Astronomy Activities and Fireworks
Workshop Activities
1. Craft – Create a flag for a new planet.
2. Key Points – Discover the history of space discovery.
3. Collaborative – Discuss alien life and experiment with an extremophile.
4. Writing – Create a way to communicate with aliens.
5. Math/Logic - Plot constellations.
6. Character Connection - Experience the story of Edwin Hubble.
7. Big Activity – Make models of interstellar matter molecules.
8. Movement - Play a planets mix-up game.
Weekly Disney Days
Figure out the proportions of planet size compared to the sun.
Experience orbits and rotations in our solar system.
Use a mnemonic to memorize the order of the planets.
Act out movement within weightlessness.
Discover and create constellations.
Discuss the origins of the names of the planets.
Standard Disney Days
Color the solar system.
Discover highlights of our universe.
Play an astronomy quiz game.
Explore and memorize the names and order of the planets.
Experience solar system orbits.
Minecraft Activities
Students create constellations.
Students participate in a solar system quiz.
Students add features to the planets in our solar system.
Build challenge: Create your own planet.
Fireworks/Quests
Make a model of Jupiter with all of its moons.
What's in the sky this month? Draw and identify what you see in the sky at night: http://www.nightskyinfo.com/
Make a comet: http://www.proteacher.org/a/35553_Make_a_Comet.html
Make an ABC book about space.
Read fiction and non-fiction about the space.
Using toilet paper, make a solar system model that approximates each planet’s distance from the sun. Planets, sheets of toilet paper:
Mercury 1
Venus 2
Earth 2.5
Mars 4
Jupiter 13
Saturn 24
Uranus 49
Neptune 77
(Pluto) 100
There are a variety of theories of how the universe came to be. Draw pictures to depict your favorite theory.
Do some online space activities:
http://amazingspace.org/resources/explorations/
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/interactives/
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/age/
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/loopy-legends/en/
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/cosmic-colors/en/#/review/cosmic-colors/preloader.swf?path=/review/cosmic-colors/cosmic_colors
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html
http://geology.com/teacher/astronomy-space.shtml
http://jpl.nasa.gov/education/BuildMissionGame.cfm
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov//menu/play/redirected/
http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=11104
http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/games/space/index.htm
http://www.amnh.org/ology/astronomy
http://www.solarsystemscope.com/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/station/freefalling.html
Write a mystery story that takes place in space.
Write a song that will help you remember the planets in our solar system.
Make a diagram of the planets. Show features such as mass, gravity, number of moons, etc. for each planet.
What phase was the moon in when you were born? http://www.moonsigncalendar.net/moonphase.asp
Make a constellation in a can. Choose a constellation and mark it on the end of the can and hammer a nail through each star. Then turn out the lights and shine a flashlight through the holes of the can to make a constellation on the ceiling.
Find objects around the house that demonstrate the proportional difference in size between the earth and the sun. Can you do this with all the planets?
Play some math games.
Write your feelings about van Gogh's Starry Night.
Make and use a solar oven: https://astrosociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/B-1001.pdf
Make a telescope:
http://amasci.com/amateur/teles.html
https://www.galileoscope.org/gs/content/specifications
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question568.htm
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/columbus/mspyglass.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XumT6D6t_4I
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question568.htm
Put Glow-in-the-dark planets up in your bedroom.
Make a mock-up of our solar system.
Make a quiz about space. Let your friends and family take it. See how many they get right.
Write, practice, and perform a vignette about space.
Write a sonnet about space.
Make an outline for a report on the solar system.
Choose an object in the night sky and observe it each night for a week. Can you figure out what it is? How is it different from night to night? Write about your observations in your Wizard notebook.
Memorize this song: http://youtu.be/3JdWlSF195Y
Planets are spherical. Discover the math you would use to measure the surface and the volume of a sphere.
Watch “The Elegant Universe” by NOVA.
