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.