*Stars Beneath Your Bed:

The Surprising Story of Dust.*

Barnes and Nobles www.bn.com

Book and website intended for 4th and 5th graders

Website created by: Meganmarie Pinkerton

And

Carrie Strahammer

  What is dust? How are sunsets made? The book Stars Beneath Your Bed: the Surprising Story of Dust, poetically explains what dust is, how it is made and how it is connected to nature's most beautiful sights! The sunrise and sunset!   

Before you read the book:

Activity 1:

~Using what you know about dust fill out the first two sections of the K-W-L chart!

Activity 2:

~Go to http://www.crosswordpuzzlegames.com/create.html  site and create a cross word puzzle to trade with a friend. Use these words from the story

Asteroids ~ Comet

Savanna ~ Whirlwinds

Dust ~ Pollen

Plow ~ Meer Kats

Gazelle ~ Sahara

Atmosphere ~ Particles

and find a good clue by clicking on "student dictionary"  using this on-line dictionary.

While you read the book:

Activity 3:

~ Read the first page of the book and look at these pictures of a sunset, and make your own sunset on a coffee filter.

Materials: washable markers in the colors of a sunset, a coffee filter and a glass of water.

Directions: fold coffee filter in half so it looks like this:

Then fold the coffee filter twice more so it looks like this:

Now take your markers and lightly color your filter the colors of a sunset, use the lightest colors at the tip and work up!

Finally dip the tip of your colored coffee filter into the cup of water and watch as the colors move up the filter to create a beautiful sunrise or sunset! Let your filter dry and read more of the book.

Activity 4:

~When you get to the end of the book try this cool experiment to see how dust moves in the classroom! 

Click on "Classroom dust clouds" and give it a try!

After you're done reading:

Activity 5:

~Now that your done reading print off your lab report sheet Sunset Experiment worksheet.pdf  and do this really neat experiment to see how dust and light work together to make cool colors!

http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/HOMEEXPTS/bluesky.html

Activity 6:

~Use your imagination to write a story from the view point of dust. Include how you became dust, the places you traveled, and how you traveled there and finally were you finally landed.

Rubric

Print off these rubric to so you know what is expected of you for this project.

Stars Beneath Your Bed Grading Rubric.pdf