We used a small room in the nursery as a space to turn into a spaceship and began with a box of sticky back plastic in many colours that had been collected from the scrap store.
‘Lets cover the window and make it really dark like space.’ said one child. We peeled off the paper from the darkest colours and stuck them over the window.
‘It looks like planet Earth’ was one observation looking at the colours and shape of the window. The children used the plastic to make buttons for control panels that covered the walls, window and ceiling. They used their imaginations to talk about the intricate
details of space flight and about how the spaceship could work, as well as problem solving what to do if they met an alien.
The children then made seat belts with each one making a different design using different catches and straps. A white sheet was pegged in the centre of the room to create two spaces that became the control room and a sleeping cabin which the children made more comfortable by adding cushions and beanbags.
We introduced some coloured acetate and torches to explore further the ideas of colours changing using light sources. The children used the torches and acetate to play with light and shadow on the walls.
Step 3
When the spaceship was finished, the children became involved in making maps of the journeys that took us to many different planets with a variety of monsters and aliens. From this, the children brought in a number of items around the nursery incorporating them into their imaginary space explorations. This included paint pots as seats in the spaceship and teddy bears as aliens.