If you liked my solar system cards from a couple weeks ago, I’m hoping you’ll like these free, printable, 3-part Montessori-style universe cards as well. Before too long, I plan to make some space exploration cards to go along with these sets, so be sure to sign up for my newsletter if you’re interested in being notified when they are available.
These universe cards feature space terms outside our solar system such as “black hole,” “pulsar,” and “brown dwarf” as well as actual space structures like the Helix nebula and Andromeda Galaxy. When making these cards, I mainly used the National Geographic Space Encyclopedia for reference.
The following universe-related vocabulary words are included:
- universe
- Big Bang
- Milky Way Galaxy
- Andromeda Galaxy
- black hole
- neutron star
- Eagle Nebula
- Cat’s Eye Nebula
- Crab Nebula
- Carina Nebula
- Helix Nebula
- Oort Cloud
- star
- galaxy
- constellation
- nebula
- supernova
- pulsar
- quasar
- globular cluster
- dark matter
- gamma ray bursts
- white dwarf
- brown dwarf
As with the solar system cards, my kids had fun playing with these universe cards even though they are pretty young. My older son is learning to sound out words, so he was able to match label cards to the pictures with some help. For example, I’ll say, “This card shows a picture of the universe (or Milky Way galaxy/pulsar/supernova/etc). Which card do you think goes with it?” He’s not 100% reading, but he can usually figure it out, especially using the control cards to compare. My preschooler likes to match the picture cards to the same picture on the control cards. Older kids could use these cards as a Montessori-style self-correcting activity to test their own knowledge or they could be used for a multi-player, memory-style matching game.
Recommended Age Range: Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle School, High School
Time Required: ~1 hour
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Less than $3 in used supplies (Even cheaper if you don’t laminate them or use contact paper instead.)
Materials:
- paper (for printing Universe Cards and the corresponding Control Cards)
- laminating pouches
Supplies & Tools:
- laminator (affiliate link)
- scissors or paper cutter
Instructions:
- Print the Universe Cards and Control Cards. (Note: Only the first 6 pages of each document should be printed as the last 2 pages contain legal information related to sharing and image sources.)
- Laminate the pages.
- Cut out laminated cards.
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Michelle has a PhD in Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor's Degree from the California Institute of Technology. 
These are very cool! I like that they get kids thinking beyond our solar system.
Thanks! It’s crazy to think about how small our solar system is compared to the grand scale of the universe. I’m sure my kids don’t get it. It’s mind-blowing to consider even for me.
Oh these look awesome!!! Thanks so much. I can’t wait to print these.
Thank you, Erin! I’m so glad you like them! I love your site and all the freedom you give your kids.
I am featuring this on our #laughlearnlinkup tomorrow! My daughter will love these cards. Thanks!
Thank you so much! I hope she likes them. :)
Wow these are great! Is there any way I could get the editable files? I need to translate them to French!
Hi, Leah. I’m very sorry. I made them in Photoshop. If you don’t already have Photoshop, they are not very easy to edit. I have translated them once before for a reader into Italian (too bad it wasn’t French!). If you want, you can email me the French text for each card and I’ll copy and paste it onto the cards in Photoshop, then send you the finished file. My email address is researchparent@researchparent.com
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for your reply. I sent you an email earlier this year but you never replied. Did you receive it? It was on January 22nd….my apologies for the delayed follow-up!
I would be happy to translate the cards myself as I do indeed have photoshop. I could then send you the file to make available on your site. Or if you would prefer, I could send you the translations and you could integrate them yourself. My email is Lmverghese[at]gmail.com.
Thanks again!
Leah
Hi Leah! I’m sorry…I meant to get all the files together to send you when I got your email, then I totally forgot! I’m writing it on my list of things to do right now…I should be able to send them to you by this weekend. Sorry again! Email me again on Monday if I forget, but I won’t forget! ;)
Thank you for sharing detailed information!!!!!
You’re very welcome! :)
We just used the Solar System cards and my 7yo and 2yo loved them. The 2yo loved looking at the pictures, but the 7yo learned so much. I can’t wait to see their excitement when I print these out!
Awww, I’m so glad! Thanks for sharing! :)