The grade 3’s began their space unit today. They started with a very exciting activity: a quiz! Actually, it was only a questionnaire. I handed it out to students so that we could begin to see what sort of things they already know about this thing we call space and whether the things they know are actually accurate. This idea might be a good conversation starter for you with your child. For example, one of the questions on the questionnaire was: “Why does the sun look the same size as the moon? Explain your answer and describe the size of each and their distance from us.”

I also got a chance to show the students a number of the websites and programs we will be using as a class. I mentioned this to them as they might like to download or bookmark the sites themselves. All the programs and sites are free to use. I will also try to put them on the links part of the page but I can so far only put so many sites as it is limited to only ten. Here is the list:

Celestia – http://www.shatters.net/celestia/index.html

Premier Planets – http://www.premierplanets.com/

Interactive Universe

http://www.history.com/genericContent.do?id=54499

SkyOrb – http://www.realtech-vr.com/skyorb/download.html

Stellarium – http://www.stellarium.org/

Wikisky – http://www.wikisky.org/

Virtual Journey – http://library.thinkquest.org/28327/main/cockpit.html

Interactive Space – http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system

Download some of them and spend some time with your child enjoying the awesome wonder that is our Universe!