Space Week 2: Sun and Stars

This week, in addition to our workbook work, (math, reading, etc,) we focused primarily on stars.

We talked a lot about how Earth's close proximity to the Sun allows life to exist, and about how elsewhere in the solar system they don't get as much heat and light as we do.

In order to demonstrate just how much heat and light we get, we made sun tea.

We also made "sun s'mores." Purely a side note here, but if you're a vegetarian, and you're tired of missing out on s'mores because the marshmallows aren't vegetarian, I can vouch for marshmallow creme making pretty good s'mores. (Marshmallow creme doesn't contain gelatin.)

We made bracelets with these cool UV reactive beads, and also did some experiments with them, slathering them with sunscreen to see if they still changed colors, and putting my sunglasses on them. (Both the sunglasses and sunscreen shielded the beads from most UV lights, so they didn't change colors much when protected. In the second picture, they're shown unprotected.)

L learned how to draw a star, (even though he knows real stars aren't shaped like that.)

We made some sun prints on construction paper. (Shown here as we were waiting.)

The kids made some surprise watercolor paintings of the sky. (I colored stars and galaxies on the paper with white and yellow crayons, and they "magically" appeared when the kids watercolor painted the paper. )

L worked on some space themed puzzles. (I just realized his space jammies were pretty appropriate, kinda like Mrs. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus.) Another side note here, but I picked up a couple of space themed puzzles and flashcards at the Dollar Spot in Target this week, so you might go pick some up, if you're doing a space unit soon.