Visit to Star Dome Observatory

On Wednesday the 24th of June, room 28 and room 27 went on the bus to Star Dome Observatory in One Tree Hill.  We had a fantastic time, and learnt loads of interesting facts about the different planets in our solar system.

Check out these photos of our trip: 

We knew that people cannot really hold the sun because it is much too hot, too big and too far away!

We talked about what causes day and night.  Sometimes the night sky is very bright so it looks blue.

We learnt that stars that do not twinkle are not starts at all! They are planets.  We learnt that Venus and Jupiter and Saturn are visible in the night sky at the moment.

Beautiful Matariki 

We learnt that astronauts have not been on any of the planets yet.  The furthest astronauts have been is the moon.

The educator showed us how the moon orbits the Earth.  It takes about a month to orbit the Earth.

The educator got three children to show how the moon orbits the Earth as the Earth orbits the sun.  It was very funny to watch.  Keep up moon!

We were shown an awesome video of a solar flare! This is when there are explosions on the sun. 

We had a look at the planets and dwarf planets in our solar system. 

Whoa! look at the size of that rocket!

We learnt that there have been other moon landings since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  We watched a funny video of astronauts having fun and singing on the moon. We also saw an astronaut fall over! It is tricky to walk on the moon.

Next we had a look at the fantastic displays and models.  We found out that some of our books back at school do not have up to date information.  

There were loads of great facts to read.

And loads to look at!

We loved the model of the solar system! It showed us the planets are different sizes.

Saturn!

Astronaut Finn!

Astronaut Solomon!

We lay back in the special chairs in the movie room and looked up at the huge screen on the ceiling.  We watched a movie about children who make a cardboard rocket, and with the help of their astronomy book, use their imagination to explore the planets in our solar system.  Next we looked at the moon and different star constellations in the night sky.  It was awesome! 

Finally, it was time for us to hop back on the bus.  We really enjoyed our trip to Star Dome!

Room 22 and Room 23 have been so lucky this term. As part of our inquiry unit 'Exploration' we got to go on a trip to the Star Dome. At the Star Dome we had a lesson about space and we learnt some really interesting facts. We learnt that it takes 365 days for the Earth to orbit around the Sun and we also learnt that the Moon orbits the Earth, and this takes around 27 days. We now know that it takes 24 hours for the Earth to complete a rotation, this is one whole day. One really exciting thing that we learnt about was how the Earth, Sun and Moon all work together to give us night and day. We have got really good at explaining this idea, if you want to ask :)

After our lesson at the Star Dome we got to have a look around at all the interesting things that they had on display. We saw planets, rocket ships, information and facts, games, night and day models and we also got to take pictures in a pretend spacesuit, this was extremely cool.

The last thing we did at the Star Dome was watching a movie called "The Cardboard Rocket". This movie was really cool and we learnt lots of things about all the planets up in space. We learnt facts about the planets, the order of the planets, all about stars, the moons and the sun. The children can tell you all about the planets if you ask them.

Room 23's writing about the sun and shadows