How does the Earth move Mel?

Alyssa arrived at Kindy with a question burning in her mind - "How does the earth move?"  In order to find the answer we had to do some research.  We got the Ipad out, and searched for the answer.  It directed us to a video about our solar system.  We learned that we live on Earth and together with 8 other planets, we all orbit the sun.  It takes Earth 365 days (or 1 year) to do one complete rotation around our sun.  Some of the other planet take less or more time to complete their rotations.  We also learned that Earth sits within this solar system on an Axis, which means that as we are rotated around the sun, we are also turning on this axis.  Sometimes we face towards the sun (daytime),  and other times we are facing away from the sun (night).  We also found that as earth turns on an angle (axis) for half of the 365 day rotation we are tilted closer to the sun (Summer) and for the other half we are tilted away (Winter).  This video gave us so much information, and when it was finished we decided to recreate what we had just seen.

With the help of our friends Kuan Hai, Jack, Leo, Sasha and Elle, we set about making a replica of our solar system out of paper mache.  After lots of ripping paper, and gluing it on to balloons, we had made all 8 planets and learned about their different sizes and colours, and placement within the solar system.  As we wait for them to dry (which is taking a number of days!) we are continuing to talk about and revisit all the information that we learned about our solar system.  We can't wait to paint our planets their correct colours and hang them up.  I'm sure this will inspire lots more discussion and questions, which will extend our learning further.
Thank you so much Alyssa, for asking this very interesting question.  You were able to spark an interest within your teachers and friends at Kindy.  We were able to use research to help us answer a question, which is an essential skill, as there are so many things to know.  We don't need to know that answer to everything, just where to find it.  The beauty of team work, and group discussion to make sense of new information, has helped to affirm and extend this learning.