We’ve been on a science kick lately, which was brought on when we opened our new boxed set of science beginner books. These are perfect for curious preschoolers, and young elementary age kids learning to read. They’ve become staples to our bedtime routine while we learn facts about everything from tornadoes to the human body. I thought it would be fun to explore outer space a little more, and the swirling colors of the planets inspired me to create this salt painting outer space craft to go along with our books!
What You Need for Your Salt Painting
- Construction paper or Cardstock
- Washable Glue
- Salt
- Paintbrushes
- Food coloring or watercolors
- Cups of water
Let’s Have some FUN!
For my craft time prep, I put some water with food coloring into a few different little cups. Under the direction of my kids I drew different shapes with glue on their papers. Rocket ships, planets, stars, etc. I let them tell me what they wanted and where I should draw them so they really felt like it was their salt painting masterpiece.
Once the glue was drawn on, I dumped salt generously over the shapes, then shook off the excess into the trash. After that, we were ready to begin our salt painting! Using paintbrushes dipped into the colored water, gently touch them to your salt drawing and watch the colors!
The colors will run and travel through the salt patterns, and mix together. This is the perfect way to create the swirling mixed colors of the planets! We went with a blue/green Earth, red/yellow Mars & Saturn, some multi-colored rockets ships and stars!
Let your salt painting art dry for a day (or 2, it can be really wet)! This leaves you plenty of time to read more about space!!
Let’s Read our SPACE books!
Oh my, there are SO many amazing space books that I love!! It was too hard to choose just 1, so we had to pick 2! One was the Solar System beginner reader, and the other was My Very First Space Book!
The Solar System beginner reader is packed with real life photos, small chunks of information and LOTS of facts! I learn so much every time I pick up one of these types of books. The small pieces of learning and amazing pictures keep my kids attention easily, and are often what they keep asking me to read over and over!
Not only that, but there is a glossary in the back of the beginner readers to look up unfamiliar words, and internet referenced websites that are prescreened for safety! Here are a few things we learned…
- The surface of Mercury is more than four times hotter than boiling water
- Venus is so hot its surface glows in the dark
- When the sun shines behind the moon you can’t see the bright side, so it looks dark!
My Very First Space Book is a great early reference book for toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary aged kids. The illustrations help to identify space related objects and learn about space skills, planets, stars, galaxies, rockets, satellites, and more!
I love how each section is broken into smaller pictures with short descriptions and labels. The pages are also more durable than paper pages, almost like a thin board book. This make it perfect for preschoolers to explore for independent reading time! We spent a lot of time digging into this one while our salt painting outer space pictures were drying.
Thanks so much for having fun reading space books and creating salt painting space art with us! If you want to check out some more amazing space books, you can see so many more fun & interactive titles here! We have too many to count, since it’s a favorite topic in our house! Join me in my facebook community for more fun, activities, giveaways and more! Happy reading!
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