To Infinity and Beyond

I love the movie Toy Story!  It was my son's favorite movie for about 3 years (well all 3 Toy Story movies).  He has now moved past Toy Story, but Buzz and Woody will always hold a special place in my heart and my son's.  Ok, you are wondering where this is going right?  I guess I just had to explain the title of my post! :)

We are learning about outer space this week.  I have NEVER seen my class so interested in learning about a topic.  I wish I could make this unit last a couple of weeks, but with conferences and Valentine's Day next week there is just no way.  I am going to plan for a 2 week space unit next year though!

We started by getting some general information about space and the planets and even astronauts.  We, of course, made our fabulous schema chart.

We looked over some general information about astronauts, the different planets, the sun, and moon.  I wanted to see what my students were most interested in before deciding where to go with this unit.  My students were very interested in two things:  astronauts and the sun.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we focused on astronauts.  On Tuesday we read a book about astronauts and looked up some information on the internet through sites like National Geographic.  Then we completed this can, have, are chart together.

On Wednesday, they had to write about astronauts all on their own.  Well, I gave them the beginning of the sentences.  I showed them how to use the chart above to write sentences by starting each of the sentences with Astronauts can, Astronauts have, Astronauts are.  The students then filled out the rest independently.  They didn't use the chart to copy word for word because I wanted to see what they remembered.  Here are two examples of what they came up with:

{Astronauts can jump.  Astronauts have helmets.  Astronauts are from Earth.}

{Astronauts can float in outer space.  Astronauts have special gloves.  Astronauts are humans.}

They were cracking me right up because almost every single student put something about astronauts being people or humans.  Ha!

Then we read Deanna Jump's One Little Alien from her Alien Invasion unit.  My little ones LOVED this song.  In fact, I keep catching them singing it at other times......too cute!  

Then we put the song back in order.  We discussed illustrations and how the illustrator sometimes gets to use his or her imagination because what they are drawing isn't real like aliens.  I told the students to think of what an alien would look like in their mind and then make their illustration.  I loved them all.  I wish I could show you all 23, but then this post would probably last for three days.  :)

Adorable....right?  I think so!  

Today we started focusing on the sun.  We learned this song to the tune of "Itsy Bitsy Spider".  This is from my Out of Sight Outer Space mini-unit.  They also loved this song!  Why is it everything seems more fun when it is a song?  Oh that's right because it is!!!  At least for me.  I love to sing {I am truly terrible, but I do it anyways.  My own children and I make up songs about everything and anything ALL.  THE.  TIME!}

We added this to our journals and illustrated them.  I loved how these students illustrated the planets orbiting the sun.  This was something we discussed and practiced today.

I demonstrated how the planets go around the sun and then we practiced being planets and the sun and moving around the sun.  It was fun and great for a rainy day like today when we couldn't get outside to play!

Lastly today, we made rocket ships with our names.  This was so much fun for myself and my students.  I was so impressed by how well they followed directions and I think they turned out pretty cute!

I used black construction as the background and then cute 1 1/2 inch squares for the rocket.  For the triangle shape at the top I showed them how to cut the square into a triangle.  We did the same for the bottom of the rocket ship.

If you are interested in any of these ideas, check out my Out of Sight Outer Space mini-unit by clicking the image below!

May the Force be with you! ;)