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Solar System Unit Study Part 2

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 Super Solar System!!! We have been having a blast this month, creating, searching, using our imaginations, and working with our hands. Come along to see us journey through space. If you missed part 1, it’s a great place to start. We had an amazing small world play, a super galactic snack, made our own constellations, and so much more.
solar system unit study, sensory play , homemade moon dough, books, crafts, games and more www.naturalbeachliving.com
This is set-up #2 for our Solar System unit. If you missed out on part 1 go here to view it, you don’t want to miss it.
solar system unit study, sensory play , homemade moon dough, books, crafts, games and more www.naturalbeachliving.com
Doesn’t this look sooooo cool. We loved it, plus it was so easy and so much fun to make.
Usually we make our own play dough but the boys were given this huge 24 pack awhile ago and I thought “why not use that”. So the boys had done their research and planned out what colors for each planet and set out to mix the play dough’s together to get the desired color.
They mixed, and mixed or I should say blended them. Here Blakey is working on the sun. He makes the funniest faces.
Little B really enjoyed the mixing part, he continued after we had the planets done to make mountains.
solar system unit study, sensory play , homemade moon dough, books, crafts, games and more www.naturalbeachliving.com
Here is their finished product. Isn’t it wonderful?
We let it harden overnight so the boys could use them and work with them, without them falling apart.
We used the Montessori Solar System cards from ETC, along with the control chart. I love the picture quality of them. (Sorry, no pictures). You can actually see the control chart hanging on the windows in our set-up picture above.
solar system unit study, sensory play , homemade moon dough, books, crafts, games and more www.naturalbeachliving.com
I set this up using our play dough planets and 2 sheets of large Black Construction paper and white crayon (you could also use chalk). This was great for them get hands on practice for knowing the order of the planets.
Little B worked on his handwriting for Kinder.
We played the Games for your brain space cards game at least 20 times this week.
solar system unit study, sensory play , homemade moon dough, books, crafts, games and more www.naturalbeachliving.com
I always like to incorporate sensory play into our units. The kids love it and it lets me use my creative side as far as set-up. Sometimes I wonder who enjoys it more…  For this unit I used Imaginext Space shuttleSafari Space Toob and Moon Dough.
Even Miss Bells got in on the sensory play. She loved it. I did watch her to make sure she didn’t try to eat it.
Recipe for Moon Dough:
I wanted to have a lot of Moon dough for the kids so I used a 5 lb. bag of Flour and 1 large bottle of baby oil. It worked out great and there was plenty to go around.
Towards the end Miss Bells wanted to get in it.
My recommendation is do this activity outside, moon dough is awesome and the kids love it but it can be on the messy side. solar system unit study, sensory play , homemade moon dough, books, crafts, games and more www.naturalbeachliving.com
Those of you that have been joining me here at Natural Beach Living for awhile probably know by now I LOVE the Amazing DK Pop out Books! In fact I think we have all of them. I know my family gets so much out of these books, they are filled with great information and are HUGE. If you don’t own any, you might want to consider adding a couple to your home library, they are so worth it.

Mom’s Favorite thing about her Solar System learning when she was little

I think it’s safe to say it was definitely one of the boys favorite things too. I can’t imagine putting together a space unit without including Astronaut Ice-cream. It was my favorite thing, I always thought it was so cool to be able to eat what the astronauts eat.
As you can see from the boys faces this was the perfect way to end our unit study, A night walk, looking up at the stars, Searching for Constellations, and enjoying Astronaut Ice-cream.
 If you are planning a Solar System unit I have lots of ideas on my Solar System Pinterest board, you should check it out.
Next Stop MOON PHASES!!!!

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