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Teaching Day-by-Day: Space
In the sky – and on these pages – you'll find 30 days of wordplay, activities and space-related fun.
- Study the moon for a month. Draw it every night and date each drawing. Place the pictures on a blank wall calendar. After about 29 days, the moon completes a full cycle of phases (changing shapes). Your drawings will demonstrate that cycle.
- Play with words in space. Visit www.weeklyreader.com to print a word web. Write the word "space" in the center of the web. Then fill in the other circles with words, phrases and facts that relate to space.
- Pick a scrumptious solar system! Use a watermelon for giant Jupiter and a pea for tiny Mercury. Add an apple, grapefruit, cherry, and so on, to demonstrate the sizes of the planets and their distances from each other.
- Define the universe. Work with friends to make a list of words related to space (star, planet, moon and so on). Then write the definition and a sentence and draw pictures of the words. Use the words to create a Space Dictionary.
- Wish you were here! Draw a picture of your favorite planet and write a postcard-like message from that planet describing one of its characteristics. For example, "Hello Mom, it is hot on Venus!"
- Blends in space. Make a list of words related to space that contain consonant blends (planet, star, gravity, space). Under each one, list other words that have the same blends (place, plate, plot and so on).
- Experience an eclipse. Place a lamp (the sun) in the center of a dark room. Attach a foam ball (the moon) to a pencil. Slowly move the ball around your head (Earth) to mimic the moon orbiting Earth. What happens when the moon passes directly between Earth and the sun?
- Make a space flag. Print the flag graphic organizer at www.weeklyreader.com. Design a flag based on a planet, the moon, the sun or a star of your selection. Write a description of your creation. Display the flag in your classroom.
- Be an explorer of "planets." We've heard that 92 words can be made from the letters in the word planets. Use those letters to write as many words as you can. Can you top 92?
- What's in your moon capsule? U.S. astronauts placed a flag on the moon in 1969. It's still there! Imagine that you visited the moon and left a time capsule behind. Which three items would you include? Why?
- To the moon! Read the children's book Reaching for the Moon by Buzz Aldrin (HarperCollins, 2005). It tells the story of how Aldrin became an astronaut. Discuss this question: Would you want to travel to the moon? Why or why not?
- Write a space myth. Ancient peoples thought the stars in the sky formed pictures. Study maps of constellations and read myths about how they formed. Choose a constellation and write your own myth.
- Play planetary trivia. Research the planets and write short questions about them on the front of index cards. Write the answers on the back. Then challenge your friends to a planetary quiz.
- Discover life on another planet. Since 1960, scientists have sent spacecraft to explore Mars. They want to find out if there is, or once was, life on Mars. Imagine you have found life on Mars. Write a news story about your discovery.
- Space race quiz. When did the earliest space shuttle launch? What animal was first to orbit the earth? Test your space-exploration know-how at www.weeklyreader.com.
- Space station, here we come! Turn your classroom into a space station. Learn about the jobs that astronauts do in the station. Eat "space" food. At the end of the day, write about your space experience.
- Tell a tall tale about Saturn. A tall tale is an exaggerated explanation of how something came to be. Write a tall tale explaining how Saturn got its famous rings.
- Play the name game. Nine-year-old Sofi Collis suggested the names that were given to the rovers currently exploring Mars. Her choices: Spirit and Opportunity. What names would you have suggested? Why?
- Size up two planets. Diameter is the distance across a planet's center. The diameter of Earth is 7,926 miles. The diameter of Mars is 4,220 miles. True or false: Mars is about half the size of Earth.
- Rewrite the mnemonic. Pluto is no longer a planet, so we need a new sentence to remember the order of the eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Try writing one. (For example: My very energetic mother just served us nachos!)
- Learn about Galileo. Read a biography about Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). Galilei was a physicist, astronomer and philosopher who discovered four of Jupiter's 16 moons and improved the telescope.
- Find a far-fetched space fable. Look for books about Earth and sky folklore at your local library. Share the story that you think is the strangest or the most inventive.
- Poor Pluto! Pretend you're the former planet Pluto and you have just heard the news: You've been demoted! Now you're just a dwarf planet. Write an entry in your diary describing how you feel about it.
- How much do you know about the solar system? Find out by taking this Crazy Space Quiz.
- Steer by a star. People have long relied on stars such as Polaris ("The North Star") to navigate. Find out how to locate Polaris. Then, on a cloudless night, drive or walk away from city lights with an adult and look for the North Star as you move from place to place.
- Pitch a planet. Can you get people to visit other parts of our solar system? Put together a campaign for one of the planets with audio and visual advertisements, slogans and brochures. Make everything accurate! Then present it to your class or an imaginary television audience.
- Making phases. Dim the lights and shine a flashlight on an orange to demonstrate the moon's phases. Call out, "next phase" and switch to a new one. To see the phases of the moon, go to www.earthsky.org.
- Milky Way mysteries. Write the names of space objects on index cards (stars, planets, comets, asteroids or human-made satellites). Research each one. Then challenge your friends to a game of "20 Questions."
- Spinning in space. Get outside and get moving! Stand in the center of a large, open space and represent the sun. Invite classmates to represent the planets. Call out their names and have each planet circle you according to its place in the solar system. Don't get dizzy!
- Visit the dark side. One side of the moon always faces away from Earth. What could be hidden where no human has been? Imagine that, and write a short story about it.
Updated June 2009
November/December 2006, Vol.37, No. 3
