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Science: Having Fun with the Solar System

G2 is learning about space in school so when I this cool solar system jigsaw puzzle in Borders, I couldn’t resist. It would have been way cooler if it had been “glow in the dark” but for RM25, who’s complaining?

All right! All right! The truth is I’ve always wanted one of these for myself because space is my own pet interest. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t hopeful that the boys might get interested if I started working on it. And they did…

G1 worked on it with me fairly solidly from the start and would have continued if we were interrupted by dinner. The next morning, G2 decided he had to put in the finishing touches since most of the work was already done.

We also got into the subject of Pluto’s “planet” status which is apparently under debate again and discovered that NASA’s New Horizons is scheduled to pass Pluto on July 14 this year.

Other Cool Activities for Kids on the Solar System

Papier Mache Solar System Model

There are lots of instructions for these around:

Papier Mache Solar System – Instructables
A Classroom Solar System – University of Colorado at Boulder
Classroom Planetarium – Discovery Education

Solar System Hanging Mobile

If papier mache is too messy for you, here’s another art and craft activity you can try making a solar system hanging mobile. Instructions here:

You can also get a DIY model kit from 4M Labs if you want it even easier.

How Many Planets – They Might Be Giants

You can learn about the planets by singing along with They Might Be Giants…

Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space

Or you can read about it from Miss Frizzle and her adventures on the Magic School Bus (another series of fun science storybooks that we really enjoyed):

You can also watch the video from ETeach3r on Vimeo:

The Cat in the Hat – There’s No Place Like Space

The Cat in the Hat also tells you all about the planets in There’s No Place Like Space:

And on their video series – The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That: Space is the Place.

Or from the Cat in the Hat App on Space:

Study the Constellations

When G1 was little, we made a night sky projector from a DIY kit. It was crude and highly inaccurate, but it was fun to make. I’ve always been bummed by the fact that we can’t really study the night sky here because our city lights are too bright. The only time we ever managed to do any star gazing was when we were back in Australia. So I looked around for night sky projector and found this…

The Star Theater Pro from Uncle Milton

Pretty sure the boys wouldn’t really care for it but the child in me really wants it. I could go to sleep to this every night…

More Stuff on the Solar System:

Touchpress Educational Apps has a great app on the Solar System
BP Educational Service – STEM Online Resources also covers Earth and Space
Junior Astronaut – Breaking Through the Space Barrier
TweedleWink Science – the Solar System

Scientific Explorer My First Outer Space Science Kit

by Shen-Li Lee Leave a Comment

What do you see in the sky at night
The moon and stars and maybe even another planet
In this kit you?ll find everything you need to bring the outer space indoors
You create amazing displays of stars and planets on your ceiling and walls
Over nearly two decades, Scientific Explorer has earned a reputation for creating science activity kits unmatched in the specialty retail market

What do you see in the sky at night? The moon and stars and maybe even another planet. But they’re so far away. Let’s bring them closer to home. In this kit you’ll find everything you need to bring the outer space indoors. You create amazing displays of stars and planets on your ceiling and walls. You’ll make your own pattern of shining stars, and you’ll get planets to glow in the dark. Along the way you’ll learn some really cool science about all the things floating around in space. Over nearly two decades, Scientific Explorer has earned a reputation for creating science activity kits unmatched in the specialty retail market. What’s our secret? We make science fun. While it’s just as important for children to have as strong a foundation in science as they do in reading and math, test scores indicate that science knowledge is lagging. Our response has been to partner with scientists, educators and parents to develop kits that engage children by promoting hands-on learning, which research shows is the deepest form of learning. No textbooks–just entertaining step-by-step activity guides and eye-catching graphics that walk children through scientific concepts without them even realizing they’re being taught.

List Price: $ 19.99
Price: $ 11.98

Flashcards: Solar System

by Shen-Li Lee 2 Comments

Looking for more flashcards? Check out our Free Flashcards Resource Page.

These are flashcards on the Solar System. I know I’ve included Pluto which isn’t a planet, but the subject is the Solar System and Pluto is still a part of our Solar System so I have kept is as a slide. Feel free to delete it if you feel it should not be included into this series.

How to use the slides:

I used to recommend a blog post I wrote some time back titled “How to Teach Your Baby (the Glenn Doman way)” as described in the book “How to Teach Your Baby to Read” by Glenn Doman. However, since teaching my children using this method, I have found it to be unnecessarily repetitive and too slow. Doman is right – children are brilliant learners and they can learn very fast – but I feel his method doesn’t address this adequately because it incorporates too many repetitions. Children can learn so fast that sometimes all it takes is one flash taken in at a glance.

If you’re like me, doubting whether once is enough, then you may want to repeat the series a few more times. I’m not going to make a recommendation on how many times it is necessary to show a child a series of flashcards because I don’t believe I have enough experience on this topic to do that. Even now I still have trouble believing that a child can learn that quickly even though my son has proven to me time an again that it is so. However, I do believe that 3 times a day for 5 days is probably a tad excessive. It appears that a number of other mothers who have tried the Doman method concur.

Flash the cards quickly – about the pace of one card per second. The younger your child, the faster I would go. It is difficult to maintain the attention of a very young child unless you do flash them quickly.

Flashcards in this series:

Download the flashcards:

Looking for more flashcards? Check out our Free Flashcards Resource Page.

Sights and Sounds: The Planetarium and KLCC Art Gallery

by Shen-Li Lee 3 Comments

After our rather successful day out at Sunway Pyramid, I was inspired to take Gavin to see more things. One of the subjects I have been trying to introduce Gavin to is Astronomy and the planets. I bought this book and mobile and showed him the planets some time back.

Not surprisingly, he wasn’t that interested. I figured if he went to a planetarium and saw some cooler models of the solar system, he would find the subject much more interesting. I was thinking specifically of the room with the night sky and the stars which I remember hearing about. I figured that was probably about as good a night sky as Gavin is likely to see living in densely populated city such as KL.

Indeed, Gavin did find the planetarium interesting…

At least, he found the external sculptures surrounding the planetarium to be a fun playground. I wasn’t exactly sure how Stonehenge was relevant to Astronomy…

…so I looked it up:

“Stonehenge consists of large carved stones assembled about 4000 years ago. Long before modern England was established, ancient inhabitants somehow moved 25 ton rocks nearly 20 miles to complete it. From similar constructs of the era, people could learn the time of year by watching how the Sun and Moon rose and set relative to accurately placed stones and pits. The placement of the boulders at Stonehenge, however, is not impressively accurate by today’s standards, nor even by the standards of that time. Therefore, modern scholars interpret Stonehenge as a colossal monument to the Sun in celebration of the predictability of the seasons.”

Another interesting monument – the Guo Shou Jing Observatory. It was used by Chinese Astronomers to acquire calendrical and astronomical information for the Chinese Emperor to help provide his mandate to rule.

“Look Mummy, grass…” At least that’s what Gavin thought it was.

The long trek up to the planetarium.

Gavin had fun walking up the stairs.

One of the few pictures of the planets that we saw. The shot is a view of the Earth as seen from the moon.

Inside a space rocket.

The toilet that they use.

A place for handling samples without contaminating them.

We were the only ones there so Gavin had a free run of the place.

The take-off bunkers.

A model of the rocket.

A model of the engine from Viking, the space probe.

It was unfortunately that we went at a time when the planetarium was under renovations because there wasn’t much to see. According to the staff there, the renovations won’t be completed until June or July. Most of the planetarium was devoted to displaying stuff about astronauts and rockets. There wasn’t much about the solar system, which was a big disappointment. I suppose that was the part they are currently working on. Well, at least admission was free.

While we were driving around the area, I noticed that there is a lot more interesting sites to see around the planetarium – a bird park, orchid garden, hibiscus garden, butterfly park, and the museum. We were a little rushed for time because I needed to get some groceries so we didn’t end up checking out any of these other places. Instead, we headed over to KLCC where we had a quick browse through the art gallery before heading to the supermarket.

Gavin found the art gallery pretty interesting, too. Perhaps a little too interesting because he kept wanting to touch the sculptures. I told him he could look but he wasn’t allowed to touch. His interpretation of that was that he couldn’t touch them with his hands, but nudging them with his feet was okay. Toddlers…

I couldn’t take any pictures inside the gallery because cameras weren’t allowed.

The Petronas Art Gallery is a pretty small gallery currently featuring works from local artists. Admission is free. KLCC also has a Science Discovery Center which I think I will take Gavin to visit next. They are also currently featuring a Dinosaur exhibit.

Science: Having Fun with the Solar System

Other Cool Activities for Kids on the Solar System

Scientific Explorer My First Outer Space Science Kit

Flashcards: Solar System

Sights and Sounds: The Planetarium and KLCC Art Gallery

Raising Successful Children

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