This curriculum unit will bring the solar system into my classroom. It will provide a foundational framework for the students to investigate the Sun, planets, and other objects of the solar system. If my second-grade students were in school fifty years ago, they would be coming to class with space-themed lunch boxes. The topic of space would be in the news; students would hear about it frequently and they would know that space was for them. This unit will allow students to create reference materials, participate in songs, and play a board game to practice and reinforce their knowledge. It will bring the Sun, planets, and the rest of the solar system into our classroom and allow the students the opportunity to look to the sky as people have done for thousands of years. It will allow them to wonder and think about what they have learned. This curriculum unit will teach my students that space is for everyone and that space is for them.

(Developed for Science, grade 2; recommended for Science, grades 3-5)