Space Week 4: Planets (and other stuff)

This week was the final week in our space unit study. I had intended to tie up lots of loose ends that we started last week during planet week, and while we did do a few space related things, like this mobile I found at Olie Bollen, we sort of followed a few rabbit trails this week and got distracted.

Initially, I felt sort of guilty for deviating from the plans, but I have to remind myself that flexibility is a big part of why we decided to homeschool.
We spent a lot of time reading this week. A lot. L has has been able to read things like "Mat sat," since last year, but I've been waiting for him to really take the plunge and become a reader.
I decided to try a new tactic. We've been reading books together, some space related, some not. I read the book, and follow along with my finger, stopping at words I know he knows. He proudly reads the word in question, and I continue reading. Gradually, I've been helping him sound out new words, and now I can see him getting really excited, saying "I'm a great reader, aren't I mommy?" That's what I've been looking for. That spark of excitement.
We also spent some time watching some really fun educational DVDS. The kids cried a while back when I had to take Here Come the ABC's back to the library, so I ended up buying it for them.


After doing some space themed copy work for several weeks, we also finally got around to starting the Draw. Write. Now. book for handwriting.  L and I both tried our hand at drawing a chicken, and he happily  copied the whole page of information. I think we're going to really enjoy this series.

In the carousel below, you'll find links to some of the resources we used this week.

Space Week 3: Planets

Well, it hit. Real life, that is. This past week has been sort of a mess. I've been helping take care of my sister who has a broken foot, and I've also not been feeling great.
I'm actually sort of proud of us. We did manage to do school every day no matter what, but we didn't do a lot of the fun "extras" that I had planned. We'll be continuing with the planets theme next week, and hopefully we can add in the stuff that didn't get done this week.
Here are a few of the planet related things we did do:

We started painting Styrofoam models of the planets. We got about halfway done before L decided he was done, so we still have to do the outer planets.

We practiced writing the names of the planets.

Did a planets puzzle.

Sorted glow in the dark stars by size, and counted to see which group was larger, etc.

Finally, we made planets out of play doh, in the closest color approximations we could manage. (And yes, I'm posting this picture even though you can see how messy my living room was.)

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.

Kindergarten Space Unit Week 1: Astronauts

It's been a fun week. L enthusiastically wakes me up before sunrise to ask if we're having "tindergarten." (Well, the before sunrise part I could do without.)
Here's a picture of him Monday morning, before we got started.

Our theme this week was astronauts. I was a little surprised to see that L was just as content doing the more "boring" stuff as the fun stuff. No protests about handwriting practice, etc.

Here's a picture of some of the space related stuff we had out this week, complete with L's Lego interpretation of the Earth, the sun, and the moon.

We watched video of Apollo 11 on the NASA site, and then went for a "moon walk" of our own, complete with "space suits." We talked about how you'd be able to jump and bounce higher, because of the lower gravity on the moon, and about how heavy and bulky a real spacesuit would be.

We constructed a cardboard space shuttle.

And then we ate like astronauts. We talked about how juice in a glass would just float away in a space shuttle, so the astronauts might drink out of something like a juice pouch. We also talked about the need for food to be light and portable, so we ate dehydrated fruit.

We worked out with an excercise video, and talked about how astronauts have to get lots of excercise to stay strong in space. (Sorry, no pictures, but just as well. You really didn't want to watch me do yoga anyway...)

We used a ball to demonstrate the idea of gravity. The ball always comes back down on Earth, but on other planets where the gravity is different, the ball might just keep going and going. We used a balloon to demonstrate the idea of rocket propulsion. If you blow up a balloon, and then let it go, the air shooting out of it will project it forward. This is a simplified example of the way a rocket is propelled. (That idea came form the Usborne Guide to the Universe.)

We read a pile of space related books, and I spent my late nights watching a DVD series I rented from the library to brush up on my astronomy. It's FANTASTIC, and it totally reminded me of what a latent geek I am.

Altogether, I had fun planning, we all had fun learning, and it made me realize how glad I am that we're keeping him home.