Hello parents and guardians!

Over the next two weeks, your little learners and I

will be talking about our solar system. The conversations and activities I have planned

will be out of this world! Your students will walk away from this unit on the solar system

with a better understanding of the planets, the sun, and moon, aware that they all have

an impact on one another. This unit will end with the students working together to make

a poster on a planet assigned to them and presenting it in our classroom “science fair”

where they get to tell their classmates all that they have learned. Buckle up as we take a

ride of a lifetime through our galaxy!

We will be reading lots of books on the different planets in our solar system. For

the poster at the end of this unit, each group will have to read a book that is all about

their planet. Aside from these, we will be reading two other books specific to the solar

system and the sun. Check out these books and others that are listed below:

- McDonald, J., & McDonald, R. (2016). I Am Earth: An Earth day Book for Kids.

House of Lore Publishing.

- Rabe, T. (1999). There is No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System.

Random House Books for Young Readers.

- Seluk, N. (2019). The Sun is Kind of a Big Deal. Scholastic.

- Professor, B. (2017). Are We There Yet? All About the Planet Mercury! Space for

Kids- Children’s Aeronautics & Space Book. Baby Professor.

- Foxe, S. (2020). Neptune. Pebble.

 This unit is planned to last 11 days. Each day we will talk about the different

aspects of our solar system and what makes each planet unique. Building on this

knowledge, the students will walk away from this unit with a better understanding of

our solar system and a sense of wonder of outer space. Below is a brief summary of what

will be discussed each day of this unit:

The students will have a wide variety of hands-on experiences within this unit

that you can do at home with them to put their knowledge to the test! Try some of these

activities at home with your students:

1. Spread shaving cream over a surface and have your students draw what each

moon phase looks like.

 2. Read books on the solar system and the planets found within it. There is so much

more information on each of the planets that we cover within this unit, so let your

kids get curious and discover more about the planets.

3. Space BINGO is another fun activity that gets students thinking about the

planets. Simply write the name of each planet on a piece of paper and use their

flipbook that is filled with information to ask questions.

4. In part of this unit, we will be using playdough to create a solar system diorama.

Encourage your students to use playdough to represent what each of the eight

planets looks like.

5. Get the whole family up and moving my doing a demonstration on how the Earth

and moon orbit the sun. We do this in the beginning of the unit plan, and the kids

love it! Simply have one person stand still in the middle of the room (they are the

sun), while another spins as they orbit the sun (the Earth), and finally have one

last person walk about the Earth as it is spinning and walking around the sun (the

moon).

These hands-on activities are loads of fun and help drive home the main points of the

lessons. In addition to these, below is a list of kid-friendly websites that students can use

to learn even more about the solar system:

1. Planet Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvfVTPYw-kA

2. NASA Space Exploration: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/menu/solar-system/

3. Passport to Space: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/space

4. PBS Kids: https://pbskids.org/learn/readyjetgo/

 5. NASA Space Games: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/menu/play/

This will be the first time that your students will be exposed to the space sciences, and

therefore, there is a lot of new vocabulary that they will be introduced to. Here is a list of

the main vocabulary terms that will be presented to them in class:

- Orbit: the path an object takes as it moved around another object.

- Solar System:

- Sun: the start at the center of our solar system that provides light and heat.

- Moon: large and natural object that travels around a planet.

- Planets: large celestial bodies that orbit the sun. There are 8 in our solar system.

- Atmosphere:

- Asteroid: a smally rocky body that orbits the sun found within the asteroid belt.

- Asteroid belt: a ring of asteroids that separate the inner and outer planets.

- Gravity: the force that attracts objects toward each other and keeps the planets

orbiting the sun.