Science Unit: our complete Solar System study

We have had an incredibly fun journey into space over the past month (actually a little longer because of the sick days in between!). Here are the highlights of our trip:

~ Boy did we read books! We read a whole collection of books on space, from easy picture books to space encyclopedias. We usually read the more basic books out loud together, so that the material was more accessible to Damian. Then I put the more complex reading in Rylan’s workboxes for him to read on his own. If he had questions, we discussed it together during my one on one time with him. He also reads the more complex books with his Dad during bed time (he stays up a little later than Damian these days). Here are some of the books we read, Amazon limits you to 10 items per carousel, so I couldn’t fit them all in without turning this post into a long series of book lists! :)

~ We also watched several DVDs:

• Bill Nye the Science Guy: The Planets
• Bill Nye the Science Guy: The Sun
• Bill Nye the Science Guy: The Moon
• Eyewitness The Planets

~ We read the Magic School Bus book about the Solar System, watched the related DVD, and then completed all the experiments/activities in the Magic School Bus: The Secrets of Space science kit. You can see a couple of these below (most of them involved flashlights and therefore being in dim light, so I did not take many pictures):

 

{build your own telescope and solar system model}

~ To learn about the phases of the moon, or the lunar phases we built and used this model and read up about it on wikipedia, which also has a very cool animation of the lunar phases. For a tutorial on how to make this model, look at this post.

~ We put this solar system puzzle together.

~ As with all our unit styled studies, we keep all the books and manipulatives (that can be reused) from our learning in our “feature study” area. You can see in the picture below all the books, posters, lacing cards, roll a rocket game, space songs, puzzles, lunar model, earth orbit model, etc. The boys are encouraged to use this material throughout the duration of the unit (for more on our school room layout see this post).

~ I created several sensorial tubs and activities which I spread out over the course of the month. With the tubs, I left them put together for a couple of weeks each, so they could revisit the tubs and play.

{tub contains: rice base, “space” letter cookie cutters, star and moon cookie cutters, a mini earth globe, star bursts, black pompoms, “moon rocks”, sparkly star and moon paper cut outs, rocket ships, and the contents of the Safari space tube}

{tub contains: moon sand base (I could only find green and yellow when I went shopping for moon sand, would not have been my first choice, but worked none the less), mini ax and rock mould, magnifying glass, rocks made from moon dough, cookie cutters, and the contents of the Safari space tub.}

{space playdough play}

~ I used the A is for astronaut pack materials from Spell Outloud for Damian (I laminated them, and used stick on magnets at the back of each item so they could be used on our white boards and the fridge).

~ Damian did this A is for Astronaut do-a-dot sheet from Making Learning Fun.

~ Rylan completed various worksheets and coloring pages in his workboxes throughout the course of our study, here are some examples:

• Space word jumble
• Space word search
• Space crossword
• The planets coloring sheet
• Rocket coloring sheet
• Planet word search
• Dover Coloring Book: Exploring the Solar System
• Writing practice:

~ We put together a glow in the dark solar system, stuck it to the ceiling with putty, closed the blinds to make the room dark, laid down on the floor, and “star gazed” up at the ceiling (we did real star gazing in Hawaii, but here in a big city it is not so easy, especially when the sun sets after the boy’s bedtime these days!).

~ In trying to bring more music into all our learning time, we listened to the classical CD, The Planets, by composer Gustav Holst. While listening we discussed the Roman/Greek gods that the planets had been named after, and how the music conveyed the characteristics of these gods.

~ I used parts of the Astronaut preschool pack from Homeschool Creations for Damian. Both boys especially loved singing the “Climb About the Spaceship” song, which we added actions to and sang many times to begin our day’s exploration.

~ I also used a few of the activities from this pack for Damian.

~ I made this earth lacing card for the boys to use (found the earth picture on Google images). Make sure to laminate or stick your picture onto cardboard (actually I did both), so it is sturdy enough for lacing.

~ To help the boys understand and visualize how the earth rotates on its axis and orbits around the sun, giving us day and night and the seasons, we made this model, which they could manipulate themselves to get a sense of how it all works.  They wanted to add the moon on to it too, the second picture shows that addition. For a tutorial on how to put this together go to this post (it also explains other activities we did to reinforce this concept using a globe and flashlight).

~ I created this solar system concentration/match up game for the boys to play with. You can download the cards from here, and read about how we used them in this post.

~ We created a large scale model of the solar system on our reading room floor. We used planet cut outs, yarn to create the rings of orbit, black pompoms to create the asteroid belt, and at the end the boys added labels to each planet.

~ Of course we had to build rocket ships! We built two different kinds, at different times during the month long study. The boys built both set of rockets entirely by themselves:

{To make: paper towel roll, sheet of paper for tips, construction paper wings, tissue paper streamers. Put together with tape and decorate.}

{Idea for these from Kid Craft Weekly}

~ The boys drew solar systems using rainbow scratch paper.

~ Rylan created his own constellations on black construction paper, and wrote his own mythical stories behind their names.

~ Just for fun, the boys wanted to play with this “galactic ooze” that we found at our local teacher resource center. :)

~ Websites we visited together:

• Kidsastronomy.com
• NASA kids
• NASA solar system exploration

We plan to visit a planetarium this summer, otherwise, that’s a wrap (hope I remembered it all!). Happy space exploration!

Learning about the lunar/moon phases (tutorial)

We were supposed to be out attending some of the fun Earth Day events around the city, but alas our entire family is nursing a nasty cold. This has certainly been a winter of illness for us. I guess a new place, a new winter climate, we were bound to be hit badly, but this has been really bad!

Enough about our misery…onto lunar phases. This is another item I put together as a part of our solar system study (check out this post and this post to see some other highlights, summary still to come). This model illustrates the lunar phases – you can rotate the top piece around to view the different phases of the moon through the peek “window”. It was easy enough to put together and the boys have enjoyed using it. Here’s what you need to put it together:

~ two cardboard circles

~ pictures of the moon phases (I got mine from Google images under “lunar phases”)

~ A folder clip

~ Label (optional)

Here’s how to do it:

~ Cut out and stick the lunar phase pictures around the edge of the first circle.

~ Cut out a “window” to fit your pictures on the second circle.

~ Poke a hole through the center of both circles, and bind together with a folder clip that allows the circles to rotate, so the different phases can be viewed through the “window”. ~ Add a label on the top circle, if desired. And it’s done!

To my Baha’i friends – Happy Ridvan! To my Christian friends – Happy Easter! To my Jewish friends – Happy Passover! To all – have a great weekend celebrating with your families and friends!

This has been added to: Preschool Corner & 5K too! and Show and Tell.

Tutorial: making a model to illustrate the earth’s orbit around the sun

Right now we are studying the solar system together. We plan to spend about a month focusing on it (we continue with our regular work during this time too). We have books, DVDs, experiments, crafts, sensory tubs, model making, space playdoh, games, puzzles, stickers, etc, etc lined up for our space exploration.

When we have completed the entire month of learning I will share a summary of all we covered, however, in the meantime I will be sharing from time to time the “how to” of some specific aspects of this exploration as we do them. Here is the first one:

To help the boys understand and visualize how the earth rotates on its axis and orbits around the sun, giving us day and night and the seasons, I made this model, which they could manipulate themselves to get a sense of how it all works.

We also used our globe and a flashlight (to represent the light coming from the sun) and took turns being the earth and the sun. The boys thought this was pretty fun.

I used cardboard to make the sun and earth (colored with markers) and the strip holding them together. I attached it all using those bending folder clips (I am not sure if they have an official name?), because they allow you to rotate the objects that you clip together.

After showing the boys this model, Rylan felt we should add the moon, so we could make it orbit around earth, so we did!

And after all was said and done, Damian took the model and used it as a “moon craft” rolling on three different sized wheels! :)

This has been added to: Show and Tell and Preschool Corner & 5K too!

Making dream catchers craft ~ part of our North American Continent study

I promised to post about how we made the dream catchers for our North American study craft. This was a fun craft and actually very easy to prepare for (on my part) and to make (for the boys). So, here goes:

What you need:

~ paper plates

~ a hole punch

~ string/yarn (or even leather strips if you prefer)

~ beads (optional)

~ feathers

How to put it together:

Start by cutting out the center of your paper plate (at this point you could color or paint the paper plate, if you wanted to add more color to your dream catcher).

Then punch holes around the edge of the paper plate.

Take your piece of string (make it relatively long) and tie it to one of the holes, then start to make a web by lacing the string through the different holes around the plate (I used white string, because it is what I had on hand at the time, but you could use colored string or yarn, or even leather strips). During this stage you can add beads on the string if you want to add a little more color to the “web” of string.

Once you are happy with the string pattern you have made, tie off the string in the hole adjacent to where you started, so you can loop the two ends together to make a hanging hook for your dream catcher.

Punch three additional holes at the bottom of the dream catcher. Tie short strips of string here, so they hang down from the bottom of the dream catcher. Decorate with beads if you like, then tie a feather on the end, knot off to complete and hold the beads and feather in place.

And you’re done!

This has been added to: Preschool Corner & 5K too and Show and Tell.