We added some Montessori materials for our science studies
Morning message pages introducing our astronomy unit:

The UMOCA had a FREE kids’ craft making astronomy mobiles.
Well, don’t ya know we hightailed it over there! Fun, fun fun! Free, free, FREE!

5 Little Astronauts. He named each little astronaut after our family members. So sweet!

The girls enjoyed learning about and labeling the moon phases.

Kate loved our Montessori moon cards:

Fun astronomy matching game

Comet kabobs snack

There are stars in my apples!

Mnemonic the girls wrote to remember the names of the planets. Yes, I know Pluto is not a planet anymore, but it was fun and we needed to include the word “pigs” somewhere!

So cute how they laid all out on the foyer floor to do their word searches!

Working on alphabetizing the planets in these adorable workbooks from Target’s dollar spot (a long time ago)


Found a fun popup book at a discount bin.

Elizabeth did astronomy in 1st-2nd grade with Apologia Exploring Creation With Astronomy, so this will be review for her. Tori and Katie are so excited! I even have some fun little things to include Alex.

Astronomy Unit Study
Poetry
Here are some poems that we plan to work on this month. We love poetry! I will have the moon poem on our calendar board and the gravity poem in a Montessori poetry basket. I also have some other poems in the works.
Calendar
Week 1: Intro, Sun and stars
Week 2-3: planets
Week 4: comets, asteroids, and other heavenly bodies
Week 5-6: Earth and moon

We start off our morning each day with these: Calendar Connections.
Texts
Stargazer’s Guide to the Night Sky and Apologia Astronomy
Arts and Crafts
- make a solar system mobile
- moon sand sensory bin
- moon painting
- stencils and stamps
- watercolor planets
Games
Notebooking
- copywork
- word searches
- mazes
- fun space printables
I have some biography studies, mostly for Elizabeth. She also wants to do some mythology comparisons with constellations.
Montessori
- 3 part cards
- Nomenclature cards
- poetry
Books
- The Magic School Bus Rides Again
- The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System
- The Amazing Pop-Up Pull-Out Space Shuttle
- First Big Book of Space
- Answers Book for Kids Volume 5
- Glow-in-the-Dark Constellations
- Space: A Visual Encyclopedia
Field Trips
We went to UMOCA (fun crafts!) and the Planetarium. We went star-gazing while camping on Antelope Island.
Watching a lot of Doctor Who counts too, right?
Check out my astronomy board:Follow Jennifer’s board Astronomy on Pinterest.

[…] Trips like this one to UMOCA. and lots more! Other posts to come on this as I get it all together. Working on a book list. It […]