Solar System

We spent about a week and a half learning about the Solar System.  We didn't get too deep because it will be so much more fun to explore space when the kids are a little older.  We went over the basics. . . moon, sun, stars, earth, planets.  We made our first lapbook.  I printed off a packet about space from THIS link.  It was simple enough for Kindergartners, but I even learned a thing or two.  I had to watch a couple of youtube videos on how to make a lapbook and then again on how to fold the papers.  It wasn't as obvious to me as the creator of the packet assumed it would be. haha.

I thought Kendi would love making the lapbook.  She loves to color, cut and paste, but this didn't go over that well.  I think next time we'll do lapbooks more like THIS LADY. 

 If that doesn't work we'll give them up altogether.  What Kendi really enjoyed was painting a model of the Solar System.  I had to order one online and the moment it came she was excited about it.  She set up and painted the entire thing.  Kendi and Aydri spent hours in the closet looking at the planets glow in the dark.

Just as we were finishing up studying about space we took a trip to the local university's observatory.  The kids were so excited.  The students and professor there were able to answer all kinds of questions while we waited for it to get dark enough.  Aydri got a little bored and wanted to do her favorite thing, take pictures.

They warned us that it would get loud when they opened the ceiling and spun it around.  I thought the kids were going to freak out, but Aydri started yelling, "Yippee!"

 The sky was perfect for star gazing.  We got to see Jupiter and it's four moons.

 Mars.

 And Venus.

They told us to come back in a month or two to see Saturn.  And if you call ahead and ask them to bring an attachment for the telescope you can take pictures with a DSLR.  They also told me how to take pictures of Jupiter and it's moons with a 300 mm lens.  I'm going to try it one of these nights when the sky clears up.

There is also the Annual Solar Eclipse coming up on May 20. A lot of museums and parks are hosting events and providing solar viewing glasses to watch the eclipse with.

I also joined NASA's facebook page so that I can keep up on what's going on with Space Exploration and so that the kids can watch their upcoming events.