Footprints on the Moon Sensory Play for Preschool

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With the upcoming solar eclipse, we’ve been learning about the moon and sun. For this week’s activity, we learned about the surface of the moon, especially the 1969 moon landing. Of course we had to recreate the moon landing. Strawberry (and toddler Kitty) loved to walk on the moon by making our own footprints on the moon in our fun outside sensory activity.

Reading about the Walking on the Moon

I’ve mentioned our favorite learning books about the moon before. The one we focused on for this project was Footprints on the Moon by Mark Haddon. In this picture book, the author describes his childhood dreaming and studying about the moon, and then he shares memories of the day he watched people walk on the moon. It ends with his own daydream that he was there too, leaving his own child-sized footprints.

I like this book because it shares a story from a kids’ perspective, all the while sharing a true event from history. Since the story includes the author “imagining” walking on the moon it also led perfectly into our own imaginary play!

Making the Moon Surface

I wanted to contain our moon somewhat, but as the pictures will show, this was hard to do! Nevertheless, I started with good intentions. You’ve heard before I don’t like mess, well, I’ve adjusted expectations, so I was not surprised!

We made two sample moon surfaces in two different cooking tins. To make the surface of the moon, I simply filled the cooking tins with flour!

Since we had learned that the surface of the moon had craters, we decided to add some to our otherwise smooth moon surfaces. We got a bouncy ball and dropped it in the “moons” to make the crater shapes. We talked about how there is no wind on the moon, so those shapes stay the same!

Putting our Footprints on the Moon

Then it was time for the footprints on the moon sensory part of the activity. Strawberry pulled off her shoes and walked in the moon tins. She loved the feeling on her feet and as the flour squished between her toes!

Since the pictures in the book showed the astronauts walking in their big boots, Strawberry wanted to do that as well. She got her rain boots and walked in the tin to make prints just like those the astronauts made on the moon.

This activity was simple. We did not spend too long either discussing or playing. But because she was able to physically become a part of the “footprints on the moon” scene, she will remember the facts. She’ll remember that men did walk on the moon, that the moon does not have wind, and that the moon surface is dusty. She’ll remember because she experienced it herself in our imaginary footprints on the moon sensory way!