Shooting for the stars in 2013! My OUTER SPACE unit is complete!!!

Hi everyone! First post of 2013! Where has the time gone?! I just realized my last post was December 8th! Time really does fly by! But, I guess I wasn't just lounging around for the past three weeks or so. I have been working really hard on putting my first thematic unit on TPT. I just finished and it feels oh so good!!! It is the best feeling to have a new resource on TPT. (I am sure everyone knows what I mean!) This is the prettier version of the unit I taught for my student teaching. My students LOVED my outer space unit I taught them. I went all out for it! I made an astronaut costume to show the students the parts of a space suit, I bought actual meteorites and let the students hold them, we set off rockets, and much more. Overall, it was a great experience! I think that is probably why I enjoyed making this resource so much. It brought back all the memories of student teaching. I sure miss those kiddos!!!

Anyways, as I said, my outer space unit is complete and it is a big one alright. It is a whopping 169 pages. Yup, that's right, 169 pages! It took me a long time, but it is one resource I am extremely proud of!!! Check it out!

Click HERE to grab your copy of this unit!

3, 2, 1, BLASTOFF!!!

          Over the past few weeks, I have been teaching all about outer space. While the children have loved all the lessons in the unit, this astronaut lesson was definitely their favorite! Here is a picture of me in the astronaut suit that I made myself! I bought a paint suit from Home Depot and attached spray-painted shaving caps and NASA pictures. For the space pack, I rolled up an old roof rack luggage cover and used the attached straps to wear it. The helmet was an old motorcycle helmet that I simply spray-painted and added letter stickers.

         For the lesson, I introduced all the parts of the astronaut suit and taught the children all about the life of an astronaut in space. Of course, the burning question on all the students’ minds was about how astronauts go to the bathroom in space. Oh boy, did they think that was funny!

         Next, it was time to live like astronauts. Everyone got to taste a piece of freeze dried ice cream. (FYI: For a total of 41 students, 5 bags were plenty for each student to have a taste!) We used adjectives such as, hard, creamy, smooth, and chocolaty to describe the ice cream’s taste, texture, and smell. Then, as a class, we took a vote whether we liked freeze dried or regular ice cream better. We organized our information on a graph like the one pictured here. The winner was regular ice cream. It won by 2 votes!

 

 

 

 

         The following day, the students kept asking more about astronauts. I decided, being that the class just learned about how to write a letter, it would be appropriate and exciting for the children to write letters to an astronaut. So, we did! Here are a couple examples.