Space

Finish this sentence: You know you are a teacher when_____________________________. For me it is you know you are teacher when you get so excited about a unit or activity that you live and breath it.

Right now we are studying space. Since this is the first year I have even thought about it since I had astronomy in high school I have learned a bunch! Even more than that the kiddos are so into it! 

Here are all the things that I am so excited about and wanted to share with you. 

Phases of the moon book. I used the die cut to make these circles each kiddo had eight to make the phases of the moon. They turned out really cute. It took a bunch of time but they loved putting it together. 

I have seen that super cute Oreo project but I wanted something a little less sweet and that would last longer! 

Here is a youtube video I made to explain the project to my kiddos

Here is the unit that I created for my kiddos using the 1st Grade Core Knowledge guidelines.  You can check it out in my TpT store.

Astronomy Unit

You probably have noticed that I live for teaching with technology.  I like give the students the experience  outside of the classroom and for space I clearly am not Ms. Frizzle! I looked up several great videos on Discovery Education. ( This is a resource I could not teach with out!) The best one I found was A Closer Look at Space:Planets. I could not believe what has changed since I was in school. All of these "new" planets. Then what happened to Pluto and his moon? It is so interesting. This video told us all about it! 

I have included a ton of space fiction and non fiction in our featured books.  I love books! I am such a book worm but this one of the times that the iPad is the best thing ever! Space apps galore! 

Here are a couple great ones. But honestly there are tons and most are free! 

My kids are so fired up about space and so am I. I looked for the planets in the sky on my way home from work last night! Then I told everyone who would listen about it. This brings me back to you know your a teacher when____________________.  LOL. Next week we will finish the gas giants and then learn about stars! I created a really fun homework assignment for this you can find it here.

I hope to ask the school community to loan us some telescopes and have a star night sometime soon!