Space Week 2023
This October, between the 4th and the 10th, is Space Week! Explorify has lots to offer to help you harness children’s natural wonder and curiosity for this awe-inspiring topic.
Astronaut floating in space
Space captures the imagination of many children, and we have plenty to get your little astronauts excited. Explore our cosmic Space collection here.
You could start with a blast-off by trying our Listen! What can you hear?
This is the perfect starting point to inspire both our children in Early Years, who might create a space centre or their own space helmets, and our oldest children, who might find out more about NASA’s Artemis Mission.
Look at three celestial objects that your children should be familiar with. What differences can they observe? Can they relate these objects to their daily experiences?
What if an astronaut gets thirsty?
With a simple thought about a thirsty astronaut, your class can work like scientists to explore materials, the water cycle and mixtures - all through the filter of space and adventure.
This will boost children’s curiosity about the planets in our solar system. They can begin to understand the vastness of space through making scale models or explore secondary data and look for patterns.
Share these inspiring science stories with the children and perhaps they will become the next generation of space scientists.
Tackle the tricky bits - Earth and space
We also have our 'Tackle the tricky bits' page, where the key scientific concepts are explained and broken down into what children need to know about the science behind Earth and Space. This also contains useful background science for teachers. Although much of the background science does not need to be taught to primary aged children, it is useful for you as a teacher when addressing misconceptions and children’s challenging questions. This has been recently rewritten with the help of The Ogden Trust and is available here.
Children's misconceptions about space
Use this handy guide, developed with the help of the Best Evidence Science Teaching (BEST) team, to help children grasp the most commonly misunderstood topics in the science behind space. Download the pdf here to explore the best Explorify activities to use to address these misconceptions with the children.
Supporting your planning
Whether you want to embed the key concepts or be inspired to 'go beyond' and provide enriching cross-curricular experiences, this planning support video and accompanying downloadable pdf will provide you with inspiration. Meanwhile, if you are planning a whole school event this is a very helpful read.
Further resources
If you are looking for other engaging activities for Space Week then take a look at these from the UK European Space Education Research Office (ESERO).
They include resources on how to run your own Space Week and new resources based around the Euclid space telescope launched in July 2023 by the European Space Agency to study dark matter.