Moon Rock Count and Throw | Activities

How many rocks do you see?

Practice hand-eye coordination on the moon with this fun gross motor activity! All of the materials can be easily accessible — tin foil, a bucket to catch the moon rocks with, and a die.

📚Did You Know? Although the moon is quite different from earth, the rocks are made up of almost the exact same elements as they are on earth!

🧦New Materials = New Challenge! Try experimenting with different materials as your moon rocks, like paper, socks, or a bouncy ball. What materials are harder/easier to throw?

◾ No Dice? No Problem! Don’t have a board game with a die in it? Make your own out of paper using the template of a cube. Cut it out, write numbers 1-6 on it and tape it up... ta-da!

Materials

For this activity you will need:

Tin foil

Bucket/bin

Die from a board game

Learning Outcomes

Domain

Physical

Skills

Gross Motor (throwing)

Indicators:

Throwing with increased coordination

Instructions

Step 1:

Start by making 6 small balls of tin foil large enough to fit in a child’s hand. These will be your moon rocks.

Step 2:

Place the bin/bucket against a wall and count out several steps from the bin to where the child should stand, about 2-3 feet away from the target.

Step 3:

Have your child roll the die and count the dots on the die. This is how many moon rocks they should throw into the bin.

Step 4:

Once they’ve thrown all their moon rocks, have them practice again by rolling the die, counting the dots, and throwing the respective amount of moon rocks into the bin...how many make it into the bin?

⬆️ For older preschoolers: Add a second die to encourage the addition of numbers. You’ll need 12 tin foil moon rocks.

⬇️ For younger toddlers: Make the tin foil moon rocks larger and your bin larger to make the challenge of throwing the moon rocks into the bin a bit easier — they’re still practicing their coordination skills!