practice—spacewalks require this)
- Jump over “craters” (pillows or paper plates)
- Collect “rock samples” (scatter some rocks or toys they have to grab)
- Spin around five times (simulates dizziness? Honestly, I made this up, but it’s fun)
Time them. Let them try to beat their record. My kids turned this into a daily competition and started designing their own obstacles. The activity that keeps on giving.
13. Shadow Constellations
On a sunny day, grab some chalk and head outside. Have your child strike a pose. Trace their shadow with chalk. Then challenge them to turn that shadow into a constellation by adding stars (chalk dots) and connecting them with lines.
“My shadow looks like a dinosaur with lasers.” Cool, kid. Draw the stars. Name the constellation. We now have “Laser-dactylus” in our family’s night sky.
14. Planet Walk
This one takes a little prep but pays off big. The solar system is mostly empty space, and kids don’t really grasp that until they walk it.
Find a long stretch of sidewalk or a park path. Mark the sun at one end (a yellow circle). Then pace out the distances to scale:
- Mercury: 10 steps from sun
- Venus: 9 more steps
- Earth: 7 more steps
- Mars: 14 more steps
- Jupiter: 95 more steps (this is where you realize how big space really is)
- Saturn: 112 more steps
- Uranus: 249 more steps
- Neptune: 281 more steps
You’ll be exhausted. But they’ll finally understand why Pluto got demoted—it’s just too far out there, doing its own thing.
IMO, this is the activity that stuck with my oldest longest. He still talks about “the time we walked to Neptune and I wanted a snack halfway through.”
15. Cardboard Box Space Ship
You know that giant box from your latest online shopping spree? Don’t recycle it yet.
Set it up with markers, paint, foil, and stickers. Let them go wild. Cut a windshield. Add a control panel drawn on cardboard. Attleach bottle caps as buttons. String up some Christmas lights inside if you’re feeling fancy.
This becomes their space for days. They’ll fly to Mars, get lost in the asteroid belt, and return safely in time for dinner. All from your living room.
Books and Media to Round It Out
If your kid catches the space bug hard (and they will), here are a few resources I’ve loved:
- Books: “There’s No Place Like Space” by Tish Rabe, “Mousetronaut” by Mark Kelly, “The Darkest Dark” by Chris Hadfield
- Shows: Ready Jet Go! on PBS, The Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space
- Websites: NASA’s Space Place has free printables and games that don’t suck
Pro tip: Check your local library for space-themed story times during actual Space Week. Librarians love this stuff and often go all out.
Why Space Week Matters
Here’s the thing nobody tells you. When you do these activities, you’re not just keeping them busy. You’re giving them something bigger.
Space makes them wonder. It makes them ask questions you can’t answer (what’s outside the universe? what happened before the Big Bang?). And that’s actually perfect. You don’t need to have all the answers. You just need to wonder alongside them.
My son asked me last week if aliens exist. I said I didn’t know. He thought about it for a minute and said, “The universe is really big. So probably.” Then he went back to his Legos.
That’s the whole point, right? A universe big enough for possibility. Big enough for imagination. Big enough that maybe, just maybe, your kids will spend an afternoon building rockets and asking questions instead of begging for screen time.
Pick one activity this week. Just one. See where it takes you. You might end up with a backyard full of baking soda volcanoes and a kid who suddenly cares about astronomy. Or you might end up with glitter everywhere and a very messy kitchen.
Either way, you’re making memories. And honestly, that’s more important than any space fact I could teach them.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go explain why we can’t actually live on the moon. The negotiations have begun. 🙂
