Space word bank for KS1 and KS2

Space is taught across the whole primary range, and Litsee’s curriculum data links it to three statements: Year 5 science on how the Earth and planets move around the Sun, Year 5 science on how the Moon moves around the Earth, and KS1 history on significant individuals. That is why this page has a KS1 mat and a KS2 mat. Younger children need the names of things they can see in the sky and act out; older pupils need the vocabulary of movement and explanation.

Start with what children can see: the Sun by day, the Moon and stars at night. Ask them to draw the sky at bedtime for a week and bring it in; the different shapes of the Moon are a lovely puzzle to come back to in KS2. The movement verbs (blast off, float, zoom, land) work as a countdown game, and the adjectives are perfect for a night-sky poem.

For the history strand, astronaut is the key topic word. Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the Moon, in July 1969. Helen Sharman became the first British astronaut in space in 1991, and Tim Peake spent six months on the International Space Station in 2015 and 2016. Choosing two astronauts from different times and comparing them is a good KS1 history task: what was the same, and what changed?

In Year 5 the topic becomes precise, and two verbs carry it. The Earth rotates on its axis once a day, which gives us day and night. It orbits the Sun once a year. Pupils mix these up constantly, so act them out in the hall: one pupil is the Sun, another walks around them (orbit) while slowly spinning (rotate). Add a third pupil as the Moon, orbiting the Earth roughly once a month, and the whole Year 5 statement is in the room.

Three misconceptions are worth tackling head on. The Sun does not move across the sky; the Earth’s rotation makes it look that way. The Moon does not make its own light; it reflects light from the Sun, which is why we see different phases. And the Sun is a star, the closest one to us. Each of these makes a good “true or false?” starter, and pupils should answer with a word from the mat.

Gravity is the hardest topic word. The meaning in the word bank, the pull that keeps our feet on the ground, is the right starting point. In Year 5, pupils can extend it: gravity also keeps the Moon in orbit around the Earth and the planets in orbit around the Sun.

Pupils enjoy learning the order of the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. A class mnemonic, made up by the pupils, sticks better than a borrowed one. Rocky and gaseous on the KS2 mat let pupils sort them: the four inner planets are rocky, and the four outer ones are giants made mostly of gas or ice.

Space suits every kind of writing. KS1 pupils can write a postcard from the Moon. KS2 pupils can write a mission log, a newspaper report on a launch, or a science-fiction story that has to obey the science they have learned. A gentle space adventure that passes the planets in order on the way home shows how a story can carry real facts.