Tom goes to space...

Yesterday Tom went on his very own expedition to space. It was all very exciting.

Tom and I decided that yesterday we wanted to do all things space. What could be better than actually going to space in his very own rocket ship.

At lunchtime Tom made his costume, He made a hat using tin foil and cardboard and then I wrote him a little name badge. Tom also made himself a watch out of tinfoil and cardboard, it is very important that astronauts are always on time! Then we needed a control panel for our space ship. I drew one for Tom just roughly using crayons on a white piece of card. You could always use the computer and make it look very professional, Tom and I did this activity as a spur of the moment thing so crayons and card did the job for us. Then we used a 'space blanket', a silver foil blanket you find in most first aid kits. I wrapped this around Tom's 'Panda chair' to form the outside of the space ship!

Tom was then ready for his first flight! I used the 'Panda chair' by R82 because it is able to go up and down electronically. I wanted Tom to get the feeling that he was in a real spaceship, so I put the chair all the way to the bottom as low as it could go. Then Mummy and Oupa did the countdown to BLAST OFF! Tom then flew up into space and into the stars.

I used Tom's star projector the get the stars on the sky. This made it feel even more magical for Tom. We all sat on the floor as he went up and pretended that Tom was so far away from us! It was good fun for us all, not only Tom.

Role play is a part of every Childs life. I think it is really important that Tom gets to experience it to. To begin with Tom didn't seem too impressed but maybe that was because of the big silver tin foil hat he was wearing! After a while Tom seemed to start to enjoy it! He became very mesmerised by the stars on the ceiling.

I don't think I incorporate enough role play in Tom's school day, it is definitely something that I am going to try and do more of, especially as we all had so much fun doing it. If you have any ways of adapting role play to make it accessible please let me know!