Space Pack

The Wild Literacy Space Pack has 11 unique sessions aimed at children aged 7 – 14, adaptable for a range of abilities. Wild Literacy topic packs provide a variety of fun, creative sessions designed for teachers and parents to support children in literacy development.

Each Wild Literacy pack is a careful curation of sessions that build on and complement each other. Together, the pack covers multiple skills through a variety of activities and different approaches. This means they are not repetitive or boring and they work well for different learners. Topics are explored in lots of interesting ways and sessions provide a host of ideas and various ways to take the learning in any direction a child may be interested in exploring.

The Space Pack contains:

1. Solar System Mnemonic

A straightforward, fun activity to create a mnemonic about the solar system. It develops children’s sentence building skills and word knowledge. Incorporate using a dictionary to help them find different word options. You could also use the activity to talk about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

2. Solar System Poem

This session makes putting together a simple poem really straightforward. Children can put in as much time/effort as they choose or are able to make the poem better, to rhyme, or to consider rhythm and other techniques such as repetition, alliteration, figurative language, and onomatopoeia. Make it as simple or complex as is suitable for the children you are working with.

3. Space Story Game

This session makes writing a short simple story very accessible and fun. There are plenty of options for extending the activity further. Children can use the dice rolls as the basic outline for a longer story, adding more details to make it flow well and have more of a plot.

4. Invent An Alien

This session helps children create the basics of an alien character. The follow on activities give options for expressing or developing their ideas further. Use as a standalone activity or as part of writing an alien story.

5. Postcard From Another Planet

Postcards are an accessible way to produce some descriptive writing without being overwhelming. Because postcards are written in familiar and informal language, children can just write as they speak which makes it less intimidating. This is a great activity for children of all abilities to create a description of a setting.

6. Space Holiday Advert

This activity looks at space tourism and advertising. It will help children think critically about the subject as well as help them develop their persuasive writing skills. There are options for how much reading and how in-depth to go as well as whether children do any form of written response or just discuss it, so you can do what is best for the children you are working with.

7. Crop Circles

In this session children will make a piece of art based on a crop circle design. They will build on this activity by imagining their crop circle has been discovered and write (or present) a news report, enthusiast’s blog, or YouTube post about it. Creating a crop circle first aids interest, imagination, and writing description. There are helpful hints, links and examples to help children with their writing.

8. Space Inventions

Space technology shapes everyday life. Linking the topic to children’s own lives makes it relevant and engaging. This session is about finding out information and different ways to present it. The links provided will take you to great websites with interesting and interactive information for children. You can adjust the writing responses to suit the children you are working with.

9. Night Sky Poetry

This session is all about observation and for children to describe things how they view and experience them. There is guidance and examples to help them use figurative language which gives children more tools to express themselves. To make it work well, children will need to spend a period of time (this can be from a few days to a few weeks) observing the night sky and keeping a simple diary. The observations can be put together in a simple way to make a poem, which can be developed further if they choose. This makes creating a poem achievable to a wide range of children.

10. Space Explorers

Using the exciting idea of travelling in space, this session will help children create a piece of descriptive writing or poem. It offers ideas and opportunities for children to experiment with language and write poetically. As a non-writing alternative, children can do a piece of art to explore the language.

11. X-Flies Report

This session takes a reasonable amount of preparation, but creates an immersive, engaging, and memorable experience for children. Creating a real life situation in which they are working aids motivation for writing. You can adjust the amount of writing involved to suit the children you are working with.