How to Make an Easy Kids' Rocket Craft That SHINES

I’m excited to share this rocket and stars collage with you! I know you’ll love the easy technique for making shiny shape cutouts. It’s perfect for any space obsessed kid, as well as for getting kids interested in space and the solar system.

My daughter has been infatuated with space this year. With that in mind, I wanted to think up an art project she would love. I was inspired by, of all things, elephants. We'd made these foil elephants with a group of kids over the summer, and loved them. We wanted to be able to use plain old kitchen foil, and we needed it to be easy to cut shapes out of it.


But I'm getting ahead of myself. This craft begs for a picture book partner.

Rocket Books 

Here are a few rocket theme picture books you and your kids might like. I found them all at my library.

My favorite is Zoom, Rocket, Zoom! By Margaret Mayo, illustrated by Ale Ayliffe. It has bright and bold illustrations. It’s a primer on space exploration, with lots of alliteration and onomatopoeia (two qualities I value in children’s books ).

Rocket to the Moon by Lerryn Korda is an imaginative introduction to space travel. The characters build a pretend play rocket out of household items. It's short enough for young preschoolers, yet my kindergartners love it too.

Roaring Rockets by Tony Mitton and Ant Parket is a simple, rhyming explanation of what rockets do and how they work, perfect for budding astronauts in the preschool set.

Where Is the Rocket? by Harriet Ziefert, whimsically describes a rocket on a mobile. The focus is on directional words such as inside, outside, over, under, etc. The rhymes are pleasing, and I think toddlers would enjoy it. You could even zoom your foil rocket around (plus over, under, and behind) the book during a read aloud.

Instructions

This project is really easy, but it does need a little prep ahead of time -- at least a few hours if not overnight, so that the spray glue can dry.

Supplies

Printout of rocket

Aluminum foil

Spray Adhesive (I used Elmer's Craft Bond)

Newspaper or other surface protector (for spraying the glue)

Scissors

Permanent markers in several colors, or acrylic paint
Paint shirt or smock for your child

Star shaped craft punch (optional)

School glue

Black paper

Red tissue paper

Step-by-Step

1. Using the spray adhesive, glue the rocket printout to a sheet of aluminum foil. Press out any creases.

2. Let the glue dry completely so you don’t gunk up your scissors.

3. Cut out the rocket. Save the scraps.

4. Lay the rocket, foil side down, on a cork board or several layers of folded up newspaper. On the paper side, trace around the interior lines with a ball point pen. This will indent an impression onto the foil side, giving your child guidelines for the windows and fins.

5. Color the foil side of the rocket with permanent markers. Alternatively, you can use acrylic paint.

6. Use a star shaped craft punch on the scraps to make foil stars. My girls love punching!

7. Cut out rocket flames from the red tissue paper.

8. Assemble your rocket and star collage, and glue it onto black paper.

I hope this is as much fun for you as it was here for us. Enjoy!

Update! I have another space-themed craft up on the blog now, with a link to an even cooler one that I did as a guest post.