Inquiring About The Sun Moon and Stars

As we were exploring the Sun, I wasn’t sure which direction our studies would go. Sometimes a sky inquiry goes into the water cycle, but the questions and things they were wondering had more to do with space. Since I follow their interests, we went in that direction! We looked closer at the sun through books and videos. They learned that the sun was a star and it looks big because of how close it is.  They were amazed! They loved the closeup pictures that showed the reds, oranges and yellows so I set up an area for them to show what they noticed using spin art! A group also painted the sun in the hallway to show others what we noticed!

I also set up areas to explore the moon. They could make the phases using play dough.

Here was an opportunity to create stories involving the moon!



They loved showing the craters by pushing a bottle into a mixture of flour and paint. 





This was my favorite invitation for them to show the different phases of the moon!

We did a directed drawing of an astronaut and then they personalized it.







The created Spaceships to travel to the moon and beyond using recyclables. 





The Moon team made the most beautiful mobile showing the phases of the moon! We used a lid and air dry play dough to create the phases. 



Then used beads to create craters. 





I think I will keep this displayed forever! I am never taking it down!



We explored the stars and learned that they can be yellow, white, blue, red and brown! Blue are the hottest and red are the coolest! I set up an invitation for them to explore stars through books and create constellations. 

They loved the beautiful colors of the galaxies and nebulas so I gave them an opportunity to create some in our art area.

We used stars in some of our learning stations! Here they picked a sight word, wrote it, then used a push pin to turn it into a sight word constellation! 

They searched the stars for sight words and recorded the ones they found.

The star team created a starry universe for our spaceships to take off in!





I set out an area for them to explore the planets and create their own galaxies! They mixed black and blue paint on the plate then flicked white paint onto it with a toothbrush.

They researched planets though reading and then used droppers on cotton rounds to create their planets. I wish I could remember where I got this idea from to give them credit! The kids loved this!



Here are their Spaceships blasting through Space!



The kids really enjoyed this investigation! Our next project is top secret! You’ll find out in my next post!