these Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy Supplemental materials are centered around bringing an even stronger hands-on approach to this great curriculum. Astronomy can be introduced as early as preschool … so it’s never too early to talk about Astronomy We loved Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy! It was one of our first studies after I brought the boys home from the Montessori school to homeschool. I was scared to death about homeschooling but had heard such fabulous things about Apologia’s Science curriculum, I was sure we would love it. And we did! We added all the supplemental materials that centered around the Montessori hands-on piece and made an already vibrant curriculum absolutely perfect for our homeschool. As I have time, I will take the Apologia Astronomy supplemental resources that we used to make this curriculum more Montessori and post them all here, like I’m doing for Botany. In the meantime, I’ll add a piece here and a piece there until I have time to work on the entire book.
Every year, we circle back through parts of this curriculum, every time a topic is discussed or we study something that relates to astronomy. Here lately there has been quite a bit in the news … such as the meteorite close fly-by and then the unexpected one that landed in Russia, Mars space mission, comets visible to the naked eye, etc. So we have had our book out regularly the last few months.
Anyway, I thought I would start with some of the basic solar system materials that are available free.
Solar System
Solar system Cards from Enchanted Learning; Planet Cards from Montessori Mom; The Helpful Garden Also has free Nomenclature Cards for the Solar System. This set could easily be made into three part cards. A way to make the study of Astronomy more challenging and thought provoking is to add in Exploring planets with Blooms Taxonomy. A great hands-on activity is painting and hanging solar systems! Here is one of our solar systems:
Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy
Stars and Constellations
NAMC (North American Montessori Center) has the MOST beautiful Montessori Teacher albums I’ve ever seen! I purchased both the Lower and Upper Elementary manuals. Here is a sample from their Astronomy album for The Lifecycle of Stars. Constellation nomenclature cards can be found at Montessori for Everyone; Here is a constellation set of cards that I think are so beautiful, I wonder how hard it would be to make? And one last set by Nature Watch. Here is an accordion style foldout for constellations. Love this one too!
Moon
Phases of the Moon is a fun study! Here are free nomenclature cards and the control card from Etc Montessori. The kiddos will love recreating the phases of the moon with Oreo cookies! A SURE hit with the kiddos 🙂
Copernicus and Ptolemy Models
The Copernicus versus the Ptolemy Model of the solar system has a great Copernicus Model to compare to the Ptolemy Model. We did not do these as lap books, but as a control for using the planets to create the two different models. Planets are easy to make out of felt, or you can purchase them pretty inexpensively on Etsy. This set is BEAUTIFUL… but VERY expensive… One set that I first saw in the Montessori Child Magazine published by Tim Seldin, and that we eventually purchased (and still have) is from Priority Montessori. They are beautiful and sturdy! But, expensive.
Sun
Sun Nomenclature cards can be purchased inexpensively from Montessori Print Shop and they are beautiful! Also from Montessori for Everyone. We actually purchased the entire CD of their works from Montessori for Everyone. It was very affordable compared to buying them one by one and you have pretty much all the cards you have to have to teach. We made lots more and purchased more… but we didn’t have to, we wanted to.
Layers of the Atmosphere
There are only a few places creating the Layers of the Atmosphere, and Montessori for Everyone has them for free.
Layers of the Earth
Layers of the Earth nomenclature cards are beautiful and Cultivating Dharma has them for free! and creating this with play-doh was one of the more memorable experiments we did! We didn’t do this for the layers of the sun, but should have!
Clouds
Finally Types of Clouds is provided by Etc. Montessori and they are beautiful!
Math
A way to bring in some math to the astronomy study is to calculate your My Weight on Other Planets and My Age on other Planets!
I think I have given you all I have except the Apologia Chapter’s 3 part cards. I’ll have to pdf them because they are too large to post word documents. I’ll try to get the loaded in the next few weeks.
Until then…
Note: Items above are linked to my Amazon affiliate account. The very small amount of money that we make from our affiliation with Amazon is used to augment our curriculum needs.
