Types of Stars-What You Just Might be Missing!

Types of stars is an interesting concept to teach.  While we think students understand the properties of stars, we can quickly build an understanding that each type of star brings a basic struggle for students to understand.  There are a number of reasons why!  Let's take a look at common misconceptions students have!

Color of Stars

The color of stars can confuse students. Think about our own perception of fire.   Fire glows red/orange and is hot, right!  We want to place a label on that-red/orange fire is hot.  Red/orange means hot in all aspects of our life-a stove is red/orange!  HOT-don't touch!  But, in reality, red/orange is cool in the range of heat output.  We just have this preconceived notion that RED means HOT! Stars that are red/orange are the coolest stars.  Blue and white stars are the hottest stars.  Kids are like us.  They want to apply red/orange stars as HOT, but they aren't.  This is a misconception that needs to be addressed when studying stars.  

Size of Stars

Bigger is better, right!  When it comes to types of stars-NOT TRUE!  Big stars a dying stars.  They have burned through their fuel and are heading toward death.  Small stars are fully fueled and are just beginning their lives.  This misconception needs to be addressed when studying stars!  

Distance of Stars

Stars appear on a plain - a flat "surface" to us.  Stars are really at a wide variety of distances from Earth, creating this misconception of a flat, one dimensional surface when we look at them.  And, after all, they are all the same size on that plane, right!  

See the problem of misconceptions building up!  These are REAL problems when teaching types of stars!!!  So, how do we address these misconceptions?   How about a STEM activity!  

I developed this STEM to try and undo the misconceptions that I saw my students struggling with-the very ones I just shared with you!  I could not find a way to communicate the properties that we were discussing in a way that students grasped them at a deeper level.  There had to be some kind of hands-on activity out there!  But, there wasn't!  This Star STEM was birthed out of the very cosmos!  It had to make things easier - or so I thought!  

Starting Off Strong

Students were super excited to start this STEM!  They brought a variety of flashlights from home and I purchased some different sized flashlights for cheap at The Dollar Tree and other stores!  You will need flashlights from very small to very large to represent each type!  I also bought tissue paper and some other "star" making materials.  You will need packing tape-a lot of it-too!  Makes sense, right!  

WRONG!  Students jumped on the color first! They where using things like their red pencil boxes with the light shinning through it!  I would say ROUND and it was like I was speaking a different language-because color was key to them!  In fact, one team began creating this blue monster!  I couldn't figure out what in the world they were doing!  They not only missed ROUND, they missed a star is in space!  They were creating EARTH!  So, be sure they truly understand the properties involved.  Even though this was clearly discussed, and redirected to teams, it did not become the focus of what they were doing!  

Misconceptions can lead students away from the goal of learning when the 

concept is higher than we realize!

Finishing STRONG!  

We did get every team focused on the correct properties.  We did get every team creating one type of star that represented the size and color that they needed.  It was well worth the effort!  Because, next came testing!  And testing these was where it is AT!  Suddenly, they could SEE what happens in the night sky with distances!  We tested a number of combos of stars and locations in the room.  I had assigned "distances" in the classroom and set up Polaris as the closest star (my design was used for Polaris) on a chair in the front of the room.  As we changed out stars and students in "space" we were amazed to see how star sizes appeared the same and how color didn't matter to differentiate a size.  They blurred into one sky, even within the classroom!  I also used an iPad to take pictures so that we could flip the lights on and examine the evidence in picture form!  

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Our Star STEM was so awesome! This really helped the kids understand star distances and how far they are from Earth! There are 4 layers of kids in this photo! You can find this STEm in the link in the. Up! 1/2 price through today too! #starstem #stemteacher #teachersofstem #iteachstem #teachersfollowteachers #teacherspfinstagram #teachersofthegram #thirdgradehallway #iteachscience

A post shared by Julie from The Best Days (@thebestdaysclassroom) on Apr 2, 2018 at 6:52am PDT

In the end, we did finish strong with our study of types of stars!  We did internalize the idea that viewing them from Earth does not mean that they are all the same distance or the same size!  We did internalize that space has greater distances that can make the size of a star appear smaller than those closer to us! And that is what made this STEM so awesome!  It was the very objective that this lesson was supposed to show-because that one is the most complex of all the objectives in teaching types of stars!  

These stars are on a plane.  You can see that their size and color are shown.  These are Red Giants and Orange Stars.  

Create Polaris to judge brightness and distance, just like real astronomers do!  

As always, let me know what you think!  I'd love to hear what you have done in your classroom with types of stars!  You can add a comment here or join me over at Facebook and Instagram to share your thoughts! I'd love for you to join me there!

(Find out how I hacked this rubric for my teacher observation here!)

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The Force Was With Us on May the 4th!!

This year's celebration DID NOT disappoint!  Each year I try and celebrate International Star Wars Day, which is on May the 4th!  I know this is my "thing", since I've been a Star Wars girl all my life!  I'm happy to say I am a member of the Class of 77'.  This has nothing to do with high school.  This, in Star Wars land, means that I was actually there, in 1977, to see the movie!  It was so fabulous, my mother let us all see it TWICE!  This was a BIG deal in the 70's, as no one could really afford to see a movie twice!  However, there is so much you can actually do that even if you are just familiar with Star Wars, you could run a successful day!  

Everyone needs some Star Wars in their life-a mug, a shirt, and some fun friends!! 

Let's Get Started!  

First, this was the PERFECT time for me to throw in a celebration for ending the FSA, Florida's version of State Testing!  My kids were totally wiped out after two days of testing.  So, today's celebration offered a wonderful chance to decompress and do something fun!  So, we started with a fun math that was easy yet worthy of a grade!  Check out what we did here!  This math idea would be one of the easiest ways that you can include this celebration into your classroom!  

Another great way to include this celebration into your classroom would be to add a touch of art!  This year, we added Symmetrical Aliens to our activities!  These are super simple to do and can be done with almost any theme!  Simply fold a piece of paper in half and have students draw 1/2 of their alien ON THE FOLD!  Once they finish, have them trace this design in crayon.  

Next, fold their alien into the inside of the paper and rub this line with a pencil on it's side.  They need to rub HARD!  Once you are done rubbing, open it up again. 

You will have a very light line.  Trace over it, and, you have a perfectly symmetrical alien!  Add any other details and color it in!  

These came out so great!  

Again, I kept with the tradition of letting the Wookie Win! This game is so fun and plays like a Jeopardy game.   It would be super easy to create because I can't share this one due to trademark issues.  The questions focus on review and you could even play this game without the fancy PowerPoint!  Just think of some fun questions from each category that you teach and go for it! 

It isn't a Star Wars celebration unless you have an tasty treat!  This year I went with TIE-fighters and Wookie Cookies!  Both of these were super simple!  Each child needs some Oreos or other cookies, a marshmallow, and some frosting!  They just put the frosting on the marshmallow and add the Oreos on the end!  Yum!  Our new treat was Wookie Cookies!  I put some chocolate frosting in a ziplock and cut a very small hole in the tip.  The kids used this to put the frosting on a chocolate chip cookie!  Then they added some edible eyes!  So cute and tasty too!  

It was a totally fun day and a truly great way to celebrate our success at the end of testing!  I hope you enjoyed International Star Wars Day and, if you have never celebrated, I hope it inspires you to try your own celebration!  Let me know what you do, too, in the comments!  And, May the 4th Be With You!  

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Five For Friday: May the 4th Be With You and a Contest!

This week is a week of appreciation for teachers everywhere! Gifts, flowers, cool drinks,  and special lunches abound!  But it is also the week that I look forward to all year-because of International Star Wars Day on May 4th!  Here's the quick lowdown on how to have a GREAT May the 4th Be With You!    

Wear an awesome Star Wars shirt!  This is a must because it signals to all the Star Wars fans in the building that you know exactly what day it is!  Before I hit the front door I was told, twice, May the 4th Be With You!  While walking around the halls in the morning I was greeted with this same phrase over and over!  Whenever and wherever I went, we were one with The Force because of my shirt (we are a uniform school).  

Get some really great music going!  I found this gem on YouTube! One hour of musical greatness!  And, honestly, the kids really enjoyed listening to it-for real!  

Get some great curriculum activities.  There is no reason you can't jazz your curriculum up with real activities tied to a Star Wars theme.  I made the paper on the left as their math warm-up.  They still worked on their math projects for area and perimeter.  The picture on the right is a Webquest I found on TpT by Mrs. Tech.  It was simple and easy, but best of all, I could use it as a close read.  This activity actually gave me a good idea of how to start using my Kindles in a variety of ways!  

Play a great game!  This is one I thought up last year and just adjusted for this year.  It is a Jeopardy style game.  However, the idea is based on subtracting points instead of gaining points so that the Wookie can win!  They LOVED it!  (Due to copyright, I cannot post this online. )

Make some great Star Wars themed treats!  The first one is a tie fighter.  Super simple-Chocolate Graham Crackers, a marshmallow, and some frosting.  Simply put frosting on the end of the marshmallow and put the Graham Crackers on!  Super simple!  For the light sabers you buy rod pretzels and food coloring.  There is enough frosting left to then color it. Frost the pretzel rods and enjoy!  YUM!  

So, as you can see, this is an easy and fun way to celebrate International Star Wars Day!  Now, onto how we will appreciate you!  Teacher's Appreciation was or will be celebrated over the course of these two weeks!  I've joined with 9 other Teacher-Authors to celebrate YOU!  

Teachers truly do light the way!  So, click on the Rafflecopter and follow all 10 Teacher-Authors on their TpT store to have a chance to win a $50 TpT Gift Card!  It's that easy!  The contest is open from May 5th - May 7th, with the winner announced on Monday, May 8th!  Thanks for all you do!  

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Back at It!

     I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but blogging just got away from me.  To be honest, I think it is simply because I REALLY found my teacher’s grove again!  I mean, REALLY!  I did some AWESOME activities with this class of students.  So, I figured I’d share a couple of my new to the school year products and some new classroom looks I’ve been working on!  So, here we go!

Mr. Putter and Tabby

     Who doesn’t love a good Mr. Putter and Tabby story!  I had so much fun working with the story in our reader (Wonders) and the kids loved the tale so much, that I quickly pulled out a Scholastic order and found some of the books I already had and decided to do a Book Club with Mr. Putter and Tabby!  But, what to teach?  There had to be more!  My students were REALLY struggling with understanding the character.  So, that was my goal when I set out, what, exactly, could I do to get some of these very difficult concepts across to them.  Using some great tools, I was able to create some incredible pages that could be used across the study within all the books!  AND IT WORKED!  

Mr. Putter and Tabby

This study became the anchor texts for all character discussion throughout the rest of the year!  It was awesome and totally engaging.  Many times my aide would show up in the middle of Book Club.  I would go out with students engaged and walk back in with students engaged!  They LOVED it!  The real test of a product is having someone else use it.  Another teacher on my team wanted to try this out as well.  Same results!  I was thrilled!  And, believe it or not, this was a VERY fun product to make! 

Flat Stanley’s Original Adventure

     This book study was a little different.  I completed this study as a whole group.  The main focus for our study looked at character again.  This time we focused on the Character Wants and Needs chart found in this product and in Mr. Putter and Tabby!  We met as a group and filled in the information as we went along.  Boy, did some things begin to POP!  Arthur seems like such a great kid when you just read the text, but by carefully examining him through his wants and needs, you suddenly discover his selfishness!  And that becomes a MAJOR THEME!  Honestly, when I started this wants and needs thing it was because some Common Core book said to try it out!  What I discovered was that if you want to teach little guys and girls theme, they need a great graphic organizer!  And, it WORKED!  We were able to pick out the major themes (and, verbally, we reviewed Mr. Putter and Tabby as our sample!) and create a cool project in the end!  This was a great unit of discovery!

Continued Math Practice

     If my students are like yours, you cannot leave a major math topic and expect them to retain it!  In Second Grade it is two/three digit addition by two/three digit addition and then, again, subtraction!  My morning work took a change from the typical Language Arts materials after teaching these units.  I started developing pages to go along with it.  I know they are probably out there somewhere, but I just couldn’t find the focus practice I needed for the 20 minutes I needed to use.  So, I came up with a variety of products with some fun themes along the way.  This totally worked!  My kids could practice these, self-check, and complete them in about 20 minutes!  And, it totally paid off in the end!  I’d say about 95% of my class had mastered both skills by May!  I still had a few strugglers but with continued focus, they are close to completing these tasks any time they are given to them!

Super Hero Themed Binder

     The next one is all me!  I have never been a super organized person (I have a whole blog post in my head about it!  That’s my problem, I get the post done in my head but never with my fingers!) Last summer I thought, “I can make my own binder! And I want it to match my THEME!”  When I couldn’t find a Super Hero themed binder, I gave in and made my own!  Boy, was I happy I did!  Everything was in one place, I never had to look for schedules or parent info.  It was all right there.  Am I going to be honest and say I actually had plans for every week-in my head I did! 

So, that’s my goal next year!  And, the super fun thing is, I think this year I’m going with my new Jedi Master Notebook!  (But more on that in a minute!)

Editable Star Wars Planner

New Themes and Ideas!

   Another reason I didn’t blog since December is simply because, in May, my fingers and design streak found some fun in designing new classroom décor products!  I had messed around with the Wizard of Oz clipart 

and, just wanting a little bit of fun, I messed around with it some more to come up with a new line!  Then it turned into Pirates 

and Oceans!  

From that it was FROGS! 

Oh, how cute they are!  

With that, I’m fully rejuvenated and fully prepared to face my next adventure-3^rd grade and the FSA!  This summer I will be playing with a few new ideas that will lead to a few new products so watch out!  There will be a LITTLE bit of TALES coming with more focus on FABLES and MULTIPLICATION in my future!  HOMER PRICE’S adventures may pale in comparison!  And, TpT might have a little thing in ORLANDO that I can blog about too! 

Looking forward to posting more!