Seriously Spectacular Space Projects

2 Summers ago I saw these little bags of styrofoam balls at DollarTree. They caught my attention instantly because an idea had already been tumbling around in my head for a couple of years but

styrofoam balls from the craft store are ridiculously overpriced, especially when you need about 8 (sorry Pluto :{ ) for 25 or so kids.  

I just couldn't believe how perfect these little $1 bags were.  Each one has 8 styrofoam balls AND 4 of them are small and 4 of them are larger!  Could it be more perfect?  

(Well... actually, yes, I suppose it could, and I did have a little discussion with my kiddos about how these 8 little balls weren't PERFECTLY proportionate to all 8 planets, but they are perfect for approximately representing the 4 inner Rocky Midgets and the 4 outer Gas Giants.) 

Anyway, I'm sure you can see where this was headed.  I saw the bags;  The idea was already brewing and just waiting to burst out of my brain; I had to buy them, that is 30 bags of them.  :)  So there they sat in my classroom cupboard for 2 years waiting for the perfect opportunity to be put to use.  I wanted to use them with my little firsties last year but it just seemed like a little much.  So this year when I switched to third grade the timing was perfect and they couldn't have turned out any more amazing!

WANT TO MAKE SOME WITH YOUR STUDENTS? YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR FREE HERE.

I gave each student a little bag of balls and a note of instructions that explained that they needed to represent the sun, all 8 planets, (and Pluto if they wanted), the stars, and the asteroid belt and each celestial body needed to be labeled.  I gave them some ideas for mounting/displayed their project and offered wire hangers for any students that wanted them, but most found their own way and they seriously turned out so awesome.  Can you believe 3rd graders did this?

We left them on display in the entryway of the school and they were quite the hit!  

Some kids cut them in half and mounted them.  Some kids used wires and sticks to mount them.  Some hung them.  

Quite simply: They were amazing.

This one was quite possibly my favorite. It's impossible to tell from this poor phone photo, but she went far above and beyond.  She labeled several stars and even added little labeled moons to the planets with toothpicks.  And of course you can just barely see little Pluto there on the end.  The whole thing was about 5-6 feet long and pretty impressive hanging from our ceiling.

When we were all finished learning about the solar system and completing our Planet Books, (click image to purchase)

and had finished our test, we celebrated by making delectable Solar System Cookies. 

I haven't quite caught back up with blogging/teaching/mommying/and creating teaching projects... so I don't have a picture of the 3rd grade cookies from this year, but here's one from a few years ago.  You can check out more details about the cookies and a few highlights of our Space activities from last year here.  

Hooray for the Humans...Part II

Since our little angel was born I have been busy with returning to teaching half-day, adjusting to life as mommy and teacher, and settling into our new home.  My third graders and I recently had a blast learning about the Human Body.  We used the Human Body Book that I created last year, 

  

and of course displayed the Human Body System Posters I created. 

Plus we added lots of fun new things to our learning! 

Unlike last year, we didn't have access to real-life skeleton so we had to settle for this little guy that the 6th grade let us borrow:

Like most, my kiddos love everything hands-on.  They were so fascinated with the human body and all of it’s amazing systems and I wanted them to have the opportunity to CREATE something to help solifidy their understanding of each system and its parts so I created this Human Body System Craft Book.  We used common household/classroom items to represent the different parts of the system (for example – little pink water balloons for the lungs, gold pipecleaners for the nerves, and a sponge for the brain).  When we finished learning about all of the systems we bound them in a book and wow, they look fabulous!  What a neat learning souvenir. 

 

You can purchase the Human Body Systems Craft Book here.  It includes a materials list and instruction page for each system, as well as a template for each body system, covers for the book and pictures of the completed crafts.

Of course we also made our little body system paper dolls (the kids LOVE them) before we took our test.  

Want a copy of the study guide and test I used?  You can download it for free here:

 And I had a wonderful TPT follower ask if I could provide her with the Human Body System Posters so she could translate them into Spanish.  Well… since I work in a school with a Spanish emphasis and LOTS of great Spanish-speaking teachers I went ahead and did it myself (with their help of course) and you can purchase those here if you’re interested.  They are PERFECT for Spanish-speaking schools or Spanish-immersion schools where science is taught in Spanish.  I hope somebody finds a good use for them!

Hooray for the Humans! {Human Body Systems}

We spent the last 3 weeks learning all about the Human Body.  I love to teach it and the kids really love learning about it! As part of the Core Knowledge Sequence we learn about 5 major body systems: Skeletal, Muscular, Circulatory, Digestive, and Nervous.  We started with the skeletal system:

Don't their dancing skeletons look adorable?  (Sorry the hall lighting is not so great...) We labeled most of the major bones and the kids loved singing 'dem bones' along to a youtube song video.  

We also labeled all the bones (and later the organs in the digestive/respiratory/nervous systems) on this awesome velcro felt board that a student's parent sent.  I tried to find where I can buy one but was unsuccessful. If you know, PLEASE tell me.  I must know.

While digging through old files from my parents I found these x-rays of my own teeth when I was 8 years old.  The kids thought it was pretty fun to see my permanent teeth hiding beneath the roots of my baby teeth.

We were SUPER lucky since our school is a K-9 charter school the Jr. High Science teacher happened to have a real human skeleton that we borrowed for a week.  I was worried that the kids might be creeped out, but they were really mature about it and even nick-named him Bob.  I couldn't help but chuckle when they would grab their writing paper and walk past and say "Hi Bob."

A parent picked up these 36" RCWilley tape measures for free which made measuring our bodies MUCH easier.  I highly recommend.  Snag some at your local furniture store (IKEA also has them) and laminate and they are PERFECT!  So much easier than end-to-end rulers. We recorded all of our measurements including the circumference of our heads, the length from our hips to our toes in a little booklet about our body measurements.

I also had this great medical flip chart straight from a Dr.'s office.  It has AWESOME realistic diagrams.  Next time you visit, ask your Dr. if he has one you can have! :)

Here are a few sample pages from my newest TPT & TN products.  First is our Human Body book containing a picture and writing page for the Skeletal, Muscular, Digestive, Circulatory, Nervous, Respiratory, and Urinary Systems.  We added a page to our book as we learned about each system. It also includes a the human body systems paper dolls (a favorite with the kids) pictured below and few 5 senses things as well. Check it out here (TPT) or here (TN).

I also created these Human Body Posters for each of the systems. You can see those here (TPT) or here (TN).

What fun things do you do to teach the Human Body?  

Leave me a comment or link to your blog post about it.  I would love to hear and see!

 **update 3/6/14 I have added two new Human Body System products to my shop - One is Spanish Human Body System Posters



and the other is a book of Crafts for each of the Body Systems

ALL about SPACE! And Giveaway update...

Right before the Thanksgiving break we finished studying all about Space.  It is always one of my favorite things to teach and I was sad we had to squeeze it into less time than usual. :(  But we still managed to do TONS of fun things.  Check them out!

First we learned all about Earth and it's layers (plus volcanoes, geysers, etc... all that fun stuff) so we made these fun layers using an awesome recipe from First Grade Fanatics (thank you!)

 Then we dove into the universe and learned all about each planet.  After learning about each one and its place in the solar system and distance from the sun we made these fun posters to display in our hallway.

  (Hint: The stars ("constellations" are just normal white paint put into a regular spray bottle, then sprayed on.  Looks fantastic and it's so easy.  You might need to dilute the paint.)

The kids were THRILLED to discover the planets magically hanging from our ceiling when they came to school mid-unit one day. You can't see in this picture, but each one is labeled on the ceiling.  We practice singing their order and pointing to them and the kids just LOVE lining up under them.  (Our song goes "Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, these are the planets and their order in our solar system" to the tune of One Little, Two Little Indians)

Each student all made their own Planet Booklet with a secret page.  I'm not sure what the "true name" of this kind of book is, I just remember doing it when I was in school and thinking the secret page was the coolest thing ever.

 Inside we drew and wrote about each of the planets.  

 Then last of all we took a Field Trip to the local Planetarium.  We got to see "Perfect Little Planet" and it was a perfect culmination.  The kids LOVED it and it was so educational.

Of course they had to play on the moon...

And on Mars...

And last of all we made Solar System Space Cookies. My wonderful student's parents provided all of the materials and the kids had a blast. 

Here's what one from last year turned out like.

Leave me a comment and post a link to what you do for space, I always love to get great new ideas!

PS - My giftcard giveaway is STILL going on! I just posted it on Facebook and was thrilled to see that TeachersNotebook is going to match my $10 giftcard giveaway.  What was going to be $10 has now doubled and is $20.  Can beat that!  It's free!  So hurry and check out my previous post already.  

Click here to go straight to that post.

Oceans Galore!

We've been learning all about animals and habitats and just finished a unit on the oceans.  The kids loved it and were each assigned to do a sea animal report and model. They were so cute, clever, and creative.  I loved seeing all of the different ideas they came up with.  

 We had clay and sand...

 rocks, felt, and paint...

 salt dough...

 water colors

 more clay

 drawings

 SQUASH!  How clever is that?  I loved it.

painting and lots more!  As a culminating activity we made these fun fish-bowls with paper plates, sand, and cellophane.  The kids loved it. We got in some good counting practice waiting for the plates to dry because I told them they needed to hold them together and count to 100 twice :) hehe.  

 

 

So cute.  

If you want to download the sea creature report form and other ocean writing pages for free click here.