Mission to Pluto

Our work on space has differed from past  projects in one important way: It’s much more difficult to bring in a sample or experience to share with the class. The children’s collections, tree branches, and bugs gave us daily opportunities to bring new questions and subjects of inquiry into the classroom. With outer space, we’ve had to get more creative, but have had a few instances of sharing a new discovery. Sam’s family sent us a link to a video and we shared it at meeting today, asking the children what they thought we were seeing. 

Joslin: It’s Pluto.
Margaret: It’s a crusty moon. 
Austin: The moon, because it has craters. 
Joslin: The white ball is Pluto because it’s cold, because Pluto is far away from he sun. It’s cold because it has snow. 
Rachael: What about the moon? 
Rowan: The moon is gray. 
Joslin: There’s no snow on the moon. 
Rachael: How do you think we got this video? Who took it? 
Jack: The first man on the moon? 
Rowan: A satellite? 
Sally: I saw  big dish on top of a house. There were three satellites up there. 
Kian: I think a bird sent this picture to us. 

We revisited the video later, and revealed that the images were of Pluto. They were taken by the New Horizons spacecraft a few months ago. Thanks to Sam’s family for sharing the video with us. It will be interesting to continue the discussion tomorrow and to see what other conversations the New Horizons mission may sparks as we continue to think about Pluto and space exploration.