This week at Kennedy Elementary School, we have been extremely blessed to have the Star Lab here. I want to thank Mrs. Sears for making the arrangements to have it at Kennedy, and I want to thank Mr. Frame and Ms. Hall for making the media center available to house it so the kids can have this wonderful learning experience. I also need to give a huge thank you to Mr. Thornton for agreeing to rearrange his music schedule and teach ALL 594 students about the stars, solar system, and constellations. Mr. Thornton was really a wonderful presenter and the kids (and myself) seemed to learn a lot.
The Star Lab is an inflatable planetarium. Each student was able to sit under the stars and learn about our solar system.
Here is a short list of some of the things Mr. Thornton taught them.
1) Sirius is the brightest star we see at night, but the Sun is the brightest and closest star to Earth.
2) The stars that make up the belt of Orion, the hunter, point to Sirius.
3) There will be another meteor shower that we will be able to see in December.
4) What the Milky Way is and where you can see it.
There were many other things that they learned, please ask your child about them when they get home.
The thing that I thought was the coolest to me is that I was actually able to find some of these constellations this week as I opened the gates to the school at 5:30 in the morning. Thanks Mr. Thornton for opening me up to a whole new world!
A quote from Brooke, a student in 2nd Grade, "This is AMAZING, I have never done anything like this before!"
That is what education at KES is all about. Caring enough about the students to give them educational opportunities that encourage them to go further than they want to or think that they can!
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