Somewhere in Outer Space

A couple of weeks ago, we started our new science curriculum!  We will be studying astronomy for the next six months or so.  We decided to kick it all off with a trip to the Evergreen Aviation Space Museum!  We all had a "blast"!  Get it?!  Like a rocket...blasts...off....sorry...=)

Our first project was a scale-ish model of the solar system, made with balloons.  The kids took turns measuring the diameter of the balloons as we blew them up to make sure the relative size was accurate.  The sun and some of the planets have since deflated, but the kids enjoyed making the model and learning about how much bigger some of the planets are than others.

This past week, our focus was the sun.  The next time you see them, ask the kids some questions about the sun, such as what solar flares, sunspots, and solar eclipses are.  They've also learned a lot about light and color.  We weren't able to do all of the sun experiments, since it has been missing for most of the past several days, but we were able to make and use a pinhole box during a quick sun-break yesterday.  The kids thought it was neat that they were able to look at an image of the sun.

Next week, we're off to Mercury!

This isn't necessarily school-related, but the below conversation did take place in the car on the way home from Kindergarten.  Plus, it's so darn cute, I had to record it.

Brennan: "Boy, it's not a good day for building houses."
Mommy: "You're right."
Brennan: "Let me tell you about sunny days.  On sunny days, it's good to drink lemonade."
Mommy: "Really?"
Brennan: "Yeah.  Let me tell you about cold days.  On cold days, if you have a popcicle, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger!"

Crazy kid!