Astronomy Unit Study 2012

I have not written down all the fun educational stuff we did for this unit. This has been a very busy pregnancy. However, while I was reflecting on the past months I thought I'd jot down a few just because we love to share!

I think the Clark Planetarium is a must! That was a fun field trip to see. They are great to work with and have some fabulous programs if you hit their minimum numbers with your group. I couldn't believe that their Hansen Dome Showing was free to us! IT WAS BREATHTAKING!!

Here are some links we used:
http://schoolofabraham.com/astronomy.htm

http://clarkplanetarium.org/
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/space_boy.php

Here are some of the hands on experiments we did with a group of other families. It was so much fun and great learning for all involved!!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3386155865199070083 
http://www.clarkplanetarium.org/assets/uploads/files/ModelingMoonPhases.pdf

We also got some construction paper with glow in the dark paint and after studying the constellations, we had them make their own. We also had them choose a few others and use push pins with black construction paper. We hung those in the windows. We got a telescope for Christmas and spent many hours looking into the clear night sky. This January was terrific for star gazing! We loved watching the lunar eclipse as a family too!

One of the larger activities we had the kids do was to pick a person who influenced Astronomy in our world. They each did their own report on these people. One made a poster on their person, one watched a netflix documentary on their person and wrote a review and the other wrote a creative story after learning a lot of background. I think all in all, we watched about 10 netflix documentaries on space exploration, the evolution of the telescope, astronauts, different planets, solar storms, etc. That was a lot of fun to do. I NEVER let them get that much screen time, but I wasn't feeling to hot during my pregnancy right then and it fit with our unit perfectly. They took notes and ate popcorn. It was great! We also went to the OTT Planetarium in Ogden and watched a star show. Although it was interesting, I'd recommend the Clark Planetarium in SLC, UT over it any day. 

I wish I'd saved all of the other links and projects we did. I will have to get better at record keeping so I can share! The kids loved this unit so much! We will add on to this topic every year.