Have a kid that loves space? These crafts celebrate NASA's Perseverance Landing

This Thursday, the NASA Mars rover, Perseverance, will be landing along with a new experimental technology - the Ingenuity. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will be attempting the first ever powered, controlled flight on another planet! In celebration of this scientific endeavor, we’ve compiled a list of games and crafts to do with your little humans to get them excited about Mars and space!

☕ Coffee Filter Mars

Do some coffee filter art, inspired by the red planet! All you need are some coffee filters, markers, and a spray bottle with water. Start by coloring in your coffee filter “planet” with markers. Look at some pictures of Mars for inspiration! Then once you have your colors layed down, spray the coffee filter with water and watch your coffee filter blend together and become Mars!

Check out these examples on Mombrite's blog. 

🧪 Mini Seltzer Rockets

Using alka-seltzer tablets and water, we can make our own little mini rockets! Using an empty film canister, fill it up about ⅔ of the way with water. When outside and ready for launch, drop in half of an alka-seltzer tablet and snap the lid onto the container, stand the container up in launch position and stand back and see if you can accurately countdown to lift-off! For extra fun, decorate and name your mini rockets!

 This lovely tutorial video by Kicking it with Kai has visuals of how to do it.

🚀  Rocket Building

Using found objects around the house (empty paper towel and toilet paper rolls, milk cartons, etc.) and any on-hand craft materials, try building a rocket that can travel as much distance when thrown. Complete a few rounds of tests. Try putting weight on different parts of the rocket and seeing how it affects its ability to travel. Is there a technique of throwing the rocket that makes it travel further? See how far you can get it! 

Have fun and see you at landing!