How to Make an Asteroid Catching Game

Making the Game Board

Draw some outer space designs on your black cardstock sheet. Put your black paper sheet on a smooth, flat surface, like a table. Grab some crayons and decorate it with things you can find in outer space, like asteroids, comets, stars, planets, or galaxies. Use your imagination and have fun. You can make your Asteroid Catching game board look however you like! You can also decorate with the outer space stickers that came with your kit.

Cut out the lid of the cardboard box your kit came in. Use scissors to cut out the top part of the Asteroid Game box lid. Sit at a table while you work. Be very careful when using the scissors! If you’re having trouble cutting through the cardboard, ask a grownup to help you. Always ask permission before using scissors.

Glue the cardstock sheet to the box lid to make a game board. Turn over the decorated sheet of cardstock and swipe some glue all over the back with your glue stick. Press the cardstock sheet down on the cardboard piece that you cut out to make it stick. Now your game board is ready to go!

Creating the Asteroids

Cut out 14 small pieces of silver tissue paper with scissors. Get the piece of silver tissue that came with your kit and cut it up into 14 pieces. Don’t worry about making the pieces nice and neat. You’ll be crumpling them up to make asteroids. You can make the pieces different sizes if you want, but make sure at least 7 of them are big enough to wrap up your mini magnets.

Wrap 7 mini magnets in silver tissue to make asteroids. Bundle up 7 of your magnets in tissue so that they look like little space rocks. Try to wrap the tissue around tight enough so that the magnets don’t fall out easily.Did you know? Asteroids come in many different shapes and sizes, and they can also be made of different things. Some asteroids are made of stone and clay, and others are made of metals, like nickel and iron. These metals can stick to magnets!

Crumple up 7 more pieces of tissue to make asteroids without magnets. Now, take the pieces of tissue that are left over and roll or crumple them up. Try to make them look like asteroids, too. Mix up all your asteroids together so that the magnetic ones are mixed in with the non-magnetic ones.

Building the Rockets

Stick a mini magnet into each rocket eraser. Grab your 2 rocket erasers and turn them over so you can see the hole in the bottom, where the top of a pencil would go. Push a mini magnet into the hole in each eraser.

Twist a tiny eyehook screw into the top of each rocket. The eyehook screws look like little screws with loops at the top. Take the pointy end of a screw and push it into the top of a rocket eraser. Then, twist it clockwise (to the right) until just the loop is sticking out of the top of the eraser. Do it again with your other eraser. If you’re not sure how to get the screw to go in, ask a grownup to help you.

Tie a string onto each eyehook screw. Pull the end of a piece of string through the loop at the top of one of your eraser rockets. Tie a knot in the string to attach it to the loop, or ask a grownup to show you how. Then, tie a string onto your other rocket. When you hold the other end of the string, your rocket should hang with the open side down.

Attach the other end of each string to a craft stick. Take the other end of one of the strings and wrap it around the end of a craft stick, then tie a knot to make it stay. If you’re not sure how, ask a grownup to help you. Do the same thing with your other rocket and string. Now you will have 2 dangly asteroid-catching rocket tools. They will look sort of like fishing poles with rockets instead of hooks!

Playing the Game

Spread the asteroids out on the game board. Take the tissue asteroids you made and scatter them around all over the game board. Mix them up a bit so you can’t tell which ones have magnets inside and which ones don’t.

Swing the rockets over the board to try and catch the asteroids. Grab your asteroid catching rockets and dangle them over the board. Watch what happens when the rockets get close to the asteroids!Did you know? The same force that makes magnets stick together can also push them apart! Do you see any of the asteroids trying to “run away” from your rocket? What happens if you try to push them together? Do all of the asteroids stick to your rockets? If not, why do you think that is? How close does the rocket have to be to make the asteroids move? How do the asteroids move when the rocket gets close to them? Do they all move the same way?

Try to catch as many asteroids as you can in 10 seconds. Now it’s time for a challenge! Ask a grownup to start a timer for 10 seconds or time you with a stopwatch. How many asteroids can you pick up before your time runs out? Can you catch more than one asteroid at once with one rocket? How many asteroids can one rocket hold?

Project Completed! Enjoy your new asteroid catching game.