Today our Apologia Astronomy Class was on the Earth and Moon. The kids first discussed the various vocabulary words they had learned while reading their Chapters. Words have been chosen from the weekly reading material and either a Jeopardy style game has been played using them or we've just identified them and let the kids answer from what they can remember. It's a way to review before we delve into the projects for the day and refresh their memories.
The kids did "Moon Jumps" - they used taped coffee filters as "moons" and they jumped as high as they could and stuck them to the wall. They then measured the height and multiplied it times 6 to tell them how high they would jump if they were on the moon!
They next moved to the "Edible Earth" station. You can imagine that was a hit! They were made with gum ball centers for the Earth's core and rice crispy treats for their mantle and then dipped in chocolate for the crust. Too fun!
In keeping with edibles, the ever pinned on Pinterest Oreo "phases of the moon" project. Another delicious invention to convey a astrological concept!
The kids then went outside to paint their previous weeks Venus (now that it's fully dried) and then form their Earth out of salt dough.
The final project of the day was to make a compass. This was done by marking the top of a large cap with N/S/E/W and then adding some water and using a needle and magnet - you rub the magnet across the needle in one direction only, then place it on a small piece of cork to float in your top. Once magnetized it will point North no matter how you turn the top. Cool easy project to do!
Best part of the past few weeks of our Summer's Awesome Astronomy class on Wonderful Wednesdays?? Is that I didn't have to lead anything! Priceless!! :) I'm still trying to finish planning out and finalizing the coming year's Wonderful Wednesdays for my own group, so I really appreciated one of the other Moms doing this for us over the summer to keep the educational train going while giving us a great preview to Cycle 2 coming this year! What a blessing!
We spent last fall/winter in Apologia's Astronomy, and my kids (and a close homeschooling family) so enjoyed many of these same experiments and activities. We did Botany after Astronomy but I think we all loved Astronomy most. We did a huge paper mâché solar system that turned out great and provided weekly hands-on fun (as we painted them)
ReplyDeleteHappy learning. =]