Magnificent Moon Week in Review

“The Earth was very small. (It was) the size of a marble. I thought if the Earth is that small, how small am I? Just a speck in the universe, but yet signifcant enough that God would love me and create me and love me enough to touch my life. . . .
I felt privileged like an angel to get God’s view of the Earth.” ~Astronaut James Irwin


Magnificent Moon's five daily objectives are:
Day 1: What Exactly Is a Moon?
Day 2: Getting to Know the Moon
Day 3: The Story of the Moon
Day 4: Science Secrets of the Moon
Day 5: Cool Things About the Moon


I choked up when we watched the NASA video of the Apollo 14 launch. We learned about a different astronaut each day. I took astronomy in college and I must have forgotten A LOT after class ended. Although, plenty of moons have been discovered in our solar system since I graduated, so I can't be held responsible for those facts. Right? Rightrightrightright. :)


This is a painting of James Irwin in prayer by astronaut Alan Bean called We Came In Peace For All Mankind. He uses actual moondust and bits of Apollo spacecraft in his art! On his website, Alan remembers a conversation between Dave Scott and Jim Irwin.
Dave: "Oh, look at the mountains today, Jim. When they're all sunlit isn't that beautiful?"
Jim: "Really is, Dave. I'm reminded on a favorite biblical passage from Psalms: 'I look unto the hills from whence cometh my help.' But of course, we get quite a bit from Houston, too."

Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett. Intended for grades K-4, my four year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some lapbook sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

We found a lot of the suggested reading at our library this time, which made Magnificent Moon that much more fun. I also decided to browse the DVDs at the library this time. We found Space Buddies, Leapfrog's Math Adventure to the Moon, and Goodnight Moon, which, by the way, is absolutely adorable. I hadn't really ever thought too much about adding movies to a DNG, but I was glad I did.

We also had the Build It! theme bag from the library and found some fun acrylic pieces that were perfect for making our rockets to the moon!


This was a really fun study and we all learned a lot. I highly recommend it!

The Cabin Fever Fun Pack includes Magnificent Moon as well as Winter Wonders, Expedition Canada, and Hoppin' Popcorn and is on sale through 1/31/11 for $20 (regularly $28). The link for this product is here.

See what fun other families are having with Magnificent Moon. The blog hop is here.






***I was provided a copy to use with my family in exchange for my honest review.***