Unit on Earth
Key Terms: Earth, Stars, Sun, Moon
Goal: For the child to be able to identify earth, moon, stars, and sun when they see them.
Activities
Painting Earth on coffee filters.
I'd like to have a better picture of this, but Charlie got pretty annoyed with me for trying to make him use a paint brush (I have my nerve), and things got ugly. Allie has a full description and pictures on her site.
3D Earth
Made a salt map mixture and put it on a map of earth to make the land parts three dimensional. Charlie wasn't real crazy about making the map, but he liked checking out the finished product.
Earth in a Box
I took a cardboard box (mine was a diet coke box), cut out a hole, and taped a picture of earth inside. I waited until dark and then lit it up from the back with a flashlight. I also poked some other holes with a pen to represent the stars. Came out magical. Awesome for stimulating the visual cortex in those low vision kids too.
Play Doh Earths
I smashed together play doh to form little Earths. This project really challenged Charlie since he wasn't wild about play doh's texture.
Normally we do five projects with a unit, but allergies assaulted us recently and we just didn't have the energy to do a fifth project. If we had done one, I probably would have done something with glow in the dark stars or maybe made a mobile with the earth, moon, and stars on it.
Book We Enjoyed
Mr. and Mrs. God in the Creation Kitchen by Nancy Wood, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering. This is a wonderful myth-style story of God and his wife creating Earth in the kitchen. Very creating and the illustrations are gorgeous. Might want to skip it if you're concerned your child won't understand that it's myth.
