Space Games

As most know (sorry preschool practicum students), the elementary is studying space. While they are in this process, each student is researching one particular part of space that they are interested in. That being said, some of the students seem unclear as to what they are supposed to be doing, what it is they want to do, and what they are actually doing. A couple of these groups included the Sun, Earth, moon, and solar system. One of the student teachers, in order to explain the way the Sun, Earth, and moon cooperate, exemplified this by using student volunteers.

As I was thinking of the last time I learned about space, I recalled just how much spinning and speed differences are included. Nonetheless, Ms. Hernandez was enthusiastic and ready to make it work. She put the students into groups of 3 and had a Sun, who was stationary, an Earth, who spun while circling the Sun, and the moon, who circled the Earth as it was circling the moon. . . this went about as well as you can imagine with kindergarteners through second graders.

Afterward, while speaking to Ms. Hernandez, she told me that she had come up with that lesson a few weeks ago and never implemented it. I asked her what changed her mind, and she said improvisation. She knew the students were not ready to start researching again and that they needed something else to do. Even if it wasn’t accurate, it was fun, and it made the students more ready to research. On that day, I learned that, while school is obviously for learning, sometimes it’s necessary to drop the books for a minute and just have fun with the subject that is being studied.