Little Bear Goes to the Moon

Our main selection  in the textbook reader this week is Little Bear Goes to the Moon. This means it must be time to build an International Space Station in our corner of the solar system, of course!  Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Morris, my little NASA engineers have 2 dishwasher boxes to begin creating our modules!  Today we brainstormed what design would be the best for our class.  I wrote down the ideas as the students shared them and we voted.  After the class left I did a little rearranging and placed the boxes according to their choice.  Tomorrow they will begin adding design elements to the inside and outside of the station.  I am turning the students loose to do what they want as long as the fellow astronauts agree.  Mr. Wilson, our Title 1 math teacher, has promised to get some materials so we can add the robotic arm to our station.  I love that I can offer this opportunity to the students to pretend.  I feel is often a neglected joy that some children are not participating in as much these days.  The pictures below show the raw material we are beginning the station with.

  (Trying to keep up with all the great ideas during our brainstorming session was difficult and messy!  The one circled won with 13 votes.  That is not 2+6=13, just so you know!  That was choice 2 and 6.  One with a choice with the  crawl space open and the other with no opening.  The opening with the covering won hands down!)

You will also see the beginnings of our display of the solar system outside our classroom.  The students created their own star which I think turned out rather nifty!  Stay tuned to see the new developments as they occur.