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DIY astronaut glove box

8 Comments Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade

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As part of our space unit, we had the fun opportunity to visit a local NASA museum. The museum was small – nothing like the large NASA museum in Houston that I would love to take my kids to – but we still enjoyed a couple of hours there one afternoon.

One of the exhibits my kids enjoyed the most was focused on life in the International Space Station. That exhibit included a glove box, which is a special box astronauts and scientists use to study (1) objects that may be harmful to humans if handled directly or (2) objects that may be damaged if touched directly by human hands.

I wanted to give my kids a better understanding of the glove box and its role in scientific research. So I figured, what better way to help them understand the glove box than to build one of our own?

Note: For more space-related activities, see my Space Unit Study page. 

Make your own astronaut glove box to show kids how astronauts and scientists study moon rocks and other specimens in space. || Gift of Curiosity

To build our glove box, we began by cutting the lid flaps off of a cardboard box.

Make your own astronaut glove box to show kids how astronauts and scientists study moon rocks and other specimens in space. || Gift of Curiosity

We then lined the bottom of the box with duct tape. We did this in anticipation of putting some damp materials into the box, but you can skip this step if you only plan to put dry items inside.

Make your own astronaut glove box to show kids how astronauts and scientists study moon rocks and other specimens in space. || Gift of Curiosity

We then cut two holes on either side of the box. Make sure you make the holes large enough for your kids to fit their hands through. But you also want them small enough that you can tape your gloves to them in the next step.

Make your own astronaut glove box to show kids how astronauts and scientists study moon rocks and other specimens in space. || Gift of Curiosity

Next, we found a pair of unused rubber cleaning gloves. (We used some adult-size gloves, but in hindsight I wish we had used our kid-size craft gloves instead.)

We placed the gloves through the holes we had cut, making sure to position them properly for little hands to be inserted into them. By this I mean you want to make sure to put the left glove in the left hole and the right glove in the right hole. You’ll also want to be sure you point the thumbs inwards and maybe slightly up so the hand position will feel natural when kids insert their hands in the gloves.

We used duct tape to form a complete seal on the outside of the box where the gloves went in. My kids and I talked about why having a complete seal was important to scientists and astronauts.

Make your own astronaut glove box to show kids how astronauts and scientists study moon rocks and other specimens in space. || Gift of Curiosity

This is what our glove box looked like once we had our gloves connected to it.

Make your own astronaut glove box to show kids how astronauts and scientists study moon rocks and other specimens in space. || Gift of Curiosity

The last step to complete our box was to fill it with the objects to be manipulated and then cover it with plastic wrap so the kids could see what they were doing but not grab the materials except by inserting their hands into the gloves.

Make your own astronaut glove box to show kids how astronauts and scientists study moon rocks and other specimens in space. || Gift of Curiosity

In the picture below, I put rocks, markers, bowls, and magnifying glasses into the glove box. My kids and I pretended that the rocks were moon rocks, and I gave them the task of looking at the rocks, labeling the rocks, and then sorting the rocks into their respective bowls.

They really took on the role of astronaut scientists very well with this activity, and had a lot of fun with it. They used the markers to make spots on the rocks, and began telling me that the rocks were contaminated with mold (even though they know that no such contamination was found on the real moon rocks). They were laughing so hard during this activity that I couldn’t help but smile.

Make your own astronaut glove box to show kids how astronauts and scientists study moon rocks and other specimens in space. || Gift of Curiosity

Building a glove box was a great way for my kids to learn more about how scientists works, and they got to emulate the astronauts who studied the first moon rocks back in 1969.

More resources for learning about space

More space-related posts from Gift of Curiosity:

  • Space Printables Pack
  • How do astronauts eat in space?
  • Astronaut Do-a-Dot Printables
  • Montessori phases of the moon activities
  • How did the moon get its craters?
  • Recording the Earth’s rotation with shadows
  • How planets orbit the sun
  • Constellation craft for kids
  • Solar system 3-part cards


You’ll find more resources for learning about life in space on my Space Unit Study page and my Space and the Solar System Pinterest board.

Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity’s board Unit Ideas: Space & the Solar System on Pinterest.

Products mentioned in this post:

Filed Under: Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, Science, STEAM, Space Tagged With: astronauts

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Reader Interactions

8 Comments

  1. Jennifer

    April 24, 2015 at 7:24 am

    I am enjoying many of the hands on activities with my preschoolers

    Reply to this comment
    • Katie SG

      April 24, 2015 at 10:30 am

      So glad you are finding fun ideas for your preschoolers!

      Reply to this comment
  2. Julie - Being Home

    April 29, 2015 at 8:17 pm

    This is genius! LOVE it! My little guy loves to learn anything about space exploration and science. This glove box is an excellent idea and something I am sure I will implement soon in our studies. Thank you so much for sharing. 😀

    Reply to this comment
  3. Ashley

    May 6, 2015 at 4:48 am

    My kids would love this! Featured you on Mom’s Library this week!

    Reply to this comment
  4. Ameera

    February 24, 2016 at 11:18 pm

    Wow LOVE it >>> super idea
    my kids goanna love it

    thank you
    I will use it to introduce letter G g ” Gloves “

    Reply to this comment
  5. Kelly

    January 9, 2018 at 3:00 pm

    I made this for our classroom and it was a HUGE hit! Thank you!

    Reply to this comment
  6. Tracy Nelson

    April 11, 2018 at 7:39 pm

    I’m planning to use this at our girl scout day camp. We are doing a Jurassic Girl theme. The girls will be pulling their dinosaur eggs from the Dino goo (orbeez), they’ll go into the incubator (glove box) to hatch, clean (in small bowls of water), and It will include a fan inside one end for drying the Dino’s!!! , They will then research what dinosaur they hatched. They’ll then make a “birth certificate,” the Dino’s in the eggs actually have a stamp on the bottom, so they can put their print on the certificate! They’ll follow up by making a”habitat” according to the need of their type dinosaur, including what kind of food they’ll eat!!! I cannot wait to do this!!!

    Reply to this comment
    • Katie

      April 12, 2018 at 8:30 am

      This sounds like a wonderful idea. I hope your girl scouts enjoy!

      Reply to this comment

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I help parents who are transitioning into homeschooling shed old mindsets and embrace their homeschooling superpowers so they can create a homeschool they love where their children will thrive.

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