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Hello all! I am currently working on attaining my certificate to become an elementary education teacher at UMBC. I am really excited about solar systems and space, but am not getting enough exposure to lessons in the classroom with the students in my placement since they are still workingon their fundamental reading and writing skills. Since I am taking a course about teaching science in elementary school, I have been looking up a lot of cool space stuff that has me curious and on my toes. The other day, I was really confused as to how and why and where the Earth rotates. I know we have seasons because of the distance we end up being away from the sun (depending on our location on Earth) depending on Earth's rotation, but it was extremely hard to visualize. A part of me wanted to go to space and see the whole thing happen! So I started thinking that it must be much harder for children to visualize that. How do you make a child understand that the Earth is orbiting around the sun while also on its axis at a specific angle that makes different places have different seasons at different times of the year? This got me really excited and I have been finding a lot of ideas online and through the NSTA cite, but I fear I am really riled up and greedy and want to hear ideas from any of the educators on this cite as to how they model the planets, their rotation, and movements in our galaxy. I am really excited to hear and see what you all are willing to share. I thank you in advance for your time and help! You are also teaching me a thing or two and that makes it all so much more fun! Sincerely, Julie Castaneda

Dear Arlene: Thank you so much for helping me find a various amount of resources I can add to my library. I found the seminar information really interesting since it is an awesome way of connecting with other teachers and gathering even more resources. The other source you sent gives me a lot of new insights and ideas on activities to plan and how to plan them. I plan on using them in the very near future when I have my own classroom and sharing them with peers. Thanks again! I appreciate all of your help! Hope you have a great afternoon! Sincerely, Julie Castaneda

To understand more about how the Earths orbit, moon phases, and planets in general there are some great science objects to interact with. I have completed The Earths Seasons and The Motion of the Moon and I found them very helpful!