Fun and Active Outer Space Themed Party

Blast off to a fun and active outer space themed party that your little one is sure to love. Create some birthday magic with this rocket party activities that are simple and easy to make.

I can’t resist an opportunity to make magic for the kids. 

They are only little once and still believe in all the things (Santa, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny), so I want to make events as special for them as I can. 

After Zoey’s epic Fairy Garden Tea Party, I was on a roll and threw together a 4th birthday rocket party for William. William requested just the family around to celebrate his birthday, so we kept it to just the five of us. For our little guy, who has always been a bit of a herding dog and quieter around lots of people, this was his dream come true. 

This post contains affiliate links.

Outer Space Themed Party Schedule 

Since it was just us, our outer space themed party schedule was pretty loose. I had a general order of things, but we kept it very flexible. If we were going to have friends over for a party, this is the schedule I would follow:

1. Wear jetpack and color rocket ship printable
2. Moon rock hunt and open
3. Bounce house games
4. Space lunch
5. Rocket launcher 
6. Rocket bingo 
7. Additional coloring pages as needed

Jetpacks 

When I first started searching around for fun rocket party ideas, jetpacks kept popping up. I knew William would absolutely love one, but was very nervous about my skills to make one (and the materials I would have to gather to put it together). 

Seeing all three of the kids’ faces when they got to put on their jetpacks was worth staying up late a few nights before to do it. They absolutely loved them and wore them the entire day! 

I settled on combining two different methods for putting the jetpacks together.

Materials – This is enough to make three jetpacks 

• 6 Dasani water bottles
• White tissue paper
• 2, 8×11 sheets of red felt
• 2, 8×11 sheets of orange felt 
• 1, 8×11 sheet of yellow felt 
• 6 red solo cups
• Duct tape
• Hot glue gun
• Exacto knife 
• Thick ribbon
• Sharpie 

Directions to Make Your Own Jetpack

1. Empty and dry the water bottles and peel off the labels. (We drank the water ourselves throughout the week.) 
2. Fill each bottle with enough tissue paper to be full and not move around inside. 
3. Tape two water bottles together. 
4. Cut the bottom off of each red solo cup. 
5. Glue the cup to the open end of each water bottle. 
6. Cut the red, orange, and yellow felt pieces into flames and glue them together. Leave a little “neck” on the top of the red flame to use to tape inside your water bottles.
7. Tape each flame to the inside of the opening of each water bottle.
8. Tape ribbons onto the back of each water bottle to fit the child. I waited to do this last step until the kids were awake and I could measure the ribbon to fit them rather than guessing.

Rocket Ship Printables

We actually didn’t make it to this activity on William’s actual birthday, but I had it ready to go. Coloring in some rocket ship printables is an easy activity to do while party guests arrive, or while waiting for parents to pick up. 

I used the rocket ship printables the day after William’s birthday when we were all a little bit tired and needed a slower morning to wake up and reminisce about all the fun the day before was.

Moon Rock Hunt 

William’s outer space themed party had me really excited for all the different parts of it, but this moon rock hunt was probably my favorite. 

Rob and I stayed up a little late the night before and filled Easter eggs with a few little rocket related prizes. Then, we wrapped each easter egg in tinfoil to give them that moon rock effect.

For prizes inside the moon rocks, we used: 

• Mini Plush Toys – William loves little animals and stuffies that he can take care of in some small way. When I found these tiny guys that would fit in the larger Easter eggs, I couldn’t resist. They were a hit with all three kids (ages 6, 4, 2). 
• Glow in the dark stars – I put about 6 stars in each egg. 
• Lifesavers Gummies – We dubbed these “Saturn’s Rings” and the kids loved it. 

If you are comfortable doing more candy-related prizes, you could also do Starburst and mini Milky Ways.

The kids had a complete blast wearing their jetpacks and hunting for moon rocks in the backyard. They each had a paper bag to gather their rocks. 

When they finished the hunt, we sat on a blanket under our backyard tree while they opened each one. Those little stuffies were a serious win as they got so excited when a rock didn’t shake because they knew there was a stuffy in there. Smart kids.

Constellation Building

When they had opened every moon rock and waited for lunch, I had them build constellations with marshmallows and pretzel sticks. 

Truthfully, the marshmallows I got were too small for this activity (I had the mini ones). If you are going to do it, opt for the bigger marshmallows as you will be able to get the pretzel in further and have it keep shape.

You could extend this activity and make it a competition to the most creative constellation, or draw out a few simple constellations for the kids to copy with their materials.

Outer Space Theme Party Lunch 

William was so excited for a “space lunch”. Sure, you could go the astronaut ice cream route, but I knew William would not like it (and it is a little pricey!), so I opted for these space themed foods. 

Space lunch included: 

• Star shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – I just cut them out with a star cookie cutter. He probably would have loved this rocket cookie cutter, or this collection of space cookie cutters, but I didn’t have my act together in time to get them here.
• Sun chips
• Melon balls – We called these “planet melons” and the kids devoured them. I just used a melon baller to make them and even though they were not perfectly round, the kids still saw the magic of it all. 
• Pepper triangles – The theory was these were the fire of the rocket ship, or the dust trail on the star peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Either way, the peppers were eaten. 

Mood Mud Dessert 

I was all set to go with the standard cupcake route for a birthday dessert, but I wanted to do something a bit different for William’s rocket party. 

These dirt cups that I dubbed, “Moon Mud,” were a complete hit. In fact, I made entirely too much and the kids couldn’t finish their treats.

Moon Mud (or dirt cups) are so simple to make.

Ingredients: 

• 1 package instant chocolate pudding 
• Cold milk 
• Oreos 
• Cool whip 
• Gummy bears 

Directions to Make Moon Mud: 

1. Make the chocolate pudding according to package directions. 
2. Mix the cool whip and chocolate pudding together until you have desired taste. (I didn’t really measure here, just kind of eyeballed it and went by taste and texture.)
3. Crush oreos in a food processor until it resembles very coarse sand. 
4. Layer a cup with one layer pudding mix, one layer oreos until you reach the top. 
5. Place a few gummy bears, or, “Moon Men,” on top. 
6. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour before you serve.

Rocket Launcher 

We were gifted a rocket launcher a few years ago that the kids loved so much. An excellent birthday activity is to use the rocket launcher. The kids can spend quite some time reloading the launcher and seeing how high they can make the rockets go.

Space Bingo

As a wind down activity, or one for later in the afternoon, space bingo fits the bill. 

I used this version of space bingo and it was a hit. I used clear gems as bingo markers, but you could go with star shaped cereal for some added magic.

Other Outer Space Themed Party Ideas

I had a few more activities up my sleeve to do with the family for this rocket party, but we ran out of time. If you need some more ideas on what to do for the rocket party you are throwing, these should help.

Color your own rocket ship. 

Bounce house games. I was really hopeful we would get to this, but we didn’t. After putting some ballpit balls in teh bounce house, the kids would be tasked with a few games. 

1. Save the planet. Each kid is given a color to hunt for inside the bounce house filled with balls. Once they have all the colors, they win. 
2. Refuel. Placing a bucket a few steps away from the bounce house, the kids have to fill the bucket one ball at a time. Grab a ball inside the bounce house, run out to put it in the bucket, and run back in for another ball. 

Water guns you can use to save the planet

Astronaut men to find around the house (or yard), use as decorations, or a great party favor.

Sparklers. Know your audience and comfort level for these. William is generally more timid, so these would have freaked him out.

Coke and Mentos bottle rockets.

This fun and active outer space themed party was a complete hit for our family. William was just jumping for joy all day at every activity, the special lunch, and the games we got to play based on his favorite theme of rockets. I just love that I could make this kind of magic for our four year old.