threeturn Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I am planning a 4-6 week space unit for January. My kids are 6 and an almost 5 tag-along. We will be covering the sun, planets, Earth's moon, stars, and astronauts and space travel. Does anyone have any living book suggestions for our unit? I would love something along the lines of the Burgess Bird Book, but newer and for space. :D Informational fiction, biography and non-fiction are all good. Also, if anyone knows of a good "experiment" book for this age that would be a plus too. It is hard to find space activities for this age group. Thanks, Pam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 We are using Apologia Astronomy for our core book for our solar system unit study and we are doing a very similar thing with very similar ages as you are. :D I have found it to be wonderful. I am Catholic so I like the references to God, but I skip the few parts that argue that the Earth is 6000 years old. They are easy to skip if they bother you. There are also 1-2 experiments per chapter that are really fun and don't require weird items. I also have RSO Earth and Space and had planned to use those experiments, but we are already almost done with Mars and I haven't used any of those. They are more of a pain in the butt and don't teach as much as the Apologia experiments. I have been supplementing with library books. I had purchased a couple of Buzz Aldrin's children's books, but have decided that we are going to do a whole seperate unit on the moon later on. I was using The Little Prince as our read aloud, but for some reason the kids weren't really into it. There are some planet books by Ray Spangenburg that the kids really enjoyed (our library has those). I just used whatever they had in the library. It truly has been a lot of fun!!!!! One thing I would suggest is looking up the different unmanned missions to each of the planets. There are tons of great pics online for the kids to look at! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenneinCA Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 We are using "The Jumbo Book of Space" for our space unit. It has a little bit of everything including experiments. I like the ancient legends and the experiments best. It does contain references to billions of years with respect to the age of stars, if that is a problem. It was at our library, but since we were going to use it for a long time I bought it at amazon. Jumbo Book of Space We have also liked books by Gail Gibbons, "The Moon Book", was at our house this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dahliarw Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 For a fun picture book read, we just read "On Earth" http://www.amazon.com/Earth-G-Brian-Karas/dp/0756989264/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320909289&sr=8-1 . Really cute book that goes through why Earth is liveable and why other planets aren't. Gives a very brief overview of why. My 6yo LOVED the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 You subject line says Living Books about the solar system but you did state that you planned on stars. So I have a suggestion on a constellation book and great followup activity. I blogged about it here. Also, this Cosmic Tower was cheap and my girls LOVED it and actually love it still. They take it out often and play with it. However I'm not sure if you want something that goes all the way back to the Big Bang and down to an atom or not. If not, you can easily adapt it and just go out to the solar system or even just our planet and level down to your individual street and house instead of all the way to atoms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama2two Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 We're doing astronomy this winter too. I got the Seymour Simon books on the planets, etc... They are great. Wonderful pictures! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow Creek Academy Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 A book I like at that age is "Find the Constellations" by H.A. Rey (author of Curious George) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelanieM Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 My kids loved George's Secret Key to the Universe, and I enjoyed reading it to them. My daughter is also smitten with the Basher books, and just read the Astronomy book this past week. I haven't read that one myself yet, but she really liked it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Magic School Bus has a book and DVD. 2nd H.A. Rey's stuff. Don't forget to get a star chart and learn how to use it. You also might want to do a search on these boards- Check out Jean's Blog, Shades of White and Mary Daly's Science blog Notice the Universe. I'd also suggest checking NASA's site daily during your study- tons of interesting stuff on there!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amie Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 (edited) I'm not sure if this is quite what you're looking for, but I'll post some fun stuff you might enjoy. You may have already seen these popular books by the author of Curious George (most good libraries have them): Find the Constellations (this one's my favorite) and The Stars . This book is fun because it glows in the dark. ;) I love the Astronomy Picture of the Day (a new one is posted every day)! Here is cute idea for making little constellation booklets for the artsy/crafty type. Super fun way to learn about moon phases (sorry, another non-book option, but can you ever go wrong with Oreos??) And while I'm at it...I saved this embroidery solar system to possibly try later. Edited November 10, 2011 by Amie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I'm not sure if this is quite what you're looking for, but I'll post some fun stuff you might enjoy. You may have already seen these popular books by the author of Curious George (most good libraries have them): Find the Constellations (this one's my favorite) and The Stars . This book is fun because it glows in the dark. ;) I love the Astronomy Picture of the Day (a new one is posted every day)! Here is cute idea for making little constellation booklets for the artsy/crafty type. Super fun way to learn about moon phases (sorry, another non-book option, but can you ever go wrong with Oreos??) And while I'm at it...I saved this embroidery solar system to possibly try later. Oh I love those mini constellation books. And I LOVE the Oreo phases of the moon. I myself don't even really like Oreos but my kids are so going to be doing that!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Don't forget Magic School Bus and Schoolhouse Rock. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I just wanted to recommend Jacqueline Mitton's beautiful books. We really enjoyed these books! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChandlerMom Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Not sure if qualify as "living" but definitely accurate and some great pics (and FREE): http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Our_Solar_System_Lithograph_Set.html Be aware of the Pluto controversy: better to accept that Pluto is not a planet, and instead is one of a few "dwarf planets" in our system. If a book is over 10 years old, it will probably be wrong on this. Just point it out as an example of how we've had to adjust our definitions as we learned more about our solar system, reaffirm the "8 planets" (sorry Pluto, sniff-sniff), and move on. For those of us who grew up with 9 planets, it can be a tough thing to swallow, but easier just to teach our kids the current science and move on. :) There have been some Nova specials on the fight over Pluto's status which might be cool for the slightly older kids to watch -- see how "exciting" science can really be! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flaura Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threeturn Posted November 13, 2011 Author Share Posted November 13, 2011 Sorry it took me so long to get back here! Thank you so much for all of the wonderful suggestions. Great stuff. I can feel an Amazon shopping spree coming on. :lol: Though my plan was to stop with the solar system and only discuss stars in the context of our sun, I think we will expand out the study to include the constellations, galaxy and universe as well. I appreciate the help! Pam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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