3, 2, 1...Blast Off!!

One of my favorite units for science is our space unit.  We have so much fun turning our room into the universe.  I use several resources for this unit, but my favorite is Out of This World by KinderLit. First we brainstormed a list of what we thought we knew about space.  Then we created a class book to go with the poem I Looked in the Sky and What Did I See?

Next we learned about clouds and made 3-D clouds to hang from the ceiling in one corner of our classroom.  Student cut out one 12X18 sheet of white paper folded in half with a template of a cloud shape.  Then we hole punched around the edge.  Students took blue yarn and laced the two pieces together, stuffed with cotton balls, and then hung them from the ceiling.

 We also read It Looked Like Spilt Milk and made a class book.  Students spilt white paint in the middle of a folded 9X12 paper, opened it up and identified what they thought the picture looked like.  Interesting thoughts!

 Next, we learned about the Moon.  After reading several non-fiction books about the phases of the moon students got to marble paint black paper with yellow and white paint.  The next day they cut their paper into phases of the moon and we hung them up in another area of the room.

Then we learned about the sun.  Again, we read several books and poems before students sponge painted 12X18 sheets of yellow paper with orange paint.  The next day we cut out our paper to piece together to make one giant sun to hang in the center of our classroom.

Next we discussed day and night.  Students created a day/night paper by placing a 9X12 blue sheet of paper on top of one side of a 12X18 sheet of black paper.  On the blue side they drew a picture using colored chalk about something they like to do in the daytime and on the black side something they like to do at night.  

In the day I like to go shopping with my mom.
At night I like to go to bed.

Stars came next.  We learned what stars were made of and that they could be different colors.  We also learned that they formed constellations.  We made stars out of glue and glitter.  We made 12, but only 3 survived.  If you choose to make these, know that it takes a LOT of glue.  I thought we had made them thick enough, but when we peeled them off the wax paper they broke in two.  We took a star template, placed wax paper on top, and traced the outline of the star with glue.  Then they chose what color star they wanted by sprinkling glitter over the glue.  Let dry overnight and peel from the wax paper.  We hung these in another part of the room to form a constellation.

The final piece to our classroom universe is making the planets to hang in orbit around our sun.  We will be making these this week.  Each student will get to pick a planet and use tissue paper and construction paper to create a replica of their planet.  They will tear little pieces of paper to create a collage before hanging them in space.  Sounds fun!! 

This unit is very engaging and the students absolutely love it!  Every day they come into the classroom and ask what is next.  Very exciting to see them this engaged in a science unit.  Hope you enjoy these activities as much as we did.