Space Week Activities & Giveaway with Ora Kitchen Towel & Puffin Books

Ora and Puffin Books (part of Penguin Random House) have teamed up for Space Week, and asked if I'd like to join in. Ora Kitchen Towel naturally lends itself to rocket-building, it's the perfect accompaniment, so along with my 7 and 9 year old boys, we've come up with some Space Week activities that won't break the bank!

1. Make A Space Station
Every Spaceman, Cosmonaut or Astronaut wants to go to the Space Station like Tim Peake. You can have your Space Station behind the sofa, or practically anywhere, but on this occasion we decided ours was going to be under the kitchen table. I prepared some construction materials and my 9 year old took on the role of designer.

I've been saving bubble wrap from parcels for ages, it looks futuristic and is perfect. Every spacecraft needs shiny stuff too and my foil cost 50p - and I will recycle it with the cans when our rocket lands!

2. Add Stars
I picked up these Great Explorations Glowing Micro Stars at BlogOn - they're inexpensive, plastic and if you fix them on with putty (white tack), you can move and remove them whenever you want. You can also use stickers or make them from white paper. We went to town (and the Milky Way) on the bottom of the table...

3. Make it tricky and see how it feels to be an Astronaut
Wear gloves and try to do things that are normally easy. Try and write a letter or peel an orange, or fasten buttons or a zip.

4. Eat Like An Astronaut
In the Space Station there's no gravity, so you need a good grip on your food and can't have crumbs. You could eat real space food like our giveaway winner, or eat chocolate using a knife and fork. If you are older, skewer jelly beans - don't forget the gloves! No sandwiches though, bread is banned from the Space Station.

5. Conduct Scientific Experiments
Astronauts are scientists and spend a lot of their time doing experiments. It may be necessary to remove your space gloves for this bit.

We have an experiment to try from Tech Will Save Us (more about that in a couple of days), but there are loads of really excellent experiments online that cost very little and don't need fancy ingredients or equipment. Here are 16 children's experiments to try.

6. Create Your Own Planets
I'm actually a big fan of Ora kitchen towel. I use it sparingly, but sometimes you have something horrible to wipe up in a hurry or you really don't want to look at it again. ORA is a strong kitchen towel that is super easy to grab one-handed, opens right out to a big circle and won't fall apart because it got wet. This means you can actually draw on it, and the team at Puffin Books came up with the perfect finishing touch for our spaceship - a planets backdrop.

7. Read About Space
There are loads of excellent books about space, astronauts and aliens. Ora have partnered with Penguin Random House, the No 1 children’s publisher in the UK, for an exclusive on pack promotion that offers every purchaser of the single stack Ora a free audiobook of Goodnight Spaceman, a recent collaboration for the publisher with the European Space Agency and UK astronaut Tim Peake. The offer is on packs until the end of October and valid until 15th November 2017 (or until 1500 total have been claimed - see packs for details). For older children you can try the How Much Do You Know About Space? quiz.

8. Make A Rocket To Go Home

The special packs of Ora even have a silver base - they already look more like a rocket than anything we can make. I grabbed some bits and pieces from the craft drawer and left my son to work this one out and create his own personal rocket. He was a bit daunted at first, but he soon got into it - and he was really proud of the end result.

Here it is complete - our Space Station. (No-one mention that our planets should be OUTSIDE... shhhh... We have porthole windows, obviously).

Ora have very kindly offered a copy of  Goodnight Spaceman, some space food and a stack of Ora Kitchen Towel as a prize for one of my readers.

Entry to the giveaway is by Gleam form below. I don't store or pass on any details, they are only used to randomly select a winner, check their entry and contact them. The giveaway is open to UK entrants only and will end at midnight Sunday 29th October. Full terms and conditions at the bottom of the Gleam form.

To see my other UK giveaways or find help if you are new to Gleam, please see my Giveaways Page...

Space Week Activities & Giveaway with Ora Kitchen Towel & Puffin Books

We were paid for our time creating this post and administering the giveaway.