May 18, 2020
Today I’m sharing Week 2 of our project based lesson plans (Here is Week 1). Again, I started these project based activities the first week of full quarantine when school was still getting figured out and the girls needed some loose schedule and stimulation. We had so much fun with the first project that we’ve been continuing throughout quarantine. All of the project based lesson plans follow the theme of “expanding your worldview and curiosity.”
My girls are in 8th, 6th and 3rd grades and they ALL enjoy (and learn something) from these projects. They can easily be adapted for younger kids and older high school kids too.
These project based lesson plans would be great to use during the summer too. You can easily spread the steps of these projects through several days or complete them all in one day and of course, alter them to your kids and what you have available at home.
Week 2: Planets
This lesson was initially inspired by my youngest daughter’s planet and space curriculum that she was working on before school was moved to distance learning. We also got a recommendation to watch the NOVA Space Series on PBS that aligned with her third grade study of planets.
The goal of this project was to learn about the planets in our solar system and how they were formed. After watching the PBS NOVA series, the girls created their OWN planet with balloons and paper mache which included several questions about their planet based on what they had learned, included below.
Step One
Watch the 5 PBS NOVA Specials on Planets (we watched one a day for a week). You could also simply research planets online, read books about planets or find other videos about planets and our solar system.
- The Planets: Inner Worlds
- The Planets: Mars
- The Planets: Jupiter
- The Planets: Saturn
- The Planets: Ice Worlds
Step Two
Based on the PBS NOVA Specials on Planets, create your OWN planet. Start by answering the following questions:
- What is your planet’s name?
- Why – what is the meaning of the name?
- What is the history of your planet? How did it form?
- What are the attributes of your planet?
- Is it made up of gas, rock, water or something else?
- Can it support life?
- Does it have moons or dwarf planets? What are their names and attributes?
- Does it have rings?
- What is the landscape?
- How big is it?
- Based on these attributes, where would it exist in our current solar system and why? (inner or outer, how close to the sun?)
- What is unique about your planet?
- What is similar to other planets?
Step Three
Draw your planet – using the information from your questions, draw your planet including colors, landscapes, rings, moons, etc.
Step Four
Create a paper mache model of your planet using your drawing as a guide. (we used inflated balloons and wrapped them with newspaper strips dipped in flour, water and some glue and let them dry for a couple days. Then we painted and decorated our planets.) *This part can get a little messy. I recommend doing this outside or covering your table and floors.
Step Five
Share your planet with the family and create a planet dance move to celebrate its existence!
Let us know if you try this, tag us on any pictures and stay tuned for other project based lessons!
See other project based lesson plans:
Week 1: Architecture & Architects
