Space Unit

The students love learning about space and we really take this unit to a whole new level. To kick off the unit, I set up our space shuttle tent. I put a couple of flashlights inside the shuttle so the students can play during free choice time and also use the flashlights when they are doing 'Read to Self' or 'Read to Someone' for Daily 5. I also hangup Christmas lights in our room that act as "stars." My room becomes so relaxing during this unit because I usually only have the Interactive Whiteboard and all of the twinkling holiday lights on during quiet work time. Lastly, I hang up inflatable planets and hang them from a clothesline. I make sure to label the planets and review them with the students so the students can start to learn the order of the planets and use the labels in their writing during Daily 5. 

Look below to discover other fun activities we do for our space unit.

Here are two students during Daily 5 working on 'Read to Someone' using the flashlights.

This student completed his 'Space Write the Room' for Daily 5 in 'Work on Writing.'

We had an in-school field trip for our space unit that was put on by the company, Mad Science. A scientist visits our classroom to teach the students about a specific topic. 

You can see the inflatable planets dangling from the clothesline. I purchased these from Oriental Trading.  

The students are lining up in planet order!

The students are collecting "Moon Rocks" from the Moon! The students wore their  astronaut suits consisting of goggles and an air tank. The students used grabbers to pick up the rocks. In the background, I put up a picture of outer space on our Interactive Projector to help the children expand their imaginations!

In this picture, you can see the entire scene with all the beautiful stars in the background!

During math centers, the students put the rocket ships in size order in the measurement center. The students also decorated their paper with stars and constellations.

In another math center, the students graphed their friends' favorite part of space: the Moon, the Earth, or the Stars.

During our pattern block math center, the students created their own space shuttle and then took a picture with their work for our classroom website.

After reading a nonfiction book about the Earth, the students used their sight words to complete the sentence and also created a paper model of the Earth. The students traced a circle and glued it on black paper and then created the land by tearing a part a green piece of paper. These cute activities decorated our bulletin board during this unit.

After we read a nonfiction book about the Moon and studying the different phases, the students chose one phase they wanted to paint. I helped the students draw the phase and then they used a balloon to paint their Moon. After they dried, we cute the project out and glued them on black paper to make it look like it was in space.

After reading a nonfiction book about Constellations, the students used their imagination to create their own Constellations. The students used metallic star stickers, a black piece of paper and a white crayon/colored pencil to complete the project. I must say, they were adorable and so creative!