The Universe

My boy started third grade last month and the very first topic started in school is 'The Universe' -  a truly big topic for little ones whose known  territories are only home and school.
I realized that teaching the traditional way of starting with the big picture of the universe  and going down the path of galaxies, solar systems and planets is something the little mind does not comprehend well - it understands better what it already knows.
So I started with a little exercise  where I pulled up a globe and showed my boy our city, country and continent and Earth ,  and what fits inside what before I started talking about the solar system, galaxy and the universe.
I used a worksheet to reinforce the facts.

After doing this small exercise , I was asked the unavoidable question - 'What is the Big Bang mama ?' (I had to write that last sentence in the exercise to dig my own grave!)  That is really a tough theory  to explain so I left the explanation to the man behind it all - Stephen Hawking. I know that this video is heavy but that's the best I could get and it does give the child an idea of space.

 

 Coming back to the topic of universe, I went on the explain the components of the universe - the galaxies and solar systems and most prominently our solar system.

Found this amazing picture of the solar system from NASA which serves as a good introduction.

 

What is like most about this picture is that it clearly shows the asteroid belt .

I made a poster for each planet with its main facts- they serve as good pinups . Here's a snapshot of the posters together.

  

There's also a solar system song I found on YouTube.   It is slow and  kiddy -  I guess that's why  my kid loved it !

 

I made worksheets on planets and their positions from the sun.

For older kids I would highly recommend to download NASA's Eyes on the Solar System   - an amazing application showing an exact 3D view of all ongoing  and past explorations done by NASA in space .

I also touched upon the topic of the planetary movements of rotation and revolution through this worksheet.



 

Additionally, I made some quizzes, match the followings and games  on the topics.

The kids enjoyed the package.  The package is available in my TPT Store under the name Our Universe, Galaxies, Solar System and Planets  .

 

 

A preview of the package  is available for download here .

 

 



 

 



 





 

Teaching Time

I spaced out teaching time to my little one over a span of 2 years.
In Grade 1 we learnt about The Hour and Half Past.
In Grade 2 , we learnt about Quarter Past, Quarter To , 5 Minute Intervals, A.M., P.M., 24 Hour Format.

Teaching on the run becomes very easy if there is a wall clock at home with all the 12 hours in Arabic Numeral.
As soon as the kids know to read numbers, they are able to tell at which number or between which 2 numbers is the smaller hand pointing to .


Another very interesting thing for kids is to have their own paper clocks whose hands they can move easily. I avoid using pins. Here's the clock I made- an idea I saw at a Swiss Watch Company's product for kids.

 

 

You can use the following cutout to make one of your own. Remember to use slightly stiff paper.

Right click to save the image below to your computer.

Print it.

Cut out only along the bold lines.

Lift the central wings in the circle and slip in the two hands one by one.

Decorate and number your clock the way you like.

 



You may also download  clock outline .
I introduced each of the concepts - The Hour, Half Past, Quarter Past , Quarter To  through posters and my paper clock.

 I made different types of worksheets for  showing  and telling  time.
For grade 2 -I also made worksheets for telling start and end times of different activities.
I introduced the concept of A.M. and P.M. Here's the worksheet for it.

 

At the end of Grade 2, I introduced the 24 Hour Time Format.

All my posters and worksheets are available in my product 
Time- The Hour, Half Past, Quarter Past & To, Time Format Worksheets

You can download the preview of this product .
 

Our Environment

This is my very first blog post so I chose a topic that needs awareness among our little ones along with being age appropriate.

When the Science topic of  'Our Environment' was being covered in school, I noticed that my Dhruv was a little perplexed.  It is surely a content dense chapter with many challenging concepts like deforestation, pollution and conservation.
I split the chapter into

Forests

We dealt with life in a forest and forest products. We did several worksheets on these and some creative writing too!
We understood what is deforestation and what are the causes and effects of deforestion.
We made a  T-chart on deforestation after sorting out causes and effects from a pile of pictures.


Dhruv pinned his chart in class.

Pollution

We understood causes and effects of pollution of the 3 natural resources-  air, land and water. We did several worksheets on these.
We understood what is acid rain through this lovely slideshow made by EPA .

Conservation

We understood the '3Rs of Conservation'.

We discussed what we in our day-to-day life can do for conservation and then also did several worksheets.
There's also an interesting video for kids on pollution.

For all this and more,  have a look at my product  Our Environment- Forests, Deforestation, Pollution and Conservation .

You can download a preview of the product here.