Astronomy Lapbook

Hello Sisters in Guiding! 

Happy Belated Easter...
It turned out to be a beautiful weekend here. 

A few years ago, when I was Brown Owl, I made up a Brownies' Exploring Space Badge Lapbook.  This was the very first Lapbook project that I had made with my former Brownies.  You may have already viewed this a few years ago on my website "Lee Ann's Girl Guide Notebook" but here I offer the details {I will attempt to add the links for the resources that I had used in this lapbook}.  We allowed two meetings to complete this double lapbook...and everything was precut.  {This Lapbook could easily be adapted to suit the Guide's Astronomy Badge}.

Front Cover:  I found this "Best Work On Earth" printable from a book called Pats and Praises 143 Reproducible Patterns to Build Self Esteem in the Classroom. Written and illustrated by Mary Strohl and Susan Schneck. Copyright 1990 by Scholastic.  We added the Exploring Space badge image to the sun...and also, not shown,  added the girl's photo to the Astronaut to personalize it.  We then painted the cover with blue glitter and stars paint.  This lapbook was made using old file folders...keep in mind that when making lapbooks it is ok to use different style/coloured folders.  If doing a double lapbook and one folder is slightly larger then you can just easily trim it to fit.

Inside View 1 above photo:  Top left corner we have the different types of Galaxies painted with the glitter paint {I can not find the link for this}...and below that we have "Your Universe Address" {this i made in microsoft word...Name:__, Street:__, Town:__, Province:__, Country:__, Continent:__, Planet:__, Solar System, Location in Galaxy:Orion's Arm, Galaxy: Milky Way, Local Group, Local Super Cluster: Virgo, and Universe}.  The yellow square {I used one page of a caterpillar book} unfolds into an area for drawing...below that is a black area for making constellations with star stickers {or a light coloured gel pen would work}.  The layered booklet is for adding facts and photos {Roberta Bondar, Phases of the moon, Canadarm I,II, Dexter, CSA, ISS images, Chart of your age on the planets}.  The top right corner {which is actually the back flap of the lapbook} has 'Stargazing Rules" which unfolds...below that is a blank globe {from Pats and Praises} for notes or drawing... and below that we have other Stargazing hints from Canadian Guider Magazine {Looks like March/April 1995 ...I do not have that issue but the photocopy looks like mar/apr 95}.  The shuttle, globe, "keep moving forward" and "get ready to take off!" images are from Pats and Praises.

Inside View 2 above photo:  To the left we have "Blast Off to Success" from Pats and Praises. As the girls completed a section of the Exploring Space badge they got a star sticker and moved the Shuttle along the string closer to "success".  The banner "Astronomy 2009" was taken from a free poster "Canadian Skies" {they offer other freebies there too!} for the International Year of Astronomy {even though we made this lapbook in 2010 I had mentioned to the girls the fact that the previous year was the International Year of Astronomy...better late then never!}.  Also on that page we have areas for making constellations/asterisms with stickers...and a free printable "My Solar System" mini book {we added stickers of the planets inside}. I'll explain the right side of the second folder next since it is more visible in the below photo...

Inside View 3 above photo: Starting with the green double pocket...this is used to hold a Star Light Poem , extra star stickers, a paper that lists a few cool astronomy sites which I will list at the end of this post, a starfinder {fortune teller activity}, and a song: tune BINGO...

We all live on this great big planet

and Earth is it's name-o

 E-A-R-T-H 

E-A-R-T-H
E-A-R-T-H

and Earth is it's name-o

{Repeat but this time replace letter E with a clap...then continue along replacing each letter with a clap until all letters are replaced with a clap}. 

Above the green pocket is a compass drawing that I made in Word.  The girls had to label the compass points...and got a star sticker when completed.  The dot-to-dot constellations were photocopied from a little activity book that I can no longer find in my stuff but I still have the photocopies...dot-to-dots for Scorpio, Sagittarius, Leo, Canis Major, and Orion stapled into a booklet.  The orange paper is just a fan folded blank page for notes or drawings.  The "get into orbit" and "Keep Shining Brightly" images are from Pats and Praises.  The pink paper is just five note pages stapled into a mini book with constellation  patterns inside. The folded page below that booklet is a page of the night sky...but I do not have a source for that photocopy. {I took all these photos in 2010 and just noticed that I did not get a pic of that page unfolded}.

This view shows the yellow page ,Caterpillar fold unfolded,  for drawing a picture to go along with one of the many legends about the stars. Also, the inside of the Solar System mini book with stickers.

This lapbook combines both Brownie Program, "Reach for the Stars", and the "Exploring Space" Badge.  You will notice that there are activities in this lapbook that are not listed in the Brownie program/badge work but I added extra stuff anyway.  The amount of detail that you want to get into depends on the group of girls and the amount of time you have.

I've done this badge with both Guides and Brownies a few times over the years. Here are some games that we had played ...

• Constellation Tag {same as regular tag but they have to say the name of a constellation to get "unfrozen"}

• Stars Alive {use flashlights...they get into groups of 5 or 6 and they have to project their lights on the ceiling forming a constellation ...you could place markers on the floor then have the girls stand on them and then project their flashlights on the ceiling}.

• Jeopardy {This is better for the Guide age} 

• Fruit Salad {use the names of the planets/constellations etc for group names} 

  Go to this post for more Brownies' Exploring Space Badge activities. 

I have a binder of resources that I had collected over the years.  If you are a Guider looking for something for badge work maybe I can help.

Cool Astronomy Websites...

American Museum of Natural History

www.kidsastronomy.com

Spaceplace.nasa.gov

Canadian Science and Technology Museum 

Canadian Space Agency

More Lapbooks on Owl & Toadstool:

Brownies: Aboriginal People in Canada Badge

Guides: World & Canadian Guiding Badge

All:  100 Years of Anne Challenge

Guides: Canadian Guiding Badge

Guides: World Guiding Badge

Brownies Key To Girl Guides

The Brownies played a World Flag relay game to help them learn about the meaning behind all the parts of the World flag.  There were two groups of Brownies and they had to go through and obstacle course to retrieve the pieces of the World Flag puzzle.  Each group had two dice , a world flag card {purchased from the GGC store for $0.15}, and a card listing the pieces of the puzzle with a corresponding number.  The girls had to roll the dice to determine which piece of the puzzle they had to retrieve {they continued to roll until they got a number that wasn't already played}.  Then they had to go through the obstacle course and retrieve the piece from an Owl leader but they had to say the meaning of the piece before it was given to them...for example they would say "I need the flame that represents love and humanity" or " I need the leaves that represent the three fold promise" etc. One of our Guides came to the Brownies' meeting to set up the relay game as part the Leadership component of the Guide Program.

The Brownies were given this colouring sheet as a take home activity. {available upon request via email leeannfraser at hotmail dot com} 

  

We also sang an action song...
The Four World Centres 
that I wrote a few years ago...
you can find the updated 
"Five World Centres Song"
lyrics here and video here.

World Centres fruit salad...another fun and easy game to play to learn about the four World Centres.  Arrange chairs in a large spread out circle. One chair per person sitting and one person stands in the middle.  Everyone is given a name of one of the World Centres...try to spread out the names so that there is close to an even number of each Centre distributed among the players. Then the person standing in the center of the circle calls out a World Centre...then all those who have been given that name must change seats {but you can't sit in the seat right next to where you last sat}.  The person in the center of the circle has to run for a seat too...thus creating a new caller in the center.  If "World Centres" is called then everyone must change seats.   

This type of game can be used for any subject {food names, constellations, LadyBP/BP/Agnes etc. Anything would work.  {Some kids...and leaders...forget which group they were assigned to so I think I will make up a set of cards with different names to hand out just to help us to remember!}  Add actions to the group names to slow things down.

Guides' Auction/Skits

The Guides are working towards the "You and Others" program area. At our last meeting they had "learned about Leadership in a Group"...

{part #2 Play a game that explores how groups work together.  Create a scenario where a group has to come to an agreement to deal with conflict, make decisions or solve problems} 

To complete this task Guider Krista found a really fun idea on line.  The activity was an Auction.  The girls had to bid on items that they would use at an outer space colony.  They worked together in Patrols and could pool their money {monopoly money}if needed.  

The idea was to work together in a group and share the leadership.  At the end of the Auction the items that each Patrol group bid on were then used for something totally different...they had to do a skit using those items.  The skits had to show conflict resolution/decision making/or problem solving.  {I used these fun computer programs "Photo to Cartoon" and Photoscape to alter the pics}.

THE AUCTION

THE SKITS

The Guides enjoyed doing the Auction and Skits {our Guides really enjoy doing skits...Whenever we do skits we usually have the Sparks as our audience}. 

 It was so much fun!

Snow Ball Game

This indoor snowball game is really fun

...and gets rid of some extra energy!

The snowballs are made from crumpled newspaper.  There are two teams on either side of a boundry line.  The players have a set amount of time to throw their snowballs {and any other snowballs from the opposing team that land on their side of the line}at the opposing team.  We played music during the snowball battle then when the music stopped the snowballs were counted.  About five minutes is usually enough time to get rid of extra energy.