What do I need for a space station dramatic play center?

A large box for the capsule, foil, torches and dials drawn on paper. A colander works as a helmet. Darkness helps more than props.

Which space station role teaches the most?

Mission control. The crew has to describe what they can see to somebody who cannot see it, which is as close to a reason for descriptive language as a center gets.

Back to the grown-up notes

Dramatic play setup guide

Space station dramatic play: how to set it up.

Q: How do I give space play a shape?

Give it a small mission. Go to the moon, collect two rocks, come back and record what you found. That is a session with a beginning, middle and end.

Space is the one theme where no child has been to the real place, which levels the room. Nobody can be wrong about it, and that changes who joins in.

What you actually need

A large box for the capsule, foil, torches, and a wall of dials drawn on paper. A colander is a helmet and everybody accepts it.

Darkness helps more than props. A sheet over a table and a torch does most of the work.

A mission gives the play a shape

Floating about in a box gets dull quickly. A mission with a destination and a job to do when you arrive does not.

Keep it small. Go to the moon, collect two rocks, come back and record what you found. That is a whole session with a beginning, a middle and an end.

Three jobs, not a whole crew

A pilot, a scientist, and someone in mission control who stays behind. Mission control is the job that makes the talking necessary, because the crew has to describe what they can see to somebody who cannot.

That is as close to a reason for descriptive language as a center gets.

What the forms are actually for

A launch checklist gives the start a ritual, which children take seriously. An experiment record gives the arrival a point.

The space postcard is the one that surprises people. Writing home from the moon is a reason to write that children accept without argument.

For children who are not writing yet

A mission log can be drawn. A launch checklist can be ticked. An experiment record can be a picture of the rock. Nothing here needs letters, and no page has to be finished.

Printing without emptying a cartridge

A full center in color is a lot of ink. Every kit ships in four editions, and the low ink versions keep the line work and drop the heavy fills. The A4 editions carry the same pages as the Letter ones.

The Space Station kit

55 pages per edition at $6.95. Classroom signs and role badges, a mission log, experiment record, launch checklist, space postcard, flight plan and equipment check, plus picture labels, conversation prompts, sorting activities, counting materials, planning pages and storage labels. Four print editions. Digital download; props are not included.

See the pages inside the Space Station kit

Try a center first

The Mail Carrier sampler is four pages: a welcome page, a name badge, an OPEN sign and a short setup guide. No email and no account.

Open the Mail Carrier sampler →