Creating Constellations

It all started with a Burger King Kids Meal.  They opened the box, and inside was a little space capsule with a floating astronaut.  They were in love.  

On the way home, I overheard one say to the other, "I wish we had some planets where our spaceship could land."  A light bulb went off in my head and I chimed in, "Do you really want planets?  We could make some planets."  They cheered.  

The next day I tore strips of newspaper, mixed up some paper mache paste, and helped my children fashion some planets.  Once dry, they painted them.

 I asked if they wanted to make them exactly like the planets in our solar system or if they wanted to create their own planets.  They chose creating their own planets.  Who wouldn't want to design a mini-universe of their own?

They were sad that we had no stars, and I remembered that we had some model magic left over from a Christmas project and a star-shaped cookie cutter.  So, we rolled and cut stars that we later decorated with glitter.  We got 5 different craft sessions out of this project!

Today was the first day everything was dry.  After some thinking and looking, I put together a structure on which they could hang their solar system.

They carefully placed planets and stars - creating the constellations of their imaginations.

Then, their spaceships began to fly.

And, occasionally, land.

My little astronauts flew all over their galaxy - exploring each planet and star.  That is, until they fought over who could land their spaceship where.  Apparently, this solar system is only big enough for 1 twinner at a time...

One little toy sparked so much creativity.  Who knew I would ever be so thankful for a Burger King Kids Meal toy?