• About
  • Read the Blog
    • Preschool Learning
    • Elementary Learning
    • Homeschooling
    • Parenting and Family
  • Become a VIP
  • Shop
  •  

Dogs in Space Mini-Rockets: Picture Book Space STEM

This page may contain affiliate links. See my privacy policy and disclosure statement for more information.

What could be better than learning about space and sending off our own rockets? Learning about DOGS going in to space and helping send THEM up in to “space”! Today’s brief storybook-inspired science project found us learning about two stray dogs and their incredible journey into space. Then, we designed our own doggie rockets and tested how far we could send them upwards!Learn about the first dogs in space and make your own mini-rockets to take them there! This STEM project is sure to bring your students delight, all while learning about rockets and space race history.

Learning about the Dogs in Space

In Dogs in Space by Vix Southgate and Iris Deppe, we learned about two stray dogs, named Belka and Strelka, who became the first dogs to go in to space. It’s kind of amazing to think that not only can we get humans into space (and onto the moon), but we are able to also train other animals for the difficult conditoins. I loved how the book essentially set up the story as the dogs story, not a “space race” story. Yet, there is a historical overview at the end of the book, and the book about Belka and Strelka itself is inspiring. It ends with the reminder that if stray dogs can end up in space, we can surely do hard things too!

Dogs’ Straw Mini-Rockets Activity

To get started, we had to create some adorable doggies that would go up into space. My daughter also wanted to let our family head up in a rocket, so she also drew our family! (I don’t have a photo of her family portrait, but it is her treasured rocket now.

We then used a straw as our launch pad and blew with all our might at the end of the count down!

It was hard to get the rockets to blast up! This was the perfect time for discussion.

  • Why wouldn’t the rockets go very high?
  • How could we eliminate the problems?
  • How high could we get the rockets to go?
  • How much force would be needed to get the doggies to space?

In some respects, getting to space is completely beyond a first grader’s comprehension. She has no concept of distance and the sky! Then again, neither do I. Discussing the difficulties helped us understand just how remarkable it was that Belka and Strelka could take a space journey and return safely more than 50 years ago.

Check out our video to see just how much fun we had with this project!

Like this post? Pin it for later!

Learn about the first dogs in space and make your own mini-rockets to take them there! This STEM project is sure to bring your students delight, all while learning about rockets and space race history.

You may also be interested in these posts!

  • Moon Picture Books
  • Moon Phases Dancing: Picture Book Activity
  • Footprints on the Moon

Storybook Science

This post about space is a part of the Storybook Science series. Want to see more Storybook Science ideas? Click over to Inspiration Laboratories for the fourth year of the annual Storybook Science series!

If you like this post, you may also like...

Buildling a bird cage helped us practice designing and engineering a creation. Fun picture book inspired lesson!Build a Bird Cage: Picture Book STEM Challenge The leprechaun traps STEM challenge is seasonal way to practice building things and learning from design mistakes. Inspired by the book How to Trap a Leprechaun.Design a Leprechaun Trap: Picture Book STEAM Challenge Top 10 Moon Picture Books and Educational Activities We were inspired by the picture book Green City to make our home more environmentally friendly! See the free checklist on this post to do the same in your home.Making Your Home Environmentally Friendly: Picture-Book Inspired STEM As we read a picture book about animals in the city and found a way to help scientists through a citizen science project, we have learned more about how animals interact in our city as well as which ones are most common.Wildlife Watching: Book-Inspired Citizen Science Project

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Enjoy life-long learning. . . one day at a time.

Hands-on learning activities, ideas, games, and printables for parents, homeschoolers, and educators

Search the Blog

Search the Shop

Line upon Line Learning’s Products

Our digital learning products are available at these sites:

The Line upon Line Learning Shop

TeachersPayTeachers 

Boom Learning

(What is Boom?)

Advertisement


Note: I include advertisements on my site. See my disclosure policy for more details.

Copyright 2019 Rebecca Reid
About Rebecca Reid
Privacy and Disclosure Policy
Book Review Policy (at Rebecca Reads)
Contact Rebecca Reid

Advertisement

I’m a Contributer!

Big Book of Homeschool Ideas Vol 2

The Big Book of Homeschool Ideas vol 2
ebook
| Hard copy (Amazon)

Learn with Play

 

Learn with Play ebook

Get the eBook 

Copyright © 2019 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in