How We Turned Our Homeschool Room Into Space for Our Preschool Space Unit
When we decided our next preschool homeschool unit was going to be space, I knew I wanted to go a little beyond just doing space-themed worksheets and crafts.
I wanted the kids to walk into our little homeschool room and immediately feel like we were learning about space.
If you’re new here, we converted half of our garage into our homeschool room, and one of the things I’ve really loved about having this space is being able to change it as we move through different themes and units. I definitely don't redo the entire room every time, but for space, I couldn't help myself.
So before we even started learning about Mercury, Venus, Earth and the rest of the solar system, I added some inexpensive space decorations, toys and pretend-play items to make the room feel a little more like our own tiny space station.
Hanging Planets
One of the first things I bought was a set of hanging planets.
These were probably the biggest transformation because suddenly our classroom had the entire solar system hanging above us. They've also been helpful beyond just being decorations. We can point to the planets as we're talking about them, compare their sizes and colors, and find the planet we're learning about that week.
Space Planets:
Shop the planets on Amazon
Space Bulletin Board Decorations
I also added space-themed bulletin board decorations around the room.
These were an easy way to take some of the areas that were already part of our homeschool setup and bring them into the space theme without completely changing everything.
Space Bulletin Board Decor:
Shop the space bulletin board decorations on Amazon
DIY Large Wall Rockets
Of course, I couldn't just buy everything.
I made the rockets for the room myself. I started by making my own rocket template, then used it to trace and cut the rocket pieces out of cardstock.
Pro tip: If you're making more than one, cut through two sheets of cardstock at the same time. Then reverse the pieces for the other side. It makes the whole process go so much faster.
For the flames, I used colorful streamers coming out of the bottom of each rocket, which gave them a little movement and made them feel more fun hanging in the room.
They were actually pretty simple to make once I had the template figured out, and I love how much they added to our space-themed preschool homeschool room without having to buy another big classroom decoration.
Download: Here is the rocket template PDF I made :)
Space Suits for Pretend Play
One thing I've learned very quickly with preschool homeschool is that my kids don't need to be sitting at the table for something to count as learning.
So naturally, we needed space suits.
I added astronaut costumes to the room so they could dress up, pretend to blast off, explore planets and basically turn everything we were talking about into pretend play.
It made the unit feel like something they were experiencing instead of something I was just teaching them.
Kids' Space Suits:
Shop the space suits on Amazon
NASA Magna-Tiles
We already love anything that lets them build, so I also added a space-themed Magna-Tiles set into the mix.
They can build a spaceship while we're talking about space, recreate things they've seen in books or videos, or just completely make up their own version of a spacecraft.
For me, that's one of my favorite parts of homeschooling at this age. Not every activity has to have instructions or a worksheet attached to it. Sometimes I can put something related to what we're learning in front of them and let them take it from there.
Space Ship Magna-Tiles:
Shop the space Magna-Tiles on Amazon
Space Wrapping Paper:
Shop the space wrapping paper on Amazon
Making Our Space Unit Feel Like an Experience
I'm still figuring all of this out as we go.
I never expected to be homeschooling, and I definitely never expected to have half of our garage turned into a little schoolhouse with planets hanging from the ceiling and two tiny astronauts running around.
But here we are.
And I'm realizing that one of the things I love most about preschool homeschool is having the freedom to make learning feel exciting for them.
Our space unit has included books, worksheets, crafts, experiments, food activities, videos, pretend play and a lot of messes. Decorating the room was really just the beginning.
Over the next several posts, I'm going to share what we've actually been doing as we work our way through the solar system — including the activities we've done for Mercury, Venus, Earth, and each of the planets, the worksheets we're using, books we've liked, experiments that actually worked, and some of the resources I've made myself along the way.
Because apparently, when we decided to learn about space, we really decided to learn about space.