At PlusKids we explored the mysteries of outer space through the integrated project "The universe through a child's eyes" — a week in which the same theme ran through every activity of the day.
We discovered the planets and the Solar System, built rockets and "travelled" through galaxies. We solved logic games and maths challenges, invented intergalactic stories and practised free expression. The children were challenged to learn through play, to create, to work together and to daydream.
An integrated project has one advantage an isolated lesson does not: the child no longer jumps abruptly from maths to Romanian but stays in the same world and simply changes tools. The distance between planets becomes an exercise in large numbers, describing an invented civilisation becomes a vocabulary exercise, and building a model rocket becomes an exercise in measuring and in patience.
Space is, moreover, a generous topic precisely because it cannot be touched. You cannot take children on a field trip to Mars, so everything goes through models, drawings, stories and analogies — exactly the kind of thinking they will need later for any abstract notion.
The aims of the project were clear: developing imagination and creativity through artistic and language activities, improving maths skills through logic games, and understanding the Solar System through hands-on, interactive work.
About the after-school programme: https://pluskids.ro/en/after-school