We began the week off filling out a KWL chart. The children accessed prior knowledge and told us what they already know about the solar sytem. They then asked questions they wanted to learn more about the solar system. We had a blast trying to solve all of the children's questions and learning all we can about the amazing solar system.
This week we read There's No Place Like Space, by Tish Rabe to introduce the different planets and help us understand them a little more. We learned that there are eight different planets, each unique i their own way. We discovered that Mars is red and dusty, while Jupiter is the largest planet, and Mercury the smallest. We also took this time to evaluate which planet is closest and furthest from the sun.
We decided to make our own solar system using black construction paper and circular paper cut outs to represent each planet. The children colored the paper circles in the color of the different planets and glued them down on the black background, which represented outer space. The children put the planets in order and we labeled them.
As a fun math activity we built rocket ships out of unifix cubes. The children got a sheet of paper with eight boxes (for the eight planets), each box had a different number written under it. The children had to make the rocket ships in the squares, depending what number was shown. This activity helps the children practice skills, such as number recognition and counting sequence.
Being an astronaut sounds like a lot of fun. As a fun activity we had the children pretend that they would go visit in space. Each child dictated there words and they created a picture of them in space.
