🚀 Letter of the Week: O is for Outer Space

Featuring our $5 Space Station Printable Dramatic Play Kit

This week's theme is "O is for Outer Space", and we're pairing it with our Space Station Printable Pack, designed especially for sensory play and perfect for decorating your IKEA Flisat table. With the Space Station Printable Dramatic Play Kit, your FLISAT table becomes a working space station — banners and awnings set the scene while astronauts complete missions, file reports, and explore the galaxy. If you're building the base setup first, my FLISAT table setup guide covers the table and bins.

Space Station Printable Dramatic Play Kit

🛒 What's in the $5 Space Station Printable Pack

The Space Station Printable Pack includes:

  • Space station banner and awning
  • Astronauts, planets, and mission decor pieces
  • Mission reports and astronaut activity pages
  • Fine motor activity pages
  • Vocabulary cards: astronaut, rocket, planet, orbit, and more

Get the printable kit

🧰 Materials You'll Need

  • Space Station Printable Pack
  • IKEA Flisat table (or any sensory bin)
  • Black beans, dark dyed rice, or kinetic sand as "moon dirt"
  • Toy astronauts, rockets, and rovers
  • Glow-in-the-dark stars and planets
  • Aluminum foil, cardboard tubes, and bottle caps for building
  • Scoops, tongs, and sorting trays

🚀 How to Set Up Your Outer Space Sensory Bin

  1. Print and hang the banner and awning on your pegboard or backdrop to open the station.
  2. Fill one bin with dark filler and scatter glow stars through it.
  3. Add astronauts, rockets, and rovers for the first mission.
  4. Set out the mission reports and activity pages at the "control desk."
  5. Place the vocabulary cards nearby, then count down — 3, 2, 1, blast off into sensory play!

Get all 26 Printables for just $26

🎯 Learning Objectives by Age Group

  • 6–12 mo: High-contrast star shapes and textures to look at and grasp
  • 1–2 yrs: Scooping "moon dirt," naming rockets and stars
  • 2–3 yrs: Sorting planets by size, matching astronauts to rockets
  • 3–4 yrs: Letter O tracing (O is for orbit!), counting down from 10
  • 4–5 yrs: Sequencing a mission, simple planet facts, writing mission reports

💌 Free Bonus: A to Z Letter of the Week Guide

Don't forget your Free Printable Letter of the Week Poster! Download the A–Z Letter of the Week Sensory Guide, with all 26 themes, links to products, and learning goals. You'll also receive the Letter of the Week Email Series, with weekly reminders, bonus activity ideas, and links to new blog content.

  • All 26 Letter of the Week themes
  • Printable calendar
  • Links to each week's setup
  • Email reminders with learning extensions

Get your FREE poster

Letter of the Week series banner

💡 Tips to Extend the Activity

  • Moon Rock Hunt: Wrap filler-safe toys in foil and bury them as moon rocks to excavate.
  • Cardboard Rocket: Build a reading rocket from a big box beside the table.
  • Constellation Poking: Poke star patterns into black paper over a flashlight.
  • Planet Sorting: Sort balls and play food into "planets" by size and color.
  • Story Time: Read a favorite space picture book in the "space station."

📚 Related Activities

  • Space station sensory play setup
  • Outer space sensory play with a pegboard backdrop
  • Letter S: Science week
  • Planet flashcards and space play rounds

🔤 25 Vocabulary Words for "Outer Space" Theme

space, astronaut, rocket, planet, moon, star, orbit, galaxy, comet, meteor, telescope, launch, blast off, gravity, satellite, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, solar system, alien, mission, explore, float, crater, sky

📌 Pin It for Later

Blasting off for letter O week? Save this post, and follow along with the whole A–Z series on the Letter of the Week hub.