Pebble alien landing

Create a scenario of pebble creatures which is fun in itself or a great hook for children to explore further activities.

Introduction

Creating a scenario like this alien crash-landing can help children engage and explore a natural environment.

An activity such as this is ideal to introduce children to an outdoor area, to provide ideas for simple play and to help them gain confidence. Or it could be introduced further into a project to reinvigorate creative play, possibly giving you a theme to observe specific learning that occurs during the child led play that is stimulated by the theme such as communication or maths.

* Muddy Faces actively promotes child-led outdoor play & learning. We recognise and believe in the curiosity that children have and their drive to explore and discover. We hope that you will bear this in mind when considering more prescribed activities like this one – often much more creative ideas will occur if resources are simply provided and children are given the time and space to explore independently.

What you'll need

pebbles
plastic containers/bottles
tin foil/silver paper
natural materials
pens
(eye stickers or non-toxic water based pigment)
imagination!

This activity has been provided by

Useful items from our shop

Item available from our shop

Environmental Considerations

Consider the environmental impact of preparing, carrying out & completing this activity. Could this impact be reduced? Specific considerations for this activity could include:

leave no trace
use non-toxic water based pigment for marking on pebbles

Health & Safety Considerations

Follow your usual operating procedures and carry out appropriate risk benefit assessments.
Some considerations particular to this activity include:

Preparing the scene:

Create a space craft. If you are doing this as a surprise activity for your group, this is your time to play and be as creative as you like! We cut out a milk container and covered it with foil/silver paper.

Choose a crash-landing site. This can be anywhere – against the back of a building, behind some play equipment, in the park or woods.

Make your aliens. Place some pebble aliens in the spacecraft and place it in position. How about a scattering of crash debris?

Setting the scene:

This can be done in different ways and needs to be age/ability appropriate. It’s quite easy to spook children as they can have very creative imaginations so consider your words and actions. It can be a tricky balance between making something exciting and going too far.

You could say the locals/caretaker heard some strange noises, sightings and smells. Invite the group to investigate and see if they can find any evidence of anything unusual.

Allow the children to explore and find out what could be making the strange noises. Observe what they say and how they react when they make their discovery.

Anything could happen next…

Promote discussion: Why have the aliens crashed? I wonder where they have the come from? What do they eat? How are they going to get home? Do they want to go home?

Following the children’s interests could also lead to all sorts of scenarios. The children involved in these photos fed the aliens with seasonal goodies, made shelters, balanced them on sticks and made a playground.

Further adult-led props and hooks:

Earpiece:
We needed to interpret and understand what the alien pebbles were communicating. A stick was used as an interpreting earpiece to help translate; the rest is up to the imagination!

Hatchery:
Go miniature and introduce a pebble alien hatchery.

We washed some egg shells and put the baby aliens in them.

Take it further:

This scenario is the perfect hook for pebble alien maths activities. Check out Pebble creature maths.

Disclaimer: Muddy Faces cannot take any responsibility for accidents or damage that occurs as a result of following this activity.You are responsible for making sure the activity is conducted safely.