Games
Flying Saucers_
Children can decorate Flying Saucers (made out of two paper plates turned upside down, stapled together and a clear plastic bowl fastened to the top) with markers, glitter and sparkly jewels. These can be used later towards the end of the party (after the glue dries) in an outdoor contest to see whose flying saucer flies the farthest.
The Sun is a Fiery Ball of Gas_
To help develop understanding of the concept that the sun is a ball of fiery gases, not solid like the earth, use streamers or strips of paper in red, yellow, white and orange. Give each child one streamer. The children are positioned in concentric circles of colours. The centre is white (hottest part of sun), then yellow, then orange and last red. Put on space- type music and have children "boil and bubble" around in their circles. The circles can spin in different directions. Periodically say "solar flare" at which time the red streamers burst off the circle and then return to their place. (Solar flares are giant bursts of gas exploding off the surface of the sun.) To end, have children slowly "run out of gas" and sit on the floor as you turn down music.
Discoverer_
At first the players are asked to "discover" a new planet, i.e. to blow up the balloon as soon as possible, and then "to inhabit" this planet with the inhabitants, i.e. to draw on balloon with the felt-tip-pen as many little people as possible. The player who has the greatest number of people on the balloon - is the winner.
Is there life on Mars? Well not as far as we know. The conditions on Mars are not ideal for supporting life. The atmosphere is thin and mostly composed of carbon dioxide, there is very little water and the average temperature is - 55oC! Add to that the very strong winds and vast dust storms that can engulf the entire planet for months and the possibility seems very slim. But we could be wrong... and see this too
Hot Moon Rock_
Everyone sits in a circle and passes the hot moon rock from one person to the next (while music is playing). Someone calls time or stops the music and the person left holding the moon rock is out. Continue until there is only one person left.
Weightlessness Race_
In this game, the player needs to transfer as many cotton balls from one bowl to another using only a spoon. The catch? They'll be blindfolded so they won't have any idea how many cotton balls they've scooped up. You'll need to prepare bowls, cotton balls, blindfolds, and spoons. This game works best when you play two players at a time. Blindfold the players and give each a spoon. Place two bowls in front of each player, one of which has 20 cotton balls. The other bowl is empty. Once you say "GO!", each player must transfer as many cotton balls from one bowl to the other in 30 seconds. The trick is that they are so light you can't really feel them on the spoon and this makes it hard. The winner is the player who transfers the most.
Weightlessness can have a strange effect on the human body. Consider, for example, "up" and "down." On Earth we always know which way is up because gravity tell us. Sensors in the inner ear, which are part of the body's vestibular system, can feel the pull of gravity. They signal the brain with information about our body's orientation.
In space, however, the vestibular system doesn't sense the familiar pull of gravity. The world can suddenly seem topsy-turvy.
The vestibular system isn't the only one affected by the absence of weight. The proprioceptive system -- that is, nerves in the body's joints and muscles that tell us where our arms and legs are without having to look -- can also be fooled. Without the stresses in the joints usually caused by the pull of gravity, this sense is sometimes dampened. Balancing isn't easy. But, we do it every day as we walk through our daily lives. We do it so easily that we don't have to think about trying to balance--we just do. Our brains help us balance by making a mental model. To make the models, we use all the information sent from around us. Balancing information is sent by our muscles, our ears, and our eyes. The most important sensors for balancing are in our ankles.
These sorts of mismatches between what the eyes see and what the body feels can trigger a malady called "space sickness." Scientists think it's much like "car sickness," which you can get right here on Earth by trying to read in a moving car. The inner ear detects the motion of the car but the eyes -- staring at a page filled with unmoving words -- do not.
