“Let us give the child a vision of the whole universe. The universe is an imposing reality, and an answer to all questions.” -Maria Montessori 

We are beginning our study of the solar system. Bringing some of the wonders of the universe to the children is exciting and one of their favorite units that we study. By nature, children are inquisitive, observant, and eager to learn about the world around them.  A child’s concrete thinking, understanding, and desire to label and name everything they learn about makes this a wonderful unit of study.

We begin by discussing what the children think the Solar System is. We know that as we look up at the sky during the day we can see the sun and at night time we can see the moon, stars, and some planets.  We learned about our closest star, the sun.  It is made of gas and gives us light and heat. Our sun is the center of our solar system, with planets circling around it.  The children then learned the names of the planets, in order from the sun.  In the next week we will be learning fun facts about each planet and singing a fun planet song.  Below I included the lyrics to the “8 Little Planets” song we have been singing this week, enjoy!

Wishing everyone a wonderful week!

Amanda & Heather

 

8 Little Planets

One little, two little, three little planets,

Four little, five little, six little planets,

Seven little, eight little, eight little planets,

Orbiting around the sun.

Mercury, Venus, and the Earth,

Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn,

Uranus and Neptune,

Eight planets orbiting the sun.