Jupiter - Part I

A little background:  I teach year round school in California.  My husband retired and lives in Hawaii taking care of his mom.  So, I am able to spend all my breaks in Hawaii.  In March, my husband took me to the Ranger Station at Mauna Loa.  During this time Venus and Jupiter were really close to the Earth and to each other.  I told the Ranger that I was a teacher, so he hooked up my camera to one of the telescopes.

I was jumping out of my skin, I was shaking - I was so excited.  The ranger kept saying that we could do better, that we could get color and the bands of Jupiter.  It was really busy up there.  I kept telling him "No, it was fine, but kiddos would love it".  The ranger insisted on playing with the telescope, trying to get color.  I told him that I would come back another time and we would play with my camera and the telescope.

Now, the man next to me said, "It looks pretty da*# good to me".  I totally agreed.  My husband said that he could see me shaking with excitement. 

When I got back to school, I showed the kids - they thought it was great.  Mr. B came up to me a few days later and begged if we could learn about Space.  Now, Space is not a First Grade teaching standard.  So, I got on Teachers Pay Teachers and bought centers, and a couple of units.  I turned it into a writing standard activity that my kids loved (with a lot of support from TpT).  We spent 3 weeks on writing, making a Planet book.  The next thing I knew, Open House was in a week and I didn't have anything to show for it (well maybe a few things).  But, it wasn't my usual projects everywhere.  I was feeling very defeated.  So the kids got busy. 

To be continued.......