Aluminum Foil Moon Craft

It’s not easy to come up with an art project for the moon that my 4-years-old and my 6-year- old would enjoy. This aluminum foil moon craft hit the sweet spot where it’s fun for my first grader but not too difficult for my preschooler.

Before tackling the foil moon art project, we read about the moon from Look Inside Space. We have already been learning about how craters are formed on the moon with the making moon craters on moon sand activity. 

Time for some tin foil printing! Using aluminum foil makes this moon craft a great sensory experience for the kids with its unique texture, reflective, shiny surface, and crinkling sound. I will also give you some options for painting around the foil moon to make it more realistic.

Tin Foil Moon Craft  and Painting for Kids

Materials:

• Aluminum foil
• Black construction paper
• Various coins
• Scissors
• Glue
• Optional: Acrylic paint and paintbrushes

Instructions:

1. Draw a circle on the aluminum foil
2. Cut out the circle.
3. Slightly crinkle up the aluminum foil circle. 
4. Carefully open the aluminum foil and flatten it out. 
   
5. Place a coin underneath the foil and press around the edges of the coin. 
   
6. Repeat with as many coins as you would like.
7. Flip the foil circle over, and you have moon craters!
   
8. If you opt not to paint, you can simply glue the foil moon on a black construction paper. Draw stars or the Earth if you wish!
   
9. Optional: Paint the moon glow:
   
   1. To make a warmer glow, use white and blue acrylic paints. For a colder glow, use white and black acrylic paints. The steps are the same for both, so I will explain using white and blue colors.
   2. Paint a ring with the white paint the size of your moon. 
   3. Lightly blend the blue with the white to create a light blue ring outside the white ring.
   4. Continue to add more blue and blend as you work outward from the moon.
10. Glue the aluminum foil moon in the middle of the white ring.

My kids loved working with the foil. It was their first time playing with it so at first, they were just curious and kept crinkling it up and opening it back up. Then they realized how fragile it was and that you could easily rip it, so they were more careful with their foil moons. 

Making moon craters with the coins was also super fun. If you look closely, you could see the imprint of the faces of the coins on the aluminum foil. They thought that was so amusing!

I am not a professional painter, so I know that the glow isn’t perfect. But it’s easy enough for kids to follow the steps and make their own glow. 

If you wish, you can paint some stars or use star stickers to create a starry sky. I wanted to use up the leftover white and blue paint so I drew some distant light blue stars.

What do you think? I think it actually looks like a real moon with the craters and the bumpy surface. It’s a easy moon craft that kids can easily do to learn more about the moon. 

More moon activities:

• Bake yummy moon bread
• Make craters on the moon
• 2-ingredient moon sand