Space and the Planets – Our Theme for June
Every month we set a theme for the Nurseries. June’s theme is Space and the Planets.
We will be teaching the children about the Solar System – and the eight planets in our Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
We will also discuss the sun, explaining that it holds our solar system together; provides life-giving light, heat, and energy to Earth; and generates space weather. The sun looks yellow to us, but it actually burns a bright white. On Earth, the sun can look anything from yellow to red, especially at sunrise or sunset, because our planet’s atmosphere scatters blue and green light the most. The sun is about 864,000 miles wide – which is 109 times wider than Earth. The sun is filled with scorching gases and soups of electrically charged particles called plasma. The sun’s surface temperature is about 5,500 degrees Celsius, and it’s 15.5 million Celsius at the core.
We will also discuss going into space in a space shuttle; using the countdown from 10 to 1 to imagine going into space. We will look at astronauts – what they wear and how they feel going up into space, looking back at the Earth, and we will pretend to walk on the moon.
You may like to play this song at home to reinforce the Solar System – although just a little warning, that you may be singing the song all day!
