Right before the Thanksgiving break we finished studying all about Space. It is always one of my favorite things to teach and I was sad we had to squeeze it into less time than usual. :( But we still managed to do TONS of fun things. Check them out!
First we learned all about Earth and it's layers (plus volcanoes, geysers, etc... all that fun stuff) so we made these fun layers using an awesome recipe from First Grade Fanatics (thank you!)
Then we dove into the universe and learned all about each planet. After learning about each one and its place in the solar system and distance from the sun we made these fun posters to display in our hallway.
(Hint: The stars ("constellations" are just normal white paint put into a regular spray bottle, then sprayed on. Looks fantastic and it's so easy. You might need to dilute the paint.)
The kids were THRILLED to discover the planets magically hanging from our ceiling when they came to school mid-unit one day. You can't see in this picture, but each one is labeled on the ceiling. We practice singing their order and pointing to them and the kids just LOVE lining up under them. (Our song goes "Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, these are the planets and their order in our solar system" to the tune of One Little, Two Little Indians)
Each student all made their own Planet Booklet with a secret page. I'm not sure what the "true name" of this kind of book is, I just remember doing it when I was in school and thinking the secret page was the coolest thing ever.
Inside we drew and wrote about each of the planets.
Then last of all we took a Field Trip to the local Planetarium. We got to see "Perfect Little Planet" and it was a perfect culmination. The kids LOVED it and it was so educational.
Of course they had to play on the moon...
And on Mars...
And last of all we made Solar System Space Cookies. My wonderful student's parents provided all of the materials and the kids had a blast.
Here's what one from last year turned out like.
Leave me a comment and post a link to what you do for space, I always love to get great new ideas!
PS - My giftcard giveaway is STILL going on! I just posted it on Facebook and was thrilled to see that TeachersNotebook is going to match my $10 giftcard giveaway. What was going to be $10 has now doubled and is $20. Can beat that! It's free! So hurry and check out my previous post already.