Planets Unit

Isaac gets these obsessions. Lately it has been anything to do with our atmosphere, space, and the planets. This obsession just grew after our visit to NASA this summer. So we did a small study of the planets and our solar system.  Our lessons focused around the following books and a lapbook that we made.

Isaac loves these books. I bought them through one of Leah's Scholastic orders long before he was even born. They have great pictures and simple reading, so they'll be great when he is an early reader. You do have to weed out some the evolutionary numbers in there (billions of years ago blah blah blah).

This is the front of the lapbook. I found most of the printouts at homeschoolshare.com.

Here is what it looks like when you open it up. I have a few more inserts that we stick in the lapbook that I'll share on down the blog.

This is an accordion fold-out of the planets "Distance from the Sun." I let Isaac use crayons to draw in the planets under each name. It shows them in order from the sun.

The next activity is a pocket that asks "Is it a solid planet or a gas planet?" Isaac learned this just from listening to me read him the books. He was fascinated with the gas planets. I think he knows what I mean when I say "gas."

So here are the cards inside that you sort "solid or gas."

Here we studied a few famous astronauts like Alan Shepherd, John Glenn, Neil Armstron, Buzz Aldrin, and Sally Ride (on back). We got on YouTube and watched the lunar landing which Isaac thought was soooo cool. We went on to watch several shuttle launches and landings. Lets just say I was finished before Isaac was through!

In the center are matchbox tabs of each planet. After we read about each planet, I asked Isaac to tell me an interesting fact or his favorite thing about that planet. I wrote it down for him. Then there is a fold out on the right that asks "How many moons?" I was so glad I found this because Isaac was obsessed with Jupiter's number of moons. Inside it, there are more matchbooks with the planets names and number of moons written underneath. (more on this later)

Cover of space book that we slip inside the lapbook. That is the sun in the center and the planets around it. ;) For the following pages, Isaac dictated to me what he wanted to say.

That is Isaac in zero gravity. ;) He said it makes him feel "happy."

Another part of the lapbook that we slip inside. The planets that he can put in order from largest to smallest and visa versa or in order while we sing a special planet song. (below)

Finally, we had letter tiles cut up and placed in a bag inside the lapbook so that he could spell his planets. Of course he doesn't do that himself. He copies, but still good practice with letters.

I shared with Isaac my Solar System book that I made in 2nd grade. Yes, I still have it! He was so tickled!

The sun!

Jupiter! His fave! When we read my report on Jupiter, Isaac was like, "That is wrong! There are 63 moons, not 16!" Turns out, I made this book in like 89-90. After reading our newer Jupiter book, we realized that the probe, Galileo, hadn't been sent out yet. That probe discovered all those moons! Isaac thought that was cool.

Back when Pluto was a planet. :(

Over all, we had a great time! I really wanted to make a model or do some fun crafts, but we never got around to it. Maybe later. ;) We did make a model in a sense with our bodies. I took our globe and told Isaac he was the sun and then showed him how the earth rotates while it goes around the sun. Then he wanted to be Jupiter, Pluto, and so forth...It was really great because it showed me he really understood the way the planets orbit. When he imitated Mercury, he made his circles really close to the "sun" and Neptune far away. I know he's my son and all, but I was impressed that he "got it" just from reading and looking at pictures. Just goes to show the joy of homeschooling. How much they can learn when they are really, really into something.