

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...BLAST OFF! Take your Year 1 and Year 2 children on an incredible adventure through space with this Exploring Space KS1 Topic Enrichment Pack. Included are seven engaging lessons covering Art, DT and Geography, all carefully crafted to complement your teaching while developing key skills across the curriculum.
Your class will:
- Develop their clay skills whilst creating a space-themed tile with relief and blend chalks to create stunning space-themed artwork
- Make a model of a moon buggy out of junk modelling materials and create their own moving space-themed pictures using sliders and levers
- Use directional language to navigate a spacecraft through an asteroid field and explore maps to locate the Kennedy Space Centre in the USA.
Whether you’re looking to enrich your existing Space topic or deliver a mini cross-curricular project, this pack provides everything you need—lesson plans, slides, activity sheets and resources—ready to download and teach.
You might also be interested in our KS1 History scheme, The History of Space Travel.
Developing Clay Skills
This Clay Techniques KS1 lesson helps your class to develop the joining and shaping skills they need to make a clay alien figure.
Children will learn how to use their hands to roll a ball, to roll out the clay so it is long and thin, to make a cube, to use a rolling pin to flatten out the clay, and to use clay tools to add pattern and texture to the surface of the clay. They will also learn how to join clay using the score and slip method. Your class will then use what they have learnt to create a clay alien figure.
Everything you need to teach this space-themed Clay Techniques KS1 lesson is included. There is an informative PDF slideshow, a detailed plan with differentiated activities, and all the printable resources required.
What's included:
- Lesson plan
- Slides
- Activity ideas
- Alien Design Sheets
Clay Tiles
In this lesson, your KS1 class will learn what is meant by the term 'relief'.
They will then apply the clay skills developed in the previous lesson to design and make a clay tile with relief. It could be a rocket ship, a planet, an asteroid - it's up to them! At the end of the lesson they will evaluate their own and each other's work.
Everything you need to teach this space-themed art lesson for your class is included in this Clay Tiles KS1 pack. There is an engaging PDF slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities and all the printable resources required.
What's included:
- Lesson plan
- Slides
- Activity ideas
- Design Sheets
- Ideas Page
Chalk Planets
Develop your class's skills in using chalk in this Space KS1 Art lesson!
After an introduction to the various planets of the solar system, children are encouraged to make close observations of them. They will then learn how to use circular templates, and how to use and blend chalks, to create a picture of the planets.
Everything needed to teach this Chalk Planets lesson is included within the pack: an engaging PDF slideshow featuring photographs of the step-by-step process children need to follow, a detailed plan with differentiated activities and all the printable resources required to make this lesson a success!
What's included:
- Lesson plan
- Slides
- Activity ideas
- Circle Templates
- Planet Sheets
Moon Buggy
In this Moon Buggy KS1 DT lesson, children will design and make their own moon buggy from junk modelling materials.
Children will first find out about the moon buggy which was part of the final Apollo Moon landings. They will find out about the various parts of the buggy and their function. Your KS1 class will then be challenged to design their own new moon buggy and will have chance to build it using junk modelling materials.
Apart from the junk modelling materials, everything you need to teach this Moon Buggy KS1 DT lesson is included in this downloadable pack: an informative PDF slideshow, a detailed plan with differentiated activities and all the printable resources required.
What's included:
- Lesson plan
- Slides
- Activity ideas
- Activity Ideas
- Design Sheet
Sliders and Levers
In this Sliders and Levers KS1 DT lesson, children will design and make a space-themed moving picture.
Your KS1 class will first practice creating a sliding mechanism to make a rocket fly along the page. Then they will learn how to use paper fasteners to create a waving astronaut. With these skills mastered, children are then challenged to design and make their own moving space picture.
Everything you need to teach this Sliders and Levers KS1 DT lesson is included. There is an engaging PDF slideshow, a detailed plan with differentiated activities and all the printable resources required.
What's included:
- Lesson plan
- Slides
- Activity ideas
- Differentiated Design Sheets
Compass Directions
In this Compass Directions KS1 lesson, your class will attempt to navigate a spacecraft through an asteroid field!
This lesson begins with children practicing the use of compass directions to guide a spacecraft through a series of planets on a map. However, their newly acquired skills are soon put to use as they have to navigate the spacecraft through an asteroid field! At the end of the lesson, children describe routes to each other and they have to see if they can work out which planet on the map they have been taken to.
This space-themed Compass Directions KS1 is sure to engage your class! Everything you need is included: an informative and engaging PDF slideshow, a detailed plan with differentiated activities and a range of printable resources.
What's included:
- Lesson plan
- Slides
- Activity ideas
- Map Sheets
- Spacecraft Cut-Out
- Route Cards
Kennedy Space Center
In this space-themed KS1 Geography lesson, children learn to locate the Kennedy Space Center and describe its position using the four compass directions.
To begin with, the children locate the continents of the world and the equator on a world map. Then, your KS1 class will look at a map of North America and will locate the Kennedy Space Center within the state of Florida. They will learn how to describe its location in relation to other places in the state using their knowledge of the four compass directions.
This ready-to-teach pack contains everything you need: an engaging PDF slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities and all the printable resources needed to make this lesson a success.
What's included:
- Lesson plan
- Slides
- Activity ideas
- Differentiated worksheets