First grade has been learning about Astronomy and the History of the Earth in their CKLA Knowledge block. This has been an exciting unit as students have been very engaged and interested in learning facts about our Earth, planets, Earth’s layers, and the Earth’s history.
During this unit, we focus on learning the first eight planets, the sun, the moon, and constellations. This unit then discusses how astronauts explored the moon and hope to explore Mars in the future. The students also learned about the orbit and rotation of the Earth and other planets. For the cumulative project, they colored a planet of their choice on a coffee filter and then we sprayed them with water. The students glued it to a black background and added an astronaut to it.
This unit provided background information for the next unit on The History of The Earth. Students learned about the Earth’s crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core. Along with that, they learned about what can happen when there is a crack in the crust. They discovered how volcanoes and geysers are formed and experimented with creating a geyser with water, soap, and alka-seltzer tablets. First grade will be finishing the unit by completing another culminating activity that the students will hopefully enjoy.
