Literature-Based, Project-Based Elementary Astronomy Unit Study

The study of astronomy with my 7 and 10-year-old children was surprisingly fascinating! As usual, we used bits and pieces of this and that, with lots of living literature, a field trip, and projects to learn tons about our solar system. I hope you find something useful to add to your astronomy unit study!

blog title picture with several images of astronomy books for kids

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Elementary Astronomy Unit Study

Exploring Creation With Astronomy was our main teaching text. We didn’t complete every single chapter, but the ones we did were top-notch.

Hands-on, literature-based elementary astronomy unit

{balloon solar system model; the sun’s power to melt chocolate; moon crater simulation}

Beyond the text, I also added a few lapbooking activities and lots of hands-on projects. All the paperwork was put into modified lapbooks. Mini-books were glued on the first flap while notebooking pages and worksheets were simply stapled together at the top of the other flap.

Astronomy Unit Study
Astronomy Unit Study

This unit study happened before the creation of Pinterest, so none of the hands-on activities shown below came from my astronomy Pinterest board. However, you can find lots of great hands-on additions for any astronomy unit there now.

Hands-on, literature-based elementary astronomy unit

{eating in space simulation; dehydrated food tasting; objects in space simulation; space station aim game}

Hands-on, living books, project-based astronomy study

{Oreo moon phases model}

The Living Books

Of course, living books were a big part of the learning!

The Sun: Our Nearest Star (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out)What the Moon is Like (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 2)The Moon BookThe Moon Seems to Change (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)What Makes Day and Night (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)Find the ConstellationsA Child's Introduction to the Night Sky (Revised and Updated): The Story of the Stars, Planets, and Constellations--and How You Can Find Them in the SkyOne Small Square, The Night SkyThere's No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library)The Magic School Bus Lost In The Solar SystemThe Planets in Our Solar System (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)The Planets: Fourth EditionOur Solar System: Revised EditionStarry Messenger: Galileo GalileiNicolaus Copernicus: The Earth Is a Planet

 

The Extra Learning

The Creation Museum has a WONDERFUL planetarium – both informative and God-honoring. This museum is ALWAYS worth our drive for a field trip.

We found a few fun website games the kids enjoyed during their free time.

The Final Projects

All our unit studies end with final projects – otherwise known as project-based learning. The kids spent a couple of days preparing their projects before presenting them in front of the video camera. They were asked to choose whatever astronomy topic that most interested them and present about that topic in whatever exciting ways they liked. I don’t always give them this much freedom in project choice, but they did a GREAT job pulling together demonstrations, models, and speeches.

Caleb chose astronauts for his topic. The presentation included a talk about astronaut suits (see his helmet and jet pack?), space shuttles, rockets, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, dehydrated food, and thrust.

Astronomy Unit Study

Mahayla’s presentation was on the topic of stars. It included information about the sun, other notable stars, constellations, how to use an astronometer to tell the brightness of stars and some information about light years.

Astronomy Unit Study

Unit studies make GREAT memories. They can be a little more time-intensive for mom to plan, but the effort has always been worth it in our homeschool.

Please feel free to share links to your astronomy units in the comments!

Want to learn more about Space? Check out this awesome Space Observations curriculum!

6 Comments

  1. channonsworld says:

    Wow! What a great list of resources. I would like to study the Solar System in January. We will be using this post as our guide 🙂

  2. I’m glad the post was helpful, Channon! 🙂

  3. This is our first year homeschooling and I am trying to put a unit together but didn’t know where to start. This was a big help and looks like a lot of fun. 🙂

  4. Oh, that makes me so happy to hear, Amy! Blessings on your first year. You can do it!

  5. Thank you SO much for sharing this. I’ve been trying to find a list of living books for our space unit study. This is exactly what I was looking for! I stumbled upon it and just ordered every single book from my library. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together. I’m looking forward to trying some of the activities on your pinterest board as well– I think we definitely need to do the oreo moon phases 😉

  6. Ooh, the Oreo moon phases activity is unforgettable! Enjoy the books, too! 🙂

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