4Real Forums: Astronomy

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Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science

Topic: Astronomy

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UK Mum
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Posted: Oct 30 2007 at 6:20am \| IP Logged

My soon to be 5 yr old is desparate to find out about the moon, stars, planets etc. Has anyone done any astonomy units? I would love to hear feedback, or see blog posts!
Lynn

MaryM
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Posted: Oct 31 2007 at 3:02am \| IP Logged

MacBeth has some great astronomy ideas in this thread.

Shawna had recommended Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? for a kindergartner.

For young kids I really like Find the Constellations by HA Rey.

A great book is The Way the Universe Works from DK Publishing. It is a thorough book on things related to the universe. I like that it has everything in one place - solar system, individual planets, stars, galaxies. The illustrations are colorful and engaging (include both photos and drawings). Each page is a mosaic of information - explaining different aspects of the universe, properties of space, technology, and space veiwing in small chunks (also includes some and biography) - typical of the DK formats. What really impressed me was the great experiments and demonstrations that dovetail with each topic. There are 60 demonstrations/experiments in the book. All are pretty straight forward using equipment from around the house. It's one of the best collections of experiments I've seen - very visually appealing. Though it really is for a little older child to do on his own it really can be adapted for a younger one with the parent doing the experiments as demos.

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Mary M. in Denver

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hereinantwerp
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Posted: Nov 20 2007 at 2:52am \| IP Logged

I would second the books by H. A. Rey of Curious George Fame

.

We did a big astronomy unit a few years ago. Favorites were:

Destination Space and Our Solar System (gorgeous pictures!) by Seymour Simon

The Magic School Bus in Outer Space

and our general favorites for science are the "Let's Read and Find Out" series of books. I'm always amazed how much I learn from these. For space we have:

Floating in Space,

What the Moon is Like, and

The International Space Station,

but there are others too. All of the above books would be in most libraries.

Incidentally, somewhere I found the most wonderful free links for space oriented crafts/experiments/projects. There was a board game you could print out, and just wonderful learning activities that were really worth doing. Our old computer crashed and I no longer have the link. I know NASA had a neat kids website. It seems like the ZOOM website had some projects, but I'm not sure it was those I'm thinking of, it seems like there was another one too. I'm sorry I can't remember!

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Angela Nelson

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UK Mum
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Posted: Nov 30 2007 at 2:00pm \| IP Logged

Mary, thanks for the blue whale rec. What a great book! i am going to look through all the others...Angela, if i come across the board game i will let you know! Itoo love the read & find out series

Jenn in WY
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Posted: Dec 01 2007 at 8:13pm \| IP Logged

I am doing a study on stars with our Advent unit for science. I like Usborne's Internet-Linked Astronomy and First Guide to the Universe which appears to be out of stock right now, but you could check the library.

There is also a Night Sky Sticker Book which he could complete with help.

A nice little rabbit trail is Stars Beneath Your Bed the Surprising Story of Dust.

Have fun!

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MaryM
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Posted: Dec 03 2007 at 11:52pm \| IP Logged

Jenn, your choices reminded me also of the DK Smithsonian Stargazer. It�s a great little book for budding astronomers.

And we enjoyed the dust book too � lots of interesting info in there.

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Mary M. in Denver

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