Planets and Teachable Moments

Recently I have been exploring the solar system with some friends. It all started with a Magic School Bus book called Lost In The Solar System. While reading the book, we found that it gave us more questions about the solar system than answers. After finishing the story, we spent a lot of time looking at real photos of the planets, the sun, asteroids, and comets. We discussed gravity, whether the sun is a planet or a star, what asteroids and comets are made out of, solar pulses, and even lunar and solar eclipses! Our curiosity was definitely peeked! 

After looking at pictures from space, we decided we wanted to make some models of our favorite objects found in the solar system out of playdough. 

After making our objects, I asked the children to write the name of their object, along with their name, on a piece of paper. In the video below, I was able to capture a wonderful moment between Eve and Finch. Eve is helping Finch write the word Sun. 

A couple of days later we spent the morning working on puzzles. The two we spent the most time on, due to difficulty and subject matter, were about the solar system. One puzzle was very big and Zinn, Alice, Miles, Finch, and Solen all helped piece it together. The other was a smaller one, but was extremely difficult to do on your own. Both Felix and Alice put that one together separately. While working on these puzzles, we talked about where the planets and sun are relative to each other, how and why they move, why some planets have moons and others don't, and where humans have traveled to in space. 

"That's the Earth. That's where we live." - Alice 

Space has been a topic I have always wanted to explore with my friends here at Stepping Stones. There are so many various ways to explore and discover our universe and the physics that bring us all together! To be continued....