Out of this world space unit fun!
I have been working very hard with
this year.
Very hard.
I mean…
have I told you how hard I have been working?
I know you understand what I am writing.
The trouble with all my work is…
I have been going days without taking pictures of our learning fun.
That isn’t a good thing because I love to send my parents pictures of their little ones learning.
Oiy!
I mean, we are doing some fun stuff here people!
My favorite week of the whole school year, SPACE, was last week.
It was awesome…
incredible…
and OUT of this World.
To start the week, my
jot down pictures of what we THINK.
We draw pictures of the The Sun, The Moon, Earth, and stars.
This lets me know what my students already KNOW about space.
Then, I break this week into 5 days.
Day One: The Sun
On day one, we learn about the The Sun. Since I want my students to KNOW that The Sun is a star, we make suns and we use this key phrase on our art.
We talk about how we see the rays from the Sun, but they are not actually there. {I have mixed feelings about my students using the rays to make their Suns, but overall it is their art and their minds at work. I make sure to point out over and over again how the rays are not actually there in our nonfictional reading.}
During our daily 5 time, we use these Write Me Three boxes to write some facts about the sun. This student wrote:
The Sun is hot.
The Sun is a star.
The Sun is up.
Day Two: The Moon
On day two, we talked about the moon.
The main idea for this day is…
We take cups of white paint and mix in black to make gray. I let them mix the colors themselves because they love it. Plus, when kinders DO they REMEMBER. Then we trace circles onto black paper and paint that circle with our gray paint. And we paint it thickly. Then we make craters in the thick paint.
It looks hard, but we take small suction cups to make the circles. Here is what they look like dry.
We have to take some time to write about what we learned…
The moon is a rock.
The moon is a sphere.
And the moon is little.
This student wrote that the moon was little, then a friend next to him said, “The moon isn’t little.” This friend said, “It is little because the Sun is big.” Perspective is everything.
Day Three: The Earth
On day three, we talk about Earth. And we make an Earth.
But we also have to talk about the other planets. It is so hard to see all the other planets and their shapes, colors, and sizes from a book,
so we have to use the hands on approach.
At our tables, we take planets and arrange them in order from the sun.
The shape of the planets is there, so matching the shape to the name is much easier.
Then we write the planets names using this sheet.
My favorite activity is when we make constellations.
And I throw in a How to Make a Star guide since my students never know how to make a star.
At the end of the week,
we draw what we KNOW about space on the same sheet
we drew what we thought from day one.
Check out this I THINK, I KNOW sheet.
{See why that sun drives me insane???}
I love this sheet because it shows their learning in a kinder friendly way.
And they love to SEE what they learned too!
Integrating Art
We also make these rockets…
and make them into book covers for our Space books.
I add pages to the book for each topic we complete,
the Sun writing is close to the Sun art,
then the moon, then the Earth, etc.
And I love crossing our themed unit over to other subjects.
We used the space theme to write our numbers to 100…
and this is a freebie you can grab and use.
I also added this game this year…
We desperately needed to practicing sounding out and writing words.
This activity was PERFECT for us in Word Work.
And we loved using this We are in Space reader
for Read to Self and Read to Others.
I hope you were able to grab some ideas to make SPACE more engaging in your classroom.
Here is my unit.
And a break down of some of the awesome printables you can grab.
And all the lesson plans I use.
Your space week looked awesome! Just look at all that learning your kiddos did. I really like the "write me three" boxes. What a great way to record students learning.
Kelly
Lattes and Lunchrooms
Great space unit! I love your write me three organizers and the cute space books that your class made! Thanks so much for the freebie 100s chart!
I pinned your Moon page! Definitely making some moon craters like that! Thanks for all the great ideas!
Learning at the Teacher Table