Fun Space Themed Activities for the Middle Grades

In Virginia, our students’ study of space systems happens in fourth grade, so for my post, I am going to share space themed activities and content area reading ideas that I will try to use with my students to help them get a “double dip” of science.

Space themed activities and standards

The student will investigate and understand the relationships among the Earth, moon, and sun.

a) the motions of the Earth, moon, and sun (revolution and rotation);

b) the causes for the Earth’s seasons and phases of the moon;

c) the relative size, position, age, and makeup of the Earth, moon, and sun; and

d) historical contributions in understanding the Earth-moon-sun system.

Great literature and space themed activities to go with them:

The great thing about all of these books is that they include the nonfiction text features that my students are required to know and understand.  I am also able to select sections of these books that are relevant to their needs, showing them that with nonfiction we do not need to read from cover to cover. We read nonfiction to learn, discover, and explore, a little more than to inform. Of these books, we have multiple copies of the So That’s How the Moon Changes Shape, Our Earth, and Planet Earth.  They are all wonderful and written at a 3rd grade level, perfect for my students.

Free space themed activities you might enjoy:

Children are fascinated by space exploration, and there are so many fun extension activities available on Teachers Pay Teachers. Here are a few of my favorites:

These three activities were ones that I used with my students. They were especially helpful and their classroom teacher raved about how well the kids did on their test. I was so pleased because these kids have really struggled in the content areas because of the vocabulary. It’s tough to do well when you can’t decode the words.

Space themed activities for writing

If you’re trying to work in writing, this graphic organizer is perfect for planning an informational article about space. Simply put the topic at the topic sentence at the top followed by three detail sentences. Again, nice way to review what you’ve taught. This could also work as an exit ticket where kids put the big idea of the day in each block.

With the phases of the moon being a main concept we teach in our space unit, this freebie was perfect. We used it to make a tabbed book, but you can use it for sorting, or for a flipbook.

Moon Poetry:

I love using poetry with my students for fluency work and for those small moments. Here’s a poem you might enjoy using.

Related resources from my store: