Every month our daughter does one homeschool science class at our local science center. If you have the option to do something like this, I highly recommend it. For only a few dollars each time, I get to go with her and experience awesome science experiments, crafts, and hands on illustrations that I couldn’t otherwise do myself.
I try to plan ahead on studying the topics for the class. Knowing that this month was space month ,I purposed to supplement our curriculum with about two weeks of adventures in space. With just a little but of help from the internet, my kids fell in love with space!
Fun Space Adventures
We separated our study by using our first week to cover the sun, moon, and stars and the second week to cover the planets.Here are a few of the things we did that made the experience so much fun!
Free Moon Study
This free Moon study has 29 pages of great activities! There is everything from great visuals of the different phases of the moon, moon journals for kids to keep, and a calendar for them to track the moon all month long.
It became part of our bedtime routine to go out into the dark to spot the changes in the moon each night. Their favorite part was the Oreo Moon Phases Experiment where they got to study and snack at the same time!
Putting Facts In Writing
We try to always have our daughter write out sentences or stories every day. We had her write down some her favorite facts each day with both words and pictures. Some topics that were chosen were phases of the moon, what the sun is made out of, colors of the different stars, names of the planets, and how everything orbits.
Easy Space Craft
The goal is to always have a project with our studies that any age can do. This Spaceship Craft was the perfect fine motor project for our son and a fun craft for our daughter. They used toilet paper rolls, foil, paper streamers, start stickers, and a little bit of glitter to create a night sky for their space shuttle.
Space Videos
Videos and music are always a hit and something we use to reward our kids for their diligence in areas of school that we know are more challenging for them. My kids loved the different space videos from Storybots! They also have one on the sun, stars, and planets.
I also wanted an easy melody to sing the order of the Planets with the kids. This Planet Song is really basic but after only one day my kids were both able to completely sing it. It really works!
Paper Mache Planets
Our biggest project and our favorite was making this Paper Mache solar system. For over a week we applied layers, waited for them to dry, sprayed with primer, and then painted our planets. I found a good recipe for the Paper Mache and loved the tip to apply the mixture to your hands and rub on the newspaper instead of dipping the paper directly into the mixture. It was a timesaver! It was a great lesson in patience for both them and me, but in the end it turned out perfect. We hung the planets from our ceiling around our light (the sun) in their order from the sun and the kids love to lay on the carpet looking up at their creation.
Though two weeks learning about the solar system only scrapes the surface of God’s incredible creation, it was a great start! Of course even with all the singing, dancing, painting, moon spying and star gazing, no space study would be complete without the treat of astronaut ice cream!
What kind of space activities are your favorite?
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~Kathryn
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