Space Shuttle and Astronomy Play

I love and value those exceptional opportunities of being in the quiet moments of night, when you find yourself standing outside in the backyard, the neighbors have shut off their outside lights, there are no street lights in view, the moon is no where to be seen, the crickets are chirping, the breeze blows in your face and you glance up at the magnificent beyond.  A black sky full of millions and billions of bright specks stands before you and continues to creep into the corner of your eye no matter where you glance or turn your head. My husband and I just love it and find ourselves time after time in continuous amazement.  Quite honestly, it eventually makes my neck hurt.  It leaves me in awe as an adult and definitely did as a child!  You may be able to think back to how small you felt as a child, standing in front of the big dark beyond. It's just amazing and it's no wonder that kids love to dream about space shuttles, outer space, or blasting off to the moon to a place of wonder and adventure.  It probably explains some of my Star Wars excitement too.

This spring we had a fun week of outer space amazement and exploration.  We got to think about being in the shoes of an astronaut blasting off facing the ceiling, imagine just how big our solar system is, take a ride on the Magic School Bus with Ms. Frizzle, learn about how our earth moves, listen to some astronomy songs, and make some "astronomy" themed food too.

 Getting ready for lift off!

Getting the controls ready.  Navigation system is ready!

Stars and planet jello jigglers!

 Making the planets go around the sun!  Check out our cool video below!

I even have on an astronomy shirt!

Solar System Pizza!

Jello Shapes

We decided to make jello with an astronomy theme. We picked blue because it's a favorite flavor in this house which also worked out well for learning which color stars are the hottest. We had a few stars and a few planets. Zachary of course made Jupiter because it's his favorite and you can see him pointing to it below. They definitely go fast! Recipe below!

Jello Jigglers

• 9 oz of flavored Gellatin
• 4 packs of unflavored Knox Gellatin (or store brand)
• 4 oz of boiling water

1. Boil water
2. Stir in all packs of Gellatin
3. Refridgerate for 2 hours.

Sun Craft

We got this super fun and easy sun painting idea from a blog I just found the other day called Mrs Karens class.  She had some great ideas for a hands on astronomy lesson.  Her blog post on this craft can be found here.  Mrs Karens class.

Sun Painting:

1. Trace a circle onto white paper.
2. Cut out.
3. Put a blob of red, yellow, and orange paint on the circle (less red than yellow).
4. Put plastic wrap over the circle.  Taping plastic down temporarily is optional which can  
5. Smear paint together all over the circle!  
6. Let dry!
7. Glue to black piece of paper.
8. Add suns rays with small paintbrush or cue tips.

Adelyn's sun (I helped with the rays a tad. And the tracing...and the cutting)

Two weeks ago we did an Earth day/Astronomy project.  Here you see a close up view of the Earth in space taken by our own dear Zachary. Please note that this picture was not taken by our satellites orbiting Earth, although perhaps easily mistaken.   :) 


We found this very fun and easy project on D.L.T.K's Growing Together Site. It also makes a very good science experiment for the kids as they watch the colors mix together on the coffee filter which the earth is made of.


Materials:

• Coffee filter
• washable blue and green markers
• Medicine dropper
• black construction paper
• white paint
• a Popsicle stick
• small paint brush
• Glue stick

1. Kids scribble with the markers on the coffee filter.

2. Drop a few dots of water with the dropper on the filter.

3. Watch the colors spread

4. Let dry

5. Take black piece of paper and dip brush in white paint.

6. Use a Popsicle stick and slide it in a flicking motion down the paint brush to flick paint onto paper.

7. It should look like small stars.

8. Glue coffee filter onto black paper

Astronomy

January 17-21

Art

• Painting with stamp paint the solar system
• Making a Mobile of the solar system (Hobby Lobby craft kit, comes with cool poster!)

Music

• How Many Planets- They Might Be Giants
• What is a Shooting Star- They Might Be Giants
• Why does the Sun Shine-They Might Be Giants

Science Experiment

Planets Going Around a Drill- Teaches about how the earth goes around the sun.

Movies

• Squibs by Ignite Learning, In Space: Earth, Moon, Sun and Beyond (very captivating for the kids although it was a lot of information for him and didn't sit past 30 minutes. At the SAN ANTONIO PUBLIC LIBRARY
• You Tube: Space Shuttle Launch
• Solar System Slide Show (home made from Google Images)

Imagination

• Put on astronaut costume and drove his home made spaceship. Joystick and old computer keyboard while watching the space shuttle launch.

Baking

• Cut out stars in jello (idea for next time)

Astronomy

February 22-26

• Crafts- Coloring earth, pasting on black construction paper for outer space, and glitter dots for stars
• Music- Hey Diddle Diddle, I Don't Want to Live on the Moon
  
• Activities- Slideshow of the Solar System, Looking for the Moon in the Sky
  
• Science- Watching the Nasa Space Shuttle take off (Youtube)