Doing a Space Theme, in true home education style.

Week 1 (ish):  Moon phases

• Bribe children with chocolate biscuits to watch this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/earth_sun_moon.shtmlhttp://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1671

• Look at our little plastic model of moon/earth and try to work out what the heck is happening. Or get dh to run around with a torch and a ball. (Definitely better to leave it to the physicist of the family)

• Start a lunar cycle chart: http://sciencenetlinks.com/tools/lunar-cycle-1-calendar/

(we started, saw the moon once, briefly, between clouds before it disappeared for three nights. How can the moon disappear? You'd have thought someone else might have noticed...

• Lunar eclipse: http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/0812-lunar_eclipse.htm

Listen to dh going on and on and on about lunar eclipses while we wonder how soon we can get away and eat the rest of the biscuits.

• Orbital forces experiment: http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/education/activities/active19.htm

i.e.  swinging an eraser by a piece of string and letting go without maiming anyone. Yeah. They'll love that one.


Week2 (ish): Tides and craters

[Not sure why those things go together, but it works for me.]

• Tides:  http://www.ehow.com/video_5238520_moon-affects-changing-tides.html

• Make a crater:

http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/education/activities/active15.htm
(need map/pictures of moon/craters; deep tray and the patience of a saint while children spill stuff all over the house)

• Listen to Beethoven’s moonlight sonata 

and pretend that we are really a very culturally sophisticated family.


Week 3 (ish): The Sun

• Video about the sun:

(short, so the kids might actually sit through it)

• Make a sundial - e.g. printout the pointer and base here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/kids/summer_activities/make_sundial.shtml

then move to a country where the sun actually shines at a strength that makes a sundial useable.


Week 4 (ish): The sun, day and night, seasons and other sun-ish stuff

• Sit kids in front of this video  that shows a model of earth going round the sun while sneaking off to the corner shop to buy more chocolate biscuits.

http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es0408/es0408page01.cfm?chapter_no=visualization

• Seasons. (btw, someone should put in a complaint to the met office that Britain was due a summer between June and August and it didn't turn up.)

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/education/teachers/key-stage3/lessonplan-seasons/animation


Week 5(ish): Solar System

• Make a solar system mobile

http://play.powerhousemuseum.com/makedo/pdfs/Mobile_Solar_System.pdf

This is where I spend 2 hours cutting out fiddly little shapes and sticking them together while the kids wander off...probably to eat more biscuits.

• Discuss the position of the planets. Or point the kids towards a book and make knowledgeable noises. Watch parts of The Planets series that I recorded years ago anticipating this very moment. Or take note of the kids' rolled eyes and lengthy sighs and get them to watch the (much shorter) videos here:

Mercury here: http://science.discovery.com/videos/space-school-mercury.html
Venus: http://www.cosmolearning.com/videos/venus/
Earth: http://science.discovery.com/videos/space-school-earth.html
Mars: http://www.cosmolearning.com/videos/mars/
Jupiter: http://science.discovery.com/videos/space-school-jupiter.html
Saturn: http://www.cosmolearning.com/videos/saturn/
Uranus: http://science.discovery.com/videos/space-school-uranus.html


Week6(ish): More Solar System

• Take a solar system walk:

 http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/science-projects-for-kids-the-incredible-universe9.htm

(need ball about 8 inches in diameter(football); 2 pins with small round heads; 1 pin with very small round head;2 peppercorns; 1 small walnut; 1 acorn; 2 peanuts; Index cards; Glue or tape; Bright markers; yardstick; Large park and some maternal enthusiasm. Latter might be in short supply.)

• Listen to some Holst The Planets,

e.g. Mars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bcRCCg01I

or get a CD from library. Then acknowledge that none of the kids are interested but go through the motions anyway, because, after all, you are a home educator.

The End.