We recently learned a little bit about the planets and our solar system, and I thought I'd round up a few fun activities for you to try.  

NASA has a fun website where you can type in your weight and age here on Earth, and then it will calculate how much you would weigh and how old you would be on other planets.  How cool is that?  I wonder which planet we would weigh the most on?

Create your own planet using shaving cream and paint!

Download a free copy of this fun lift-the-flap book to help you remember the order of the planets!  

To download, you must be a member of Teachers Pay Teachers.  It is completely free to join!

With such a focus on math and reading, do you find yourself sometimes shoving science and social studies to the side?  I know it can be difficult to fit everything in, but kids LOVE science and social studies!  Here are a couple of websites you can use to let them explore topics from the curriculum or of their own choosing.

Interactive Sites for Education
This website is extremely useful for browsing games and resources in any subject.  It has sections for many subtopics in each subject with preview pictures and links so that you can find just what you are looking for.

BrainPop
BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. are fantastic websites for learning about multiple subjects.  Each skill has an engaging video explaining the concept, accompanied by games, activities, quizzes, jokes, and even lesson plans.

**You cannot log into BrainPop directly.  You must access it via NetTrekker, our educational search engine.  Here are the directions:

1. Go to http://school.nettrekker.com.
2. Enter your PA Cyber username and password.
3. Click on the "Featured" Tab.
4. Choose BrainPop Jr. (for lower elementary grades).
5. A list of BrainPop links will come up.  You can refine your search using the topics in the left-hand column.
6. Once you click on a BrainPop link and are in BrainPop, you can navigate or search anywhere within BrainPop.  (You do not have to keep going back to NetTrekker for every search.)

April 18 - 21:  SCHOOL CLOSED for Spring Break

Monday, January 20th is an in-service day for teachers, so students have no school.  You are more than welcome to work on your curriculum that day, but why not take a FREE field trip?

The Carnegie Science Center has completely free admission and free parking on the 20th!  This even includes an Omnimax film.  You can click here for more information:

http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/events_detail.php?eventID=1794&dateYear=2014&dateMonth=1&dateDate=20

Kids seem to really enjoy learning anything science related.  I found a few resources about vertebrates that you might be interested in:

1.  BrainPop video and quiz about vertebrates  (This video is a little challenging, but your student should be able to get the gist of it.)


2.  Vertebrates Jeopardy! game  (You'll want to play it in slideshow mode.  Just click on a dollar value to go to the question, and click on the icon in the lower left-hand corner to get back to the main game board.)

3.  Skeleton craft  Humans are vertebrates too!  Make a skeleton out of Q-tips and label the bones.

4.  A Silly Song!  After all of that learning, our brains need a break.