PDFs of Space Place activities

We have print-ready PDF files of Space Place's popular hands-on activities. Print these out and you no longer need to be connected to a computer to have a fun, educational experience. Perfect for the classroom, after school, and camps.


Sun

picture of sunspot cookies with chocolate chips and frosting swirls

Make sunspot cookies! Real sunspots aren’t made of chocolate, but on these sunspot cookies they are!

Download Sunspot Cookies Activity PDF

View Sunspot Cookies Activity

a photo of a finished pastel aurora project

Make a pastel aurora! In this activity, you can make your own colorful aurora with oil pastels.

Download Pastel Aurora Activity PDF

View Pastel Aurora Activity

piece of paper with sunscreen hand prints

Make handprint art using ultraviolet light! In this activity, see for yourself how sunscreen can be used to block the sun’s ultraviolet light rays.

Download Handprint Art Activity PDF

View Handprint Art Activity

the cut out sun shape with swirls of food coloring mounted on a black piece of paper

Make sun paper! Make this marbled paper that looks just like our sun.

Download Sun Paper Activity PDF

View Sun Paper Activity

cartoon of star-shapped cookie with a colored star in the middle

Make colorful star cookies! Make these yummy star cookies with genuine star-colored centers you can see through.

Download Star Cookies Activity PDF

View Star Cookies Activity

Earth

Black and white coloring page for Earth.

Color an Earth coloring page! Learn more about Earth with this NASA coloring page.

View NASA Coloring Pages Activity

a photo of the Earth stained glass activity final product - paper glued to a white paper plate handing on a fence with the sky in the background.

Make a Stained Glass Earth! You get to create your own full view of our planet as if it were seen from space—something that was not achieved until the 20th century.

Download Stained Glass Earth PDF

View Stained Glass Earth Activity

a photo of the Earth planet mask

Make an Earth mask! Learn more about Earth with our planet mask activity.

Download Earth Mask Activity PDF

View Planet Mask Activity

a photo of the Earth planet mask

Make a pastel aurora! In this activity, you can make your own colorful aurora with oil pastels.

Download Pastel Aurora Activity PDF

View Pastel Aurora Activity

a photo of the Earth fan described in this activity

Make an Earth fan! To remember that Earth is much more than just the surface we see every day, make this Earth layer fan.

Download Earth Fan Activity PDF

View Earth Fan Activity

image of the birdfeeder

Build your own birdseed wreath! Birds will love this simple bird feeder!

Download Birdseed Wreath Activity PDF

View Birdseed Wreath Activity

image of the cloud mobile

Make a cloud mobile! This mobile of beautiful, feather-weight clouds is balanced so that any gentle breeze sends them turning and twisting. Some are rain clouds, dropping sparkling showers below.

But it's not just a pretty work of art. The shapes represent certain types of clouds.

Download Cloud Mobile Activity PDF

View Cloud Mobile Activity

image of the cloud mobile

Whip up some El Niño pudding! You have probably heard people blame "El Niño" for everything from bad weather to lost homework. Now we are going to "blame El Niño" for inspiring a delicious and colorful dessert!

Download El Niño Pudding Activity PDF

View El Niño Pudding Activity

image of gumdrops in the shape of a smiley face

Get your gummy greenhouse gases! Got gumdrops? Then you can build models of molecules. Molecules are tiny structures that make up just about all matter—including you! Molecules themselves are made of atoms, the basic building blocks of matter.

Using just four kinds of atoms as building blocks, you can construct many different types of molecules. In this project, you will build models of some gas molecules. These kinds of gas molecules are part of the air. They are called greenhouse gases.

Download Gummy Greenhouse Gases Activity PDF

View Gummy Greenhouse Gases Activity

cartoon illustrating the four major phases of the moon

Make Oreo Moon phases! Open up some Oreo cookies and scrape off the creme filling to make the four major phases of the Moon

Download Oreo Moon Phases Activity PDF

View Oreo Moon Phases Activity

cartoon of a covered box with a teddy bear inside and a stick used to 'map' the bear from above

"See" inside a closed box! Suppose someone shows you a box and says it contains a mysterious object. Figure out what's in the box without looking or touching and the object is yours!

The box has no lid, but is covered by a piece of paper so you can't see inside. You are allowed to poke small holes in the paper with a sharp, straight stick of some kind, like a knitting needle, but you can't peek inside. How would you discover what's in the box?.

Download Topographical Map Activity PDF

View Topographical Map Activity

cartoon showing a clay topo map and the peices of clay used to create it

Make a topographic map! Build your own mountain and make a topo map of it!

Download Topographical Map Activity PDF

View Topographical Map Activity

Solar System

Black and white coloring page for Saturn, a round planet with a ring around it.

Color these NASA Coloring Pages! Learn more about the planets in our solar system with these NASA coloring pages.

Find and print a planet coloring page PDF here.

Planet mask on Jessica

Make planet masks! Learn more about the planets in our solar system with our planet mask activity.

Find and print a planet mask activity PDF here.

a comet made of foil and ribbons on chopsticks

Make a comet on a stick! A comet is a chunk of ice, rock, and gas flying through space. When they get close to the sun, they heat up. We can see their glow and long tails. In this activity, you’ll make your own comet that can fly around the room!

Download Comet on a Stick Activity PDF

View Comet on a Stick Activity

image of an asteroid

Make asteroids you can eat! Create your own odd-shaped asteroids out of plain old mashed potatoes. Bake them in the oven to turn them (more or less) asteroid color. Then eat your asteroids for dinner!

Download Asteroid Potatoes Activity PDF

View Asteroid Potatoes Activity

cartoon of a moon cookie

Make Moon cookies! No baking required!

Download Moon Cookies Activity PDF

View Moon Cookies Activity

cartoon of a moon habitat

Build a Moon habitat! Pretend you are an astronaut working with your teammates on the Moon to build your new lunar home.

Download Moon Habitat Activity PDF

View Moon Habitat Activity

cartoon illustrating the four major phases of the moon

Make Oreo Moon phases! Open up some Oreo cookies and scrape off the creme filling to make the four major phases of the Moon

Download Oreo Moon Phases Activity PDF

View Oreo Moon Phases Activity

cartoon showing one of the steps in this activity

Make a CD Saturn! You can make a lovely model of Saturn and her rings. You can hang your model Saturn from the ceiling and watch it gracefully turn with the air currents. Or your Saturn will make a beautiful holiday decoration.

Download CD Saturn Activity PDF

View CD Saturn Activity

Universe

Picture of universe slime in hand

Make universe slime! Did you know that our universe is stretching out in all directions? Make your own stretchy universe slime.

Download Universe Slime Activity PDF

View Universe Slime Activity

an animated gif of a pinwheel galaxy pinwheel spinning

Make a pinwheel galaxy pinwheel! The Pinwheel Galaxy is a spiral-shaped galaxy about 21 million light years away from Earth. Scientists call this swirling galaxy M101. You can find it in the constellation Ursa Major, or the "Big Dipper," in the Northern Hemisphere. With a nice, dark sky, you can see it with binoculars or a small telescope. For those of us who can't see it in the night sky, we can have the next best thing: a Pinwheel Galaxy pinwheel!

Download Pinwheel Galaxy Pinwheel Activity PDF

View Pinwheel Galaxy Pinwheel Activity

image of the galactic mobile

Make a galactic mobile! Make your own collection of beautiful galaxies. Suspend them on a mobile so they turn and sparkle in the wind.

Download Galactic Mobile Activity PDF

View Galactic Mobile Activity

cartoon of galaxy montages

Make a GALEX galaxy montage! Make a colorful work of galactic art using coffee filters, markers, and construction paper. Hang your galaxy montage on the wall or refrigerator. It will remind you of the beauty of the night sky and the great variety of shapes the galaxies take.

Download GALEX Galaxy Montage Activity PDF

View GALEX Galaxy Montage Activity

cartoon of the physics machine

Build a physics machine! If you build it carefully, this crazy contraption demonstrates one of the basic laws of nature. This law explains many events we see every day. For example, why does a big truck come out the winner in a head-on crash with a small car, even if both are going the same speed upon impact?

Download Physics Machine Activity PDF

View Physics Machine Activity

cartoon of star-shapped cookie with a colored star in the middle

Make colorful star cookies! Make these yummy star cookies with genuine star-colored centers you can see through.

Download Star Cookies Activity PDF

View Star Cookies Activity

People and Technology

diagram of the basic components of a satelllite.

Build your own spacecraft! Become a NASA engineer and design the latest and greatest satellite.

Download Build Your Own Spacecraft Activity PDF

View Build Your Own Spacecraft Activity

image of the birdfeeder

Build your own birdseed wreath! Birds will love this simple bird feeder!

Download Birdseed Wreath Activity PDF

View Birdseed Wreath Activity

image of gumdrops in the shape of a smiley face

Get your gummy greenhouse gases! Got gumdrops? Then you can build models of molecules. Molecules are tiny structures that make up just about all matter—including you! Molecules themselves are made of atoms, the basic building blocks of matter.

Using just four kinds of atoms as building blocks, you can construct many different types of molecules. In this project, you will build models of some gas molecules. These kinds of gas molecules are part of the air. They are called greenhouse gases.

Download Gummy Greenhouse Gases Activity PDF

View Gummy Greenhouse Gases Activity

cartoon of two balloons covered in bits of paper

Ions in action! Make pieces of paper fly through the air and stick onto a balloon.

Download Balloon Ions Activity PDF

View Balloon Ions Activity

cartoon of a moon habitat

Build a Moon habitat! Pretend you are an astronaut working with your teammates on the Moon to build your new lunar home.

Download Moon Habitat Activity PDF

View Moon Habitat Activity

cartoon of a balloon-powered nanorover

Make a balloon-powered nanorover! Roving a mini-"planet" calls for a "mini-rover." NASA built a tiny rover just a couple of inches high to explore the surface of an asteroid and take pictures.

You can build a nanorover too. Try this one, made from three styrofoam meat trays.

Download Balloon-powered Nanorover Activity PDF

View Balloon-powered Nanorover Activity

cartoon showing a completed pop-rocket

Build a bubble-powered rocket! Build your own rocket using paper and fizzing tablets! Watch it lift off. How high does your rocket go?

Download Bubble-powered Rocket Activity PDF

View Bubble-powered Rocket Activity

cartoon of a sound cone with sound waves

Hear tiny sounds with a Super Sound Cone! Make a simple sound cone to turn up the volume on whatever sounds are coming from a particular direction. You will be amazed!

Download Super Sound Cone Activity PDF

View Super Sound Cone Activity

cartoon of a covered box with a teddy bear inside and a stick used to 'map' the bear from above

"See" inside a closed box! Suppose someone shows you a box and says it contains a mysterious object. Figure out what's in the box without looking or touching and the object is yours!

The box has no lid, but is covered by a piece of paper so you can't see inside. You are allowed to poke small holes in the paper with a sharp, straight stick of some kind, like a knitting needle, but you can't peek inside. How would you discover what's in the box?.

Download Topographic Map Activity PDF

View Topographic Map Activity

cartoon showing a clay topo map and the peices of clay used to create it

Make a topographic map! Build your own mountain and make a topo map of it!

Download Topographic Map Activity PDF

View Topographic Map Activity

article last updated August 12, 2020
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