Pluto .... the planet!

As I mentioned before, we just finished a unit on space. One of the things we talked about was of course planets! We talked about the order of the planets from the sun, how they are different, and the moons that they have. One thing that kept being brought up was how Pluto is no longer a planet. Although the kids in my class were babies when Pluto was demoted, they knew that it was once a planet and has since been removed as such. It was actually quite funny to hear them talk about it.

One of the projects we did was create our own planet. The first thing we did was cut large circles from white card stock. Each student was able to choose 2 colors and they would squeeze a small blob of each color on their circle.

You place the circle into a 1 gallon ziplock bag and press the air out. The next thing to do is let them squish! 

As they squish the paint around, it marbleizes and makes a swirled look. It was fun to see how it swirled together and what designs would come from it. The more they squished, the more character it formed. 

After they have squished as much as they wanted, we cut down the side seams and peeled the plastic off. After drying we hung them up on our space bulletin board. A lot of the students wanted to name their planets Pluto so that he didn't feel left out. 

5...4...3...2...1... BLAST OFF!!

We just finished a unit on outer space and boy was it fun! Every teacher in my school all commented how their students were more interested in what we did during this unit than they had been during any other. We learned about stars, comets, planets, and of course rockets!

I am lucky to have a spouse who works for the military and he is currently working with a group who puts satellites into space. So of course we took advantage of this and had him come speak to the school about rockets, what they do and how they work. The kids LOVED it and to top it off, we went out into the parking lot and shot off water rockets and a vinegar and baking soda rocket.

To reinforce things that we learned during this unit, the class made space books.

Each day we covered a different aspect of space. After our lesson we would sit down and add that aspect into our space book. The students would glue the item into the book and then write the name by themselves on the bottom. This not only reinforced what we had talked about but it also provided writing practice and word recognition. 

I used oil pastels because they showed up so much brighter on the black paper and were easy to work with. The kids loved this project and would ask every day if they could bring it home, make one for their siblings, or even make more than one. I wish we had more time and could go over even more aspects of space.

Come Sail Away

This past week we talked about transportation. We did a few fun activities to talk about what moves, force, what force is, and what do these things that move do for us and our community. We talked about wind and sailboats and how the sails use the force of wind to move. After playing with a ball and learning about pushing and pulling, we moved to making our sailboats.

The next day we moved to airplanes and how they use the force of pushing air to fly. These were a big hit because not only was it a plane that they could paint but it became a toy once it dried. 

To make these fun little guys you will need:

• Popsicle Sticks
• Hot Glue Gun
• Clothes Pins
• Paint 
• Scissors

The first thing you need to do is take popsicle sticks and cut them in half. This will be part of your tails. You will also need to cut the ends off of the sticks to make the rest of the tail. Each plane needs 2 regular popsicle sticks, 1 half stick, 1 clothes pin, and 1 end.

You will take the hot glue gun and glue a regular stick on the top and bottom of the clothes pin. Hot glue the half stick on the back of the clothes pin to make the tail. 

To finish the tail you will want to hot glue the end of the stick that you cut so that it is pointing up. 

Once the glue is cool, the planes are ready to be painted. 

I used acrylic paints on this project because they are thicker and dry more vibrant. We usually use Bio Paints but those needed more than one coat to really be seen. 

Once they are dry the kids can take them home! I suggested putting magnets on the bottoms and using it on the fridge or just have fun playing with them!