The Stars Project

A girl in our Ganon class said that she wanted to learn about stars.  We decided that she could do an Independent Project.  We then decided to invite another student to join her project.  The two children shared with each other what they already knew about stars.  We then went to the library and checked out books about stars.  The children looked at the books and I read the books to them.  We worked on the project for small amounts of time a couple of times each week.  The two children shared what they learned about stars with the class today.  The children were very interested and asked some questions. Some questions the two children were able to quickly answer, but some answers the children did not know.  The two children decided to continue to research about stars and to hopefully be able to answer more questions when they report again to the class.

Stars

What we already know

·     They are gold.

·     They have pointy edges.

·     They shine bright in the sky.

Questions that we asked

·     Do they have 6 corners?

·     Are all stars the same?

·     What are stars made of?

What we learned

· The sun is a star.

· Stars appear smaller than the sun because they are much further away.

· The sun is the closest star.

· Another close star is Proxima Centauri.

·     A giant cluster of stars is called a galaxy. A galaxy contains billions of stars traveling through space.

·     Scientists study stars.

·     New stars are still being born.

·     Some stars are very old.

·     Stars are different colors.

·     The sun is yellow because it is very hot.

·     Stars that are hotter than the sun are white, blue, and violet.

·     Stars that are colder than the sun are orange and red.

·     Stars are made of hot gas.

Questions asked by the class for the children to be researched:

·     Why are there shooting stars?

·     Why do some stars break into pieces?