Theme: Space (Our solar system and space program)

Grades intended for:  6^th

Over the next several weeks the students will be studying our solar system, as well as

America’s space program. It is important for students to learn about the men and women

who explore our universe and the planets that surround our sun. Learning about our solar

system and space exploration is a fun and educational way to integrate the different

subject areas, while connecting them with a common theme.

Book Titles: The Planets in our Solar System by Franklyn M. Branley

*Voyager to the Planets by Necia H. Apfel (main text)

Exploring your Solar System by National Geographic Society

The Earth in Space by John and Cathleen Polgreen

Scholastic Encyclopedia of Space by Jacqueline and Simon Mitton

The Solar System by Edward and Richard Cadice Ortleb

Exploring the Planets by Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer

The Galaxy: The Solar System by Gregory L. Vogt

Other Resources:

www.nasa.gov

http://www.tcsn.net/afiner/

http://www.nasm.edu/ceps/etp/etp.htm

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/homepage.htm

http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/Pioneers

http://spaceart.com/solar/eng/history.htm

The Planets in Our Solar System (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 2)
by Franklyn M. Branley

Floating in Space (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)
by Franklyn M. Branley

Academic Standards:

 English/Language Arts

Standard 5 Writing: Applications (Different Types of Writing and Their Characteristics)

6.5.3 Write research reports that: pose relevant questions that can be answered in the report, support the main idea or ideas with facts, details, examples, and explanations from multiple authoritative sources, such as speakers, newspapers and magazines, reference books, and online information searches, and include a bibliography.

Mathematics

Standard 5: Measurement

6.5.2 Understand and use larger units for measuring length by comparing miles to yards and kilometers to meters.

Science

Standard 1: The Nature of Science and Technology

6.1.7 Explain that technology is essential to science for such purposes as access to outer space and other remote locations, sample collection and treatment, measurement, data collection and storage, computation, and communication of information.

Standard 2: Scientific Thinking

6.2.4 Inspect, disassemble, and reassemble simple mechanical devices and describe what the various parts are for. Estimate what the effect of making a change in one part of a system is likely to have on the system as a whole.

6.2.5 Organize information in simple tables and graphs and identify relationships they reveal. Use tables and graphs as examples of evidence for explanations when writing essays or writing about lab work, fieldwork, etc.

Social Studies

Standard 5: Individuals, Society, and Culture

6.5.5 Identify examples of inventions and technological innovations that have brought about cultural change in Europe and the Americas and examine their impact.

Objectives:

Students will be able to calculate how many miles each of the nine planets are away from the sun with 100% percent accuracy.

Students will be able to create a table and graph comparing the miles away from the sun each planet is after calculating how many miles each planet is away from the sun as a class with 100% accuracy.

Students will research one of the nine planets or the sun and write a research report containing factual information and a bibliography with a least three sources (one being an internet source) given resources such as books, magazines, and websites by the teacher with minimal errors.

Students will follow instructions given to them by the teacher and assemble a rocket with 100% accuracy.

Students will be able to launch their rocket on Launch Day with adult supervision and help with 100% accuracy.

Students will be able to identify essential parts on their rocket, and answer questions orally on why each part is important after a power point given by the teacher with 100% accuracy.

Week 1: Activities

Monday

I will be introducing the Solar System by producing a power point presentation on each planet, and the sun. The presentation will not be a straight lecture, but the students will engage in questions and observations orally as a class. The power point will outline key facts about each planet, and the sun. Then the students will cut out and color Solar System Cards that they will play a game with on Tuesday. Gardner’s Intelligences-

Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial

Tuesday

Assign and explain Planet Research Project. Each student will be assigned a planet form the solar system to write a report on. Pass out instructions on paper along with a rubric for the project. Gardner’s Intelligences- verbal/linguistic, intrapersonal, naturalist. (the report itself) Read aloud as a class a short excerpt from Exploring Your Solar System about Mercury and show pictures from book. Allow students to discuss the pictures, and what they have learned as a class. Watch short National Geographic movie on the Solar System. Ask the student’s questions about the Solar System and Mars from the reading and movie. Gardner’s Intelligences-verbal/linguistic. Then have them answer aloud orally as a class. Play Solar System Card Game, What Planet am I? Students will need their solar system playing cards that they created with facts about each planet on them. Then in pairs one person starts describing a planet without saying the planet’s name, and then asks their partner, Which Plant am I? Their partner takes a guess and if he/she is correct then it is their turn to be the describer. If they answer the question wrong, then the describer gives more clues about the planet until he/she partner get the planet name right or the describer has ran out of facts to describe the planet with. Gardner’s Intelligences-Verbal/Linguistic, Interpersonal

Wednesday

Read aloud as a class a short excerpt from Exploring Your Solar System about Venus. Introduce Neil Armstrong, and share a short biography on him, and his first steps on the moon as a class. Gardner’s Intelligences- verbal/linguistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal. Watch a short clip of the moon landing. Introduce build your own spaceship project. Give students instructions, and assign groups. Students will build their own “spaceship” out of cardboard, aluminum foil, glue, glitter, construction paper, and other miscellaneous art supplies. Allow students to use total creativity and have fun! Gardner’s Intelligences- verbal/linguistic, interpersonal, visual/spatial.

Thursday

Read aloud as a class a short excerpt from Exploring Your Solar System about Earth. Have a short discussion on material. Gardner’s Intelligences- verbal/linguistic, interpersonal. During math write on board the distance from the sun between each planet in miles. Have the students in their groups convert the miles into yards. As a class, create a chart showing how many miles/ yards away from the sun each planet is, comparing one to the other. Gardner’s Intelligences- verbal/linguistic, interpersonal, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial. Then have each student draw a line graph individually on graph paper corresponding with the chart. Gardner’s Intelligences- intrapersonal, logical/mathematical. For P.E. play space tag outside as a class. (Use 9 cones, or any type of markers that the students can see and label each with the name of a planet.) Pick one or two people in the class to be it, and have them try to tag their fellow classmates. When someone is tagged they choose one “planet to go to” and stay there until the game is over and everyone has been tagged. Play two or three rounds of the game. Give the students 15 minutes at the end of the day to finish their “spaceships.” Gardner’s Intelligences- interpersonal, bodily/kinesthetic.

Friday

Read aloud as a class a short excerpt from Exploring Your Solar System about Mars. Gardner’s Intelligences- verbal/linguistic. Students will each receive a rocket building kit complete with all the material and directions on how to build a rocket. They will also receive a permission slip to take home to their parents to be able to do the project and participate in the launch, the following week. The rocket project will be explained, but no building will be done on this particular day. Gardner’s Intelligences- verbal/linguistic. Taste the food astronauts eat! (order from scholastic or discovery shop)

Monday

Read aloud as a class a short excerpt from Exploring Your Solar System about Jupiter. Start to build rockets. (have parent volunteers come in and help) Gardner’s Intelligences- verbal/linguistic, intrapersonal, logical/mathematical. Read short story on Space Race between Russia and the Untied States, and what it meant that Russia landed on the moon first. Gardner’s Intelligences- verbal/linguistic. Play Space Race. Split the class in half, and have one team be Russia and one be the United States. Then give each team a potato sack, in which they have to jump in to get to the moon. (a giant ball or any total marker) The race will be a potato sack race with a twist! The goal of the game is to get your whole team (either Russia or the United States) to the moon first! Gardner’s Intelligences- interpersonal, bodily/kinesthetic

Tuesday

Read aloud to the class The Planets in Our Solar System. Gardner’s Intelligences - verbal/linguistic. Finish building rockets, and place them back in box for launch day. Gardner’s Intelligences- verbal/linguistic, intrapersonal, logical/mathematical. Have the students get into groups of three or four and have them create a song about the solar system or an individual planet. Or they could choose to write one on an astronaut. Encourage them to be creative! Have them get perform the song in front of the class, and have each group turn in the words to their song. Gardner’s Intelligences- Verbal/Linguistic, Interpersonal, Musical/Rhythmic.

Wednesday

Read aloud as a class a short excerpt from Exploring Your Solar System about Saturn and Uranus. Gardner’s Intelligences- Verbal/Linguistic. Play Solar System Jeopardy by creating five categories and five questions to go along with each category. Then set up a board on the overhead projector like the board on the television show. Split the class in half, by having the students that sit on the right side of the class, against those who sit on the left. Then go around the classroom, allowing each student to answer a question. Gardner’s Intelligences- Verbal/Linguistic, Interpersonal, Logical/Mathematical.

Thursday

Read aloud as a class a short excerpt from Exploring Your Solar System about Neptune and Pluto. Gardner’s Intelligences- Verbal/Linguistic. Have the students write an

Acrostic poem using the word space. Show them an example on the board. (S- Solar system P-Pluto A- Astronaut C- Comets E- enormous) Gardner’s Intelligences- Verbal/Linguistic, Intrapersonal, Visual/Spatial.

Friday-

Launch Day! Launch the rockets that the students made. Make sure to ask for parent volunteers to come in and help. After launching the rockets, and picking up the mess have a Space Party! Make a spaceship cake, and have space ice cream. (astronaut food)

Play space Jeopardy again, or allow the students to play solar system card game…or both! Have Fun! Gardner’s Intelligences- Intrapersonal

Activities: Space Week

Grouping: When doing projects as a class I will assign groups for most the projects. I will place gifted students with those who may have a hard time following directions and understanding new concepts. So that during the projects students can receive some peer help.  I will not have the groups stay the same throughout the unit. I will change them after each activity. Some students may be in the same group together more then once, but the complete group will never be repeated, in order to mix things up! This will help students interact with each other, and maybe work with a student they have not worked with before. For the building a spaceship activity- larger groups of six or seven, create a song about a planet- small groups of three or four,

Checklist:

    Introduce the solar system

    Make solar system playing cards

    Read about each planet

    Watch solar system movies

    Lance Armstrong biography

    Spaceship building

    Math chart

    Math graph

     Build rockets

    Eat astronaut food

    Play moon race

    Planet song

    Play Solar System Jeopardy

    Write an acoustic poem

    Lunch rockets!

Bloom’s Taxonomy:

Level 1 Knowledge:

1. What are the names of the nine planets in our Solar System?

2. Can you list the nine planets in our Solar System according to their distance from the sun? (Nearest to farthest)

3. Which planet has seven moons?

Level 2 Comprehension:

1. Compare the miles from the sun that Jupiter is to Pluto.

2. Explain how the earth is constantly moving around the sun.

Level 3 Application:

1. How could you construct a graph that corresponds with the chart we made in class,       comparing the distance from the sun that each planet?

2. Apply what knowledge you have of a particular planet of your choice to write a research paper on.

3. Build a rocket by following the given instructions.

Level 4 Analysis:

1. Compare and Contrast the planets earth and mars.

2. What are the functions of the sun?

3. Can you list a few of the parts that go into building a rocket or spaceship?

Level 5 Synthesis:

1. How would you improve our theme unit on Space?

2. Estimate the average time it takes earth to rotate once around the sun.

3. What is the purpose of space exploration?

Level 6 Evaluation:

1. Compare the way your group constructed their spaceship to the other groups. What could you have done or included to make yours better?

2. How could you determine the distance between the Mercury and Pluto?

3. Explain why Russia landing on the moon first had such an impact on the United States space program.