Star Wars grabs some people by the heart and pulls you right into another universe. Once you are touched, it is difficult to return to our world. Filled with heroes, bad guys, love, tragedy, and female characters that are the epitome of resilience, I was hooked from the first time I watched it.
Just as some families are inducted into a long love of all things Disney, football, or music, mine will be introduced to Star Wars. Remember this is the mom who made her son’s first Halloween costume be Yoda. We had planned our first introduction through a “May the Fourth Be With You” party which included watching Star Wars (the New Hope) as well as educational and fun activities. The activities included here can be used to plan out your own Star Wars Day.
Mommy University Presents
Create Your Own Star Wars Day
Make Your Own Lightsabers
This project requires strong fine motor skills and coordination and a little dose of creativity. Supplies needed include: pool noodles, grey duct tape, black electrical tape, and silver duct tape (mine was purchased at Target). First, I cut the pool noodles in half with a serrated knife. Then I wrapped one end of the pool noodle with the grey duct tape about 8-9 inches to be a base. At this point, I let my creativity have fun. I rotated the black tape, with silver, and grey using different patterns.
Jedi Training
Just as Luke needed training from Obi Wan Kenobi, your young Padawans will as well. Equip each Padawan with their own lightsaber. Have them practice using their lightsaber and have fun at the same time! Blow bubbles in the backyard and have them pop them using the lightsaber. You can have the children work in teams where one blows the bubbles and the other swats them down. It is easy to make this challenge more difficult, by having them use one hand or blindfolded as they have to use the force. This activity is fun and helps work on gross motor skills as well as coordination.
Rescue the Princess
The first step is to pick up some white balloons. The size and number of balloons will depend on your budget, number of guests and the size of living room or backyard. Next, you can draw your own version of a stormtrooper on them and have your Padawans rescue Princess Leia. If you pick up inflated balloons, you can have them weighted down by tying them to rolled up cardboard or if outdoors pin them into the ground with a golf tee. Offer the kids different tasks or challenges or, as I did since my kids are young, let them run around the yard and just have fun hitting the stormtroopers. This is a great activity to help develop gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
Make Your Own Planet
I look for activities that will encourage my children to use their imagination. I recommend doing this project first because it does require some time for the planets to dry. You will need markers, coffee filters, spray bottle filled with water, white crayons, star stickers and black construction paper. Ask each child if they could imagine a planet in the universe and how they would describe it. What would the ecosystem be like? What kind of animals would live there? What would it look like?
When they are done describing their planet, invite them to color the coffee filter you placed in front of them using the markers. Then spray each planet with water and let dry. As the “planets” are drying, have the children decorate the black construction paper with white crayons, glitter, star stickers, or any other decorations you can think of to represent outer space. When the planet is dry, adhere it to the construction paper using glue.
Death Star Planetarium
While most of the suggestions included on this list are made from scratch, I always enjoy having a high quality item. In this case, Uncle Milton has a wonderful collection called Star Wars Science which will be expanded this Fall! We were lucky to receive a complimentary Death Star Planetarium to review. The integration of science and pop culture transforms the standard planetarium into a unique opportunity for academic learning.
By removing the cover of the Death Star, our solar system is revealed. Children can look for many stars and constellations. However, there is another layer underneath that is the Galaxy which contains all the regions and specific planets in the Star Wars universe. This is perfect for the upcoming summer where we can capitalize on late summer night stargazing. We have enjoyed referring to the Death Star Planetarium during our Star Wars Day party and look forward to further investigation.
Read Books!
If you are raising a Star Wars fan or just planning on inducting them on the Jedi path, then reading books is a great strategy to develop a love of reading. My children have been able to identify some of the characters because of the books but since they love reading this is always a cherished time. Since my childhood there has been a huge expansion of Star Wars related books to include a younger audience. Here are a few books we have enjoyed in our home (we included affiliate links to make purchasing easier):
- Star Wars ABC from Scholastic
- Star Wars Classics Sticker Books from DK publishing
- LEGO Star Wars: These Aren’t the Droids You’re Looking For
- Star Wars Workbooks (preschool through 2nd grade)
Food Accessories
If you are a Star Wars fan and want to take the festivities to another level, it is easy to offer Galaxy inspired snacks. It can be as easy as renaming the food such as “Darth Tater Chips” or “Princess Leia” for potato chips. It can be printing some labels for food found from Pinterest. It could also be making a special cake or ordering one such as our R2D2 cake made by Carvel.
Hopefully, the Star Wars Day festivities has encouraged a love of all things Star Wars so that we can continue to explore additional activities. Technically, Yoda wasn’t introduced into The Empire Strikes Back so I have to do another Star Wars Day (and let’s not forget the Ewoks).
More ideas?
Check out our Facebook page for photos of our Star Wars Day celebration which also included lots of party ideas. As well, we have a lot of ideas in our Star Wars Pinterest board!
Gina B
And Padawan Training makes for a perfect phys ed section I LOVE this post!!
Jessica Lopa
Thanks Gina! That would definitely be fun in gym class!
Julia
This is such a fun idea for a day! We love Star Wars!
colleen kennedy
You have nooo idea who I live with….My husband is a SW nut! He would throw a party using some of your great ideas on a Tuesday if he could!
Jessica Lopa
I bet he would love to make his own light saber out of pool noodles:)