Students worked in groups of 3 or 4 and were assigned a planet or element in space. The groups created their action plan, and organized themselves and what they would need. They had to do research about the planet/ celestial being. When they were finished, they got to paint and create their part of space. For the planets, we used various circle sizes (we used a garbage can for Neptune/Uranus and then went larger and smaller from there.) After drawing the circle, we drew another circle around it. This extra part was used to tuck and staple when we were making the bulletin board. Students who had comets/stars/meteorites got white paper and decided how they would look. While the students studied pictures of planets to decide colors, the teachers typed up the information learned. This insured spelling accuracy and neatness.
After all pieces were done it was time to create the board, we tucked in the extra paper and stapled the under part of the planet/sun. We would stuff recycled newspaper into each planet, and staple up the sides as we stuffed. We added the other space elements and facts to the board. Lastly, we included a little sign saying "You can learn, but please don't touch!" This is a favorite among students and passing-by parents!
This project took about 1 class block of time to organize and research facts, and one day of painting (not including drying time!)
For the learning board/groups:
*Sun
*Planets
*Dwarf Planet(s)-We chose to only do Pluto
*Moon(s)-We chose to only do Earth's moon
*Asteroid belt
*Stars
*Comets
*Meteorites
Extras: In the past, we have needed extra groups, so we have done Space Exploration Facts (and an added spaceship) and once I had a student who wanted to do aliens, so he researched some myths/sightings.
