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Big Ideas

-The solar system in part of the Milky Way, which is one of billions of galaxies

Content

-The position, motion, and components of our solar system in our galaxy
-The overall scale, structure, and age of the universe

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Teacher (grade/subject) who will require these resources and for which purpose

Grade 6 classroom teachers who will be teaching about space within the subject of science.

Whether it is intended to accompany a collaborative lesson in the library or be used in the classroom, with or without teacher librarian support

The flexibility of this collection allows the resources to be used both in the classroom and in the LLC. Classroom teachers can collaborate with the teacher librarian to double-up on support and perhaps do a guided inquiry together, or have the TL spearhead the inquiry on their own.

Any other relevant considerations, such as which resources support differentiated learning, ELL learners, a variety of viewpoints, etc.

-The digital resources (those that students use online) can be used on either a Chromebook or tablet
-There is at least one resource that supports visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic learning
-Videos can be slowed down, as well as use subtitles for ELL students
-Plays to different strengths of students due to the cross-curricular nature of these resources

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The Solar System and Beyond: Kids Edition

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The Solar System and Beyond: Kids Edition

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From NASA's YouTube channel, they have compiled a collection of 29 of their YouTube videos that talk about The Solar System. The videos are relatively short and could be used as discussion topics/starting out points, or to introduce a lesson. Topics range from answering various questions about space, to discussion different components of the solar system like stars and comets.

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The Solar System and Beyond: Kids Edition

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Astronomy Poetry: Combining Poetry With the Content Areas

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Astronomy Poetry: Combining Poetry With the Content Areas

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This cross-curricular poetry unit connects astrology and components of outer space with the literacy skill of writing poetry. This unit plan is appropriate for grades 6-8, and can span as long as three weeks. All resources, preparation, lesson plans, and related resources are laid out to make teaching these lessons as straightforward and stress-free as possible.

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We have launched the new ReadWriteThink.org and we would love to get your feedback: Give Feedback

In this lesson, students listen to and discuss poetry that pertains to the study of astronomy and write their own poems to enhance their learning of the subject. As a final project, students use the ReadWriteThink Printing Press to compose original poetry books about astronomy. Although this lesson uses astronomy as a model, it can be modified for any content area topic.

Poetry has been used for years in many content areas to enhance curricula and assist in the learning of concepts.

Poetry allows students to clarify concepts that direct instructional methods cannot. Metaphorical language is prevalent not only in poetry, but also in many content areas, and can be used by students to make connections among ideas.

Poetry and science can work together to enable learners to grow in familiarity with the concepts, facts, principles, and processes with which they are working (Watts, 2001).

Abisdris and Casuga (2001) showed that students can enhance their understanding of science through analyzing poetry.

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.

Index cards for reflection

1.

Refer to the Astronomy Poems Booklist or check your school library for various poetry books that incorporate the content area topic you are teaching.

2.

Create your own Forms of Poetry handout (see sample) based on the forms your students have been studying. This lesson is not a time to teach new forms of poetry, but to apply what students already know.

3.

Bookmark the ReadWriteThink Printing Press tool on school computers to assist students in creating their poetry books. Ensure that the program is running and printing properly. (If you experience difficulty, make sure that computers have the most recent version of the Flash plug-in, which can be downloaded for free from the ReadWriteThink Site Tools page.)

Students will

Express their understanding and knowledge of a content area topic, such as astronomy, by writing poems that integrate vocabulary and information studied in class

Reinforce content area knowledge in a creative and reflective manner

Use the writing process approach when writing content area poems

Instruction and Activities

Introduction and Teacher Modeling (approximately two days)

Note: If students lack prior knowledge of figurative language techniques, you may want to model or review a selection of these techniques (e.g., similes, metaphors, personification) during these whole-class sessions.

1.

Distribute the Forms of Poetry handout that you prepared in advance of the lesson (see sample) and the Astronomy Poetry Project Requirements. Explain to students that their next unit of study will be astronomy and that they will be demonstrating their new knowledge through poetry. Let students know that there will be days designated solely for writing poetry in class.

2.

Read various astronomy poems to the class (see suggested booklist) and identify the factual evidence in each. You may also choose to read aloud from Space Poems, a class collection of poems about astronomy, or Poetry of the Sky: Poetry and Quotes, an astronomer's collection of works related to the field.

3.

On chart paper or the blackboard, model the poetry writing process in a whole-class format.

4.

Post the final version of the class poem along with the Poetry Writing Process sheet so that students can refer to them as they work on their own astronomy poems throughout the unit.

Student Poetry Writing (approximately 10 days)

Note: The writing of content area poetry should be tied in with the content you are teaching. Intersperse approximately 10 days for writing poetry within an eight-week unit so that students can examine, reflect on, and write about the content under study.

Publication and Reflection (approximately four days)

1.

Refer students to the class poem that was written at the beginning of the unit and review the Astronomy Poetry Project Requirements.

3.

Take the class to the computer lab and demonstrate the ReadWriteThink Printing Press. Students should choose the "Booklet" option and type their finished poems into the tool. Remind students to print two copies of their books when done, as the Printing Press will not save their work online.

5.

Have students reflect on the process of using poems to understand content. Have them respond in writing on a 3 x 5 index card to the following prompt:

How do you think reading and writing poems enhanced your learning of astronomy? Did poetry writing help you to remember the content we learned? Why or why not?
If your students are unfamiliar with reflection, you may need to make the prompt easier.

Repeat this lesson throughout the year in other content areas. At the end of the year, compile all poems into a class book and distribute a copy to each student. This is a great way to review content area topics before final exams!

Have students listen to excerpts from The Planets Suite at AquarianAge.org and write poems about their feelings afterward.

Encourage students to research an astronomy topic that was not covered during the unit and write a poem about it that demonstrates their new knowledge.

Student Assessment / Reflections

Grade students' poetry books according to the following checklist:

Writing conventions-spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization (10 points total)

Completion of 10 original poems (10 points each; 100 points total)

The important part of the project comes in completing the work and reflecting on the use of poetry as a learning mode, not in the actual form or quality of the poetry. Therefore, no formal rubric is used. If you wish, you may require students to include certain content area topics and terminology in their poems as an additional method of assessing students' understanding of the information under study.

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Astronomy Poetry: Combining Poetry With the Content Areas

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We have launched the new ReadWriteThink.org and we would love to get your feedback: Give Feedback In this lesson, students listen to and discuss poetry that pertains to the study of astronomy and write their own poems to enhance their learning of the subject.

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These models can be printed out and assembled to give students a 3D model of the different planets. They are more complex to assemble, so they can be assembled with or without students. This can easily be a cross-curricular lesson with geometry and 3D shapes.

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Scale of Planets

you can print your planet on any paper format, but be sure to check the "fit" options in printing dialog. A planet printed on A4 format will have diameter of about 7cm (2.8inch), A3 format will result in a diameter of about 10cm (4inch)

if you want to assemble a whole set of planets, it might look good to have them a bit scaled (but we do not recommended scaling down A4 format).

To print them the same way as you can see on the picture above, apply these values for the scale parameter in the printing dialog:
Sun 100 % , Mercury 60 % , Venus 75 % , Earth 75 % , Moon 60 % , Mars 65 % , Jupiter 100 % , Saturn 95 % , Uranus 75 % , Neptune 75 %

You will need to attach the Saturn's ring to the model of the planet. We recommend two perpendicular sticks that cut through the body of the planet and are glued to the ring.

*the image shows Saturn's north pole with the sticks colored in red.

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Online 3D simulation of the Solar System and night sky in real time - the Sun, planets, dwarf planets, comets, stars and constellations

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These textures represent planetary maps in equirectangular projection (which means you are viewing the planet as if it was laid out flat just like our world maps). They can be used with 3D rendering, or opened in 2K or 8K quality to view on a screen or projector. You can also view textures of planets, maps of Earth, and view the Sun, the Moon, and stars.

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Textures in this pack are based on NASA elevation and imagery data. Colors and shades of the textures are tuned accordng to true-color photos made by Messenger, Viking and Cassini spacecrafts, and, of course, the Hubble Space Telescope.

NOTES:

Some parts of the planets remain to be mapped. These "gaps" are filled with fictional terrain that corresponds with the rest of the landscape.

The colors are slightly more saturated in order to highlite a unique nature for each object.

Earth textures are the most precise part of the pack: They are a result of merging and adjusting large amount of geo-data, space photos and images from NASA's Blue Marble (which might well be the 2nd best collection of Earth's textures available, so check it out)

True Earth colors (as seen from space) may vary depending on the camera used, duration of exposure, lightning conditions and atmospheric conditions. Textures in our pack are sharp, bright and colorful.

Seasonal variations affect Earth's flora and snow coverage. Earth in our textures has a lot of vegetation and less snow.

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Online 3D simulation of the Solar System and night sky in real time - the Sun, planets, dwarf planets, comets, stars and constellations

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National Geographic Kids - Space Explorer Game 

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National Geographic Kids - Space Explorer Game 

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In this game, students navigate their astronaut through obstacles to make it to safety. Once they have successfully collected some stars and made it to the finish line, they gain access to 6 facts about the planet that they are playing on. The challenge aspect of this game to collect enough stars is engaging and will have students aiming to gain enough stars to unlock the facts.

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Use your astronaut's rocket boosters to avoid obstacles and collect stars as you explore the planets in our solar system.

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Our Solar System - Ancient Worlds, New Discoveries

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Our Solar System - Ancient Worlds, New Discoveries

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This 46-page online PDF booklet contains information not only about all of the planets, but contains real-life images and details of each planet. There is also information about other components in our galaxy, such as asteroids, moons, and space weather.

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REACHing Out: Why Does Saturn Have Rings? 

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REACHing Out: Why Does Saturn Have Rings? 

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This family-friendly podcast has a collection of varying space-related topics. This particular episode focuses on exploring why Saturn has rings. This podcasts consults experts and delivers listener questions in child-friendly language.

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REACHing Out are bi-weekly mini-episodes where we answer YOUR Questions. This week's question comes from Miriam in Waterloo, Ontario who asks "Why does Saturn have rings?" Hosts: Brian Holden and Meredith StepienWritten by: Sandy Marshall with Nate DuFort, Meredith Stepien and Brian Holden.Co-Created, Produced by: Nate DuFort and Sandy MarshallEdited by: Nate DuFortMusic composed by: Jesse CaseLogo by: Steven Lyons All about Saturn's Ringshttps://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn/in-depth/#:~:...more

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children kids podcast ios apps education science discovery sharing

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Kids Listen: REACHing Out: Why Does Saturn Have Rings?

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From REACH A Space Podcast for Kids. REACHing Out are bi-weekly mini-episodes where we answer YOUR Questions. This week's question comes from Miriam in Waterloo, Ontario who asks "Why does Saturn have rings?"

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In this simulator, students can interact with the planets of The Milky Way. They can explore the planets through discovering each planet's speed, size, and distance from the sun. They can also compare and contrast planets to make observations, such as how the farther away a planet is from the sun, the fewer kilometres they travel per hour.

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Solar System Simulator is a great scientific game and a simulation of our part of the universe and you can play it online and for free on Silvergames.com. Enjoy this great Online 2D/3D Simulation of Sun and Planets. Solar System Simulator is an educational game that shows different facts about our galaxy and the planets in it. Switch the view and the information you want to get about each and every planet, like the speed in which Venus travels around the sun, or the Jupiter's enormous size in kilometers of equatorial circumference.

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Solar System Simulator is a great scientific game and a simulation of our part of the universe and you can play it online and for free on Silvergames.com. Enjoy this great Online 2D/3D Simulation of Sun and Planets. Solar System Simulator is an educational game that shows different facts about our galaxy and the planets in it.

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This free online guide from NASA helps educators to lead students through how to design, build, launch, and land a Mars mission. Through various videos, activities, and games, students will apply cross-curricular knowledge and skills to develop a plan as if they were going to explore Mars over approximately seven weeks.

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Do we have to do every lesson and activity each week to participate?

You can choose your level of involvement and the activities that are most appropriate for your students. Maybe it's a busy week and you only have time to watch a short video - great! We have that for you! Maybe your students are up for more of a challenge - great! We have lots of options for every age.

What if my students don't have all the materials?

The materials lists contain suggested items, some of which can be found at home. If students don't have access to certain materials, they can get creative in finding substitutes or coming up with design solutions that use different materials, including things they may have at home. For example, if an activity calls for a straw and students don't have straws, have them look around for straw-like substitutes such as paper rolled into a straw! If they need string and don't have any, how about dental floss or sewing thread? Improvising is encouraged!

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NASA's Mission to Mars Student Challenge

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Bring students along for the ride as we explore the Red Planet with NASA

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Songs are a unique and entertaining way to deliver information to students. If students find the video funny, this is also a great way to engage them into the content being shared with them. Students could work in pairs or small groups to design their own songs about the planets with accompanied music created in a music development program, such as Garage Band.

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The Planet Song - 8 Planets of the Solar System Song for Kids | KidsLearningTube