Space Rocks: Reading
We did most of our reading from the Apologia text book, the chapter on Space Rocks. This was a topic which fascinated my girls, particularly Abigail, who had great fun presenting her own hypothesis on the exploding planet!
Space Rocks: Writing
The girls wrote notes in their notebooking journal:
Filled in a mini book:
They also completed a vocabulary exercise, which Abigail helped Becca with:
Space Rocks: Studying the Night’s Sky
We spent a really special night out at one of the highest points with a really stunning outlook over a nearby town. It is completely unlit and we had to use phones to see where we were going. The goal was to spot some shooting stars. We didn’t, but we had a great time trying. We gathered flasks of hot chocolate, warm clothes and blankets and thoroughly enjoyed spending the evening together:
Boootiful! Oh, and we made a notepage (of course!):
Space Rocks: Making a Representative Model of Each Type of Space Rock
The different names for all of the space rocks are quite tricky to remember, so I thought we would make some models. Perhaps if the girls created the models themselves, they would also remember what made up each one.
I gathered together children, snow (stored in our freezer for such a time as this), mud, gloves, water, coloured tissue paper and stones of varying size to include a very large one. Oh, and some labels with the space rock’s name and what it consists of:
Let the mess fun begin! Abs began by making a meteoroid:
Whilst Becs made a meteor, using the coloured tissue paper to represent the fire:
They had so much fun, using water to stick everything together:
Becs went on to create a comet, using the snow:
The asteroid was just the big rock:
And the meteorite is any rock which has got through our atmosphere and landed on earth. So we got the map of the world and chucked the asteroid on it and called it a job well done!
And all of them together:
Space Rocks: Presentation on Space Rocks
The girls asked if they could present all their models to the older girls. The twins graciously agreed, and put down their own work to come and take a peek:
It was great to hear just how much they had retained:
Space Rocks: Finding the Asteroid Belt on a Model Solar System
The girls had fun playing with the solar system model we own:
I asked the girls to point out where the asteroid belt was and both showed me the space between Mars and Jupiter:
Space Rocks: The Board Game
Last but not least, I downloaded and printed off a game, ‘Space Rocks!’ and the girls and I played a few rounds:
You can download the board game from the link below:
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/space_days/activities/spaceRocks/boardGame.pdf
Lots of great ideas in here. I like the idea of a space rocks game.