Astronomy Unit

A few years ago we studied astronomy for our homeschool science lessons, and I think I finally have it all blogged about.  We’ll see with the way my organization skills are I will find something buried deep down on my computer.  We had a blast with our astronomy lessons and there were so many fun hands-on learning possibilities I hadn’t thought of.

(This post contains affiliate links marked with an *)

Astronomy Resources

As we studied Astronomy we had several resources we used throughout the year.  We actually used two different homeschool science curriculum:

• Apologia Astronomy– this is the meatier astronomy for elementary.  It’s perfect if you have a super big fan of space. Looks like there is now a second edition.
• Notebooking Journal*- This includes places for notes, lapbooking pages, AND tests.  I like the tests.  The junior notebooking pages* have crossword puzzles and the like instead of tests.  I recommend the “normal” notebook if your kids are in third grade or older.  I got the junior when my kids were in third grade and it was too simple for them.
• Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space (this book costs a bit more than some of the others on Amazon, but it includes the resources CD which I think is well worth the extra cost)- this is both earth science and astronomy, so it is only about half a year of astronomy. Perfect if your kids are not big space fans.
• Solar System Model– I absolutely love this astronomy model

Future Ticia 2024, as I find more ideas I add them in here, or other posts I wrote that I forgot to include. I can be easily distracted sometimes.

Astronomy Lessons and Activities: the solar system

When I’m getting ready to start a new year of science lessons I do a quick search for all of the super cool ideas I find I really want to do (and there’s more down at the bottom I found).

• The Sun Unit– this was SOOOO much fun and a great excuse to eat chocolate
• Mercury Lesson
• Venus Activities for Kids
• Layers of the Earth Lesson– We later went on to study Earth Science, so there are loads more ideas there
• Fun and Easy Moon Unit for Kids
• Mars lesson- we had an activity, but I can’t find it
• Jupiter Art and Science Lesson
• Jupiter Science Lesson
• I’ll confess we didn’t do anything for Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune
• Is Pluto a Planet? Writing Assignment

Astronomy lessons and activities: Life in Space

When we finished up learning all about the solar system we had a super fun Space Exploration Unit.

• Design a Planetary Landing Shuttle
• STEM Project: Retrieve a Planetary Landing Shuttle
• Design a Moon Rover
• Learn to program a robot
• Journey to Mars
• Galileo Unit
• Space Race movies

MORE Astronomy Ideas

While these Astronomy ideas can get you through a school year, we had many fails I did not post about for several of our astronomy lessons.  Besides some people have a different take on how they did the projects that might work better for you, so check out my astronomy Pinterest board for more ideas, my favorites are showcased on the Astronomy ideas I talked about earlier.

Originally published May 12, 2017