Year 5 Planetarium

On Friday 5th October children in Year 5 were given the opportunity to explore space without having to leave Alderwood School. Children were invited to crawl into an inflatable planetarium and sit and marvel at the wonders of the planets, stars and moon. During their time in the planetarium, children explored why we get day and night and were able to witness the Earth rotating as it orbited the sun. As well as exploring day and night, the children were able to see why we get the four different seasons;: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

After discussing the Earth's movement in space, the children were encouraged to lay back and look at the beautiful night sky. The light inside the dome was turned down and slowly lots of little stars started to appear around the edges of the planetarium. Children were shown different constellations, including the plough, Orion and Leo. The North Star was pointed out to the children and a discussion was had about how this could be used to aid navigation.

All the children really enjoyed the experience of the planetarium and the knowledge gained by the children was used in a piece of diary writing describing what they would see in the night sky after through a telescope.

The planetarium was a wonderful experience and it was the perfect end to a thoroughly enjoyable space topic.