Guide to Space and Heavenly Bodies Study for Kids (with FREE Resources)

I’ve been planning this unit since last month because I wanted to prepare ahead of time. We’ve done A LOT of space and heavenly bodies unit in the past and I wanted to upgrade the lesson, add something new for Mavi to learn.  So right now, I’m sharing our Space and Heavenly Bodies Study for this year. I’m also putting a bunch of links from our previous lessons and activities for your reference. I hope you find this post helpful.

Space and Solar System

               
Solar System and Planets Part I
Solar System and Planets Part II
Planets and Solar System for Preschoolers
Moon Phases

        
The Moon
Phases of the Moon
A look at the Northern and Southern Sky
We looked into the star constellation maps seen in the northern and southern hemisphere.  This is to make Mavi aware that there are stars that can be seen in the northern part of the world but not visible on the other side.

                   
Stars and Constellations
For the details of our constellation study, click here or click the image below.  The material we used here is the Fantacolor pegboard.
Space Exploration History
I made chronological cards of the space exploration history.  The pictures and the fact cards were all taken and referenced from Wikipedia and Wiki Commons.  Though Mavi can read this straight from the site, I wanted to have something tangible and something that we can work on, like arranging the timeline and matching it with objects.

The cards I created contains the year and a title of the major event that occurred in that year.  The description is very much readable by kids though there were a few words that Mavi couldn’t pronounce well or he needed to ask me for the meaning.  Such a good material to improve reading skills, spelling and vocabulary!
After which, I showed him how we can arrange the cards according to their timeline.  This gives him a visual presentation of the order of events. 

Aside from arranging the cards chronologically, you can also use them to match objects.  Here we used Safari Toobs Space, Safari Toob Insects (fly) and Safari Toob Farm (dog).

So if you wanted to have a copy of the cards for Space History Timeline, click here for the link.
Parts of a Space Shuttle
The parts of a space shuttle is something that Mavi really looked forward to.  Oh boy he was so happy that I made him another “flying object”.  The first one was the Airplane Nomenclature Cards, and here’s the newest Space Shuttle Nomenclature Cards.  This is based on the NASA’s space shuttle design.  Using the cards, a child will learn the different parts of a space shuttle.  I wrote the parts’ functions in a notebook because I was out of ink.

To get a copy of the Space Shuttle Nomenclature Cards, click here.
Sensory Tub
Now, this is something I prepared for both of the boys to play with.  Xavi had his own Letter S: Star Unit study last week so it was timely that I prepared this Space Sensory Tub for the boys.  Figures are from Safari Toob Space, homemade PlayDoh planets and homemade Earth felt.

A Continent Study of AFRICA for Kids

It’s a month of Africa Continent study in the house.  Mavi enjoyed learning about this beautiful continent, its geography, exploring the different places and landmarks, the wildlife and habitats and of course the different culture and traditions that make Africa unique!

The Study of Ancient Egypt

Here’s a collection of activities for Ancient Egypt Study.  We’ve been using the books The Story of the World Vol 1 and The Usborne Ancient World [aff.link] as our guide and references. This is the first time we’ve ever had an Egypt Study and I was very happy of how Mavi showed so much interest.

 

The Desert.  Learning all about the desert and the environment of Egypt.  We used oatmeal to represent the sand and the figures seen here are from Safari Toobs. 

Mummification.  We tried to apply what we’ve learned of how mummies are made.  Here we prepared a few spices and a tissue wrap to embalm our skeleton model (sorry we did not have any human model LOL). So after wrapping the body, we placed it in sarcophagus (box) and added jewels for the buried King to bring with him in the after life.Familiarization with the Egypt Map and the Nile River.  We used the worksheet from  The Story of the World Vol 1 to recreate the map in a painting.  This will familiarize the child of Egypt’s geography .  See how Mavi made his Nile Delta and the river met in the Mediterranean Sea.

                     

Ancient Egypt Toob.  These are fantastic!  The figures are so detailed and Mavi loved examining each one.  Here, we are learning about each figure (vocabulary) so he’s researching in the internet and the book what each means/represent.  The cards are from Memorizing the Moments.

Pyramids. Mavi recreated the pyramids using his LEGO. That’s supposed to be three pyramids, but Vito played and broke the smallest one.

Papyrus.  We also made this using parchment paper! See how we did it here!

And that’s how we study Ancient Egypt. Next year, when we revisit our World History lessons, we’ll dig a little bit deeper on this subject :)  Hope you like this post. Have fun!

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Geological Time Scale with Safari Toobs

Last year, I was able to purchase the Cambrian and Prehistoric Life Toobs from Amazon because it was on sale.  I’ve always wanted to have them so we can use the figures in our Geological Time lesson. Remember the first time Mavi and I had the lesson at home? It was a hit! He love it so much! His interest came to light when he started reading the Universe Trilogy:

Born with a Bang

Lava to Life

Mammals who Morph

After which he started to do his own “timeline” by connecting the dots in the stories (based on the books).  Because we didn’t have the appropriate figures, our representation of the timeline is incomplete.  And finally, these toobs were on sale and we just have to finish what we started!

So here are the additional toobs that we used (aside from the dinosaur toobs)":

The Cambrian Toob. Loooove them! They are so colourful and the details! OMG!

The Prehistoric Life Miniatures.  Love this well!  Too bad it doesn’t have enough animal figures on it though. But we love it anyway.

So here are my boys, Mavi putting things in action.  I made the paper mat. I simply added the label on the side.

And Vito, taking away the items from the mat and destroying everything that Mavi has created LOL.

Ahhh… here it is! I finally got the chance to snap a photo of Mavi’s work while the little one is napping.

Pictures below how Mavi would research each of the figures.  Yes I’m beginning to teach him to do research using the web.  He’s getting there, he loves reading out loud his discoveries (soon I’ll teach him how to take down notes!).  I told him we can do research in books and in the internet nowadays.  I also made labels for each figures.  They are actually etched on each but it so difficult to read. 

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More of Science-related activities here!

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Life Cycle: Organisms

 

We started our Organisms Unit early this week and it was a joy Mavi had a great time learning about the living organisms and the different forms of life. I like that we will only have a few activities here. Focus on the quality, making sure that the child truly understands the concept behind the activity.

The key concept of this unit is for the child to learn that there are other organisms besides human and animals. That these organisms thrive and reproduce for survival. The following are the activities that we performed for the unit:

LIVING AND NON-LIVING

Objectives: To be able to sort the living and the non-living objects.

Task:

1. Describe the characteristics that makes an object a living organism.
2. Distinguish objects that are non-living but have been created from living objects (wooden cabinet).
3. What are the three important requirements of a living organism to thrive or grow?

Vocabulary: animal, living, non-living, organism

 

ANIMAL FAMILIES

Objective: Classification and sorting of objects, in order to group them into larger groups (Families)

Task:

1. Discuss the families of the animals, what do you call the father, the mother and the baby and their group.
2. Comparing the animal tracks. Those with round shape, hoofs or prints with toes.
3. Classifying animals whether they live in land, water or sky.

Vocabulary: family, group, classification

   

ANIMAL HABITATS

Objective: Comparing where animals live.

Mid this year, we have conducted a study of the different habitats of animals around the world.  You can view our lesson here and here.

Next week, my son and I will work on the human body.  Still part of the Life Cycle theme… that evolves around organisms. 

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Linking to:

Montessori Monday
TGIF Linky Party
Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!

The Geological Times

By now, you all know that my son is into history… the beginning of times.  I’m thinking of feeding this current interest and I find myself introducing topics which are unplanned.

FREE Feathered Dinosaur Cards

Hello everyone! I made these cards ages ago and we use it to play matching game with our Safari Feathered Dinosaur Toob.  I’ll be posting our Dino Study this week for more dino-related activities that you can do with your little people.  Hope you like my cards.  Enjoy!

Animal Exploration: A Study Guide

One of my objective this year is for Mavi to have a bigger understanding of the animal kingdom.  During his preschool and totschool days, I introduced animals via themed activities which he truly enjoyed.  But there was a point that he would asks more complicated questions and I just knew that I have to put “depth” into our lessons.

So let me share with you our outline of study which I considered as a guideline whenever we have a study about animals.  Now, this outline is for elementary level and I would not recommend this to preschoolers.  Familiarization is the first key for preschoolers to understand about the animals and the themed activities are best for this.

ANIMAL KINGDOM (Blog Post, Animal Kingdom Chart and Cards)

• VERTEBRATE SORTING (Blog Post, Vertebrate Sorting Cards)

 

• Study of Birds (Bird Unit I, Bird Unit II, Bird Activities, Bird Printable Pack)

 

• Study of Fish
• Study of Reptiles
• Study of Amphibians/Frogs
• Study of Mammals
• Animal Lifecycles (Blog Post, FREE Animal Lifecycle Cards )

 

• MOLLUSCS:  The Study of Snails  (Part One, Part Two, Snail Nomenclature Card and Definition Booklet)

• ARTHROPODS (FREE Arthropod Chart)
  • ARTHROPODS: The Study of Insects (Part One, Part Two)

• Butterfly Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet (FREE)
• Insect Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet
• Grasshopper Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet
• Ant Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet
• Caterpillar Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet
• ARTHROPODS: The Study of Crustaceans
  • Crab Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet
• ARTHROPODS: The Study of Arachnids
  • Spider Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet
• ARTHROPODS: The Study of Chilopods
  • Centipede Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet

We also looked into the habitats of these animals:

ANIMALS AND THEIR HABITATS (Part One, Part Two, Animal Habitat Learning Materials )

 

For animals in freshwater and marine animals:

ANIMALS IN MARINE ECOSYSTEM (Blog Post, FREE Animals in Marine Ecosystem Cards )

ANIMALS IN FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEM (Materials Used, Blog Post)

There are fields that we haven’t touched yet, and I am hoping that we could explore them before the year ends.

Hope that you find this post helpful.

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
TGIF Linky Party
Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!