The kids made 2 great solar systems. It’s so nice to see kids create in their free way. I’m learning how to give the kids just the right amount of guidance – which is hard work. I have a new respect for the wonderful art teachers who guided me.
There are 20 kids in class; each kid made one planet (2 kids worked together on the sun) and together they made 2 solar systems. These kids worked so hard to make their painting of their planet look like the photo. You can see how blue Neptune is, and how orange Mars is, and the stripes on Jupiter. This project was a world-wind to complete in 1/2 an hour. I learned so much about the solar system in preparation for this – the most helpful web sites I found are listed below. And I learned a lot about what it means to manage a classroom of creative beings.
http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/ – photo of all the planets
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/solar_system/ – dimensions for planets
http://www.astrosociety.org/samplers/6_POCKET_SOLAR_SYSTEM.mov – short movie and project that puts the relative sizes and distances in the solar system in perspective.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Solar – where the planets are now
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/solar-system-art-projecthome-h-107908 – great looking sun in a kindergarten solar system project