The Planets

Over the past 3 weeks, we have talked about the planets. We spent the first couple of weeks talking about each different planet, drawing each different planet, writing about each different planet and listening to the songs that went with each different planet.

First we would read some facts about the planet of the day from The Complete Guide to Space which has some really cool pictures in it that the kids love to look at.

Then, we would go sit at tables and read the sentences in our book for that planet. After we read one sentence, we tried to figure out what might be in that blank before we looked at the PowerPoint slide for that planet.

Each slide had 4 sentences. Two of the sentences had the words we needed to fill in our blanks, and the other two did not. The kids really had to listen and remember what was in our book in order to know which sentences we needed, which sentences we did not need, and what words fit in each blank.

Once we found all of the words we needed, we talked about what the planet looked like, how many moons it had, and what size it was in relation to all the others planets. The kids drew their planet while I looked up pictures on NASA's website to show them different views of the planet and more pictures of how it looked.

Filling in the blanks about Mercury

Drawing Mercury

Drawing Mars

Once they finished drawing their planet, we turned out the lights and gathered around my desk to hear the movement from Gustav Holst that went with the planet we were talking about.

Listening to Mars

We watched an orchestra perform Jupiter, which the kids thought was really cool to see.

Jupiter

After listening to our song each day, the kids tried to figure out what or who the planet was named after. Once they said their guesses, we read the page for that planet from the book Meet the Planets and checked to see if they were right.

The last week, we graphed our favorite planets and made solar system mobiles.

The Solar System!

After we looked at day and night, the moon and constellations, we looked at each of the planets! We spent one day a week on each planet in the solar system. Each of the kids got a book with each planet in it that had fill-in-the-blank sentences. We looked at a PowerPoint with four facts on it, then read the sentences on the page and figured out what word went in each blank. After filling in the blanks, we listened to that planet's song from Gustav Holst while drawing the planet. 

After we were finished talking about each of the planets, the kids got in groups and colored planets. They raced to put them in order and see which group could order them the quickest.

After arranging their planets, we took them outside and made a scale model of what the solar system would look like if it were on our playground.

Our sun started down here and our planets went aaaaaaall the way down to the other end of the school!

Our inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

Our outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

After running past the dirt spot "Watch out for the black hole!" We didn't want to get sucked in!

We almost got pelted with asteroids in the asteroid belt too! You have to be careful out there in space!