The Universe ~ A Stellar Song ~ Erin Gould ~ 2009 ~

1. The Universe ~ A Stellar Song ~ Erin Gould ~ 2009 ~

2. Rationale • The Montessori cultural curriculum is intended to engage the child in exploring the question: Who am I? Within this question are two sub-questions for exploration: Where do I come from? and What are am I going (what is my purpose)?This exploration of self is supported through lessons and experiences that are intended to awe and inspire the imagination. • Unlike traditional social studies curriculum which helps children answer the question Where do I come from? by first focusing on family, then community, then state, then world, the focus in the Montessori curriculum is the opposite. We provide the child with the ultimate context for who they are: the Universe. From there we work inward toward self: Universe  Solar System  Earth  Continents  Civilizations/Cultures/Needs of Humans  Families  Self. • In this way, we hope to engender a broader, world view where children notice commonalities among all humans and therefore have a context in which they can identify what their own purpose for living in this world will be.

3. Background • Every year in a Montessori classroom, students are introduced to this context of the Universe via the Great Lessons – five lessons to capture their imagination and inspire exploration. The lessons are: The Universe Story, The Story of Life, The Story of Humans, The Story of Language/Writing, and the Story of Numbers. • The Universe Story is an oral telling of the history of the Universe from the time of the Big Bang to the formation of land and water on Earth. This story is told on the first full day of school and encompasses a lot of visual artifacts and science experiments. It is meant to spark wonder and curiosity and set the stage for student inquiry, as well as the next story: The Story of Life. This lesson is also intended to be the origin of the cultural curriculum in the classroom, including astronomy, geology, geography, botany, zoology, and history.

4. ~ Day 1 ~The BeginningStudents will be engaged in reflecting about where they come from and be introduced to the story of the Universe, told in the oral tradition and supported with scientific experiments. • Writing ~ quickwrite: Where do you live? • Listening & Viewing ~ The Great Lesson (The Beginning) • Reading ~ Exploring non-fiction space books • Speaking ~ Sharing • Maybe MinilessonTopics: How to do a quickwrite Resources Teacher Texts: The Beginning (a teacher generated story about the Universe beginnings) Read Aloud: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Roald Dahl) Student Texts: All Grades: Various non-fiction texts gathered from school and local libraries: universe, space, star, planet, Earth books Other Materials: Universe Posters (teacher made material) Sun Solar System Early Earth Cooling Earth Land and Water Earth Universe Box with experiment materials (teacher made material)

5. ~ Day 2 and 3 ~StardustStudents will celebrate their connection to stars (hydrogen), their cosmic age (14 billion years + their age), and their cosmic address (Universe, Milky Way, Solar System, Earth, North America, Michigan, city). • Writing ~ quickwrites: What do you wonder about the Universe? and Imagine you are in one of the Great Lesson posters. • Listening & Viewing ~ Born with a Bang, cosmic age, cosmic address, Zoom • Reading ~ Exploring non-fiction space books, ABCs of Universe • Speaking ~ Sharing, Cosmic Age Ceremony • Maybe Minilesson Topics: Making connections to texts, Asking questions, Finding ABC Universe nouns Resources Teacher Texts: Born With a Bang (Jennifer Morgan) Zoom (IstvanBanyai) A is for Astronaut: Space Exploration from A to Z (Traci N. Todd) In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World (Virginia Hamilton) Read Aloud: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Roald Dahl) Student Texts: All Grades: Various non-fiction texts gathered from school and local libraries: universe, space, star, planet, Earth books

6. ~ Day 4 through 8 ~Stepping Through TimeStudents will participate in the tradition of oral story-telling with the use of a story-bead timeline as an aide. They will choose to tell their personal story or their larger story of the universe. • Writing ~ quickwrites: What would be in your timeline/ story beads? What is your favorite time? How do you feel about being made of stardust? What do you think about the Black Strip? • Writing ~ selecting a quickwrite for the writing process, story notes for Universe story beads • Listening & Viewing ~ Universe story beads, cosmic wonder books, The Black Strip • Reading ~ Non-fiction space books, book club books • Speaking ~ Sharing, Universe story beads • Maybe MinilessonTopics: Nouns, Capitalization, Punctuation, Responding to book club reading Resources Teacher Texts: Cosmic Wonder Books (Aline D. Wolf) “I Know the Sun Does Not ‘Set’” “I Know What Gravity Does” “I Travel on Planet Earth” “How Big is the Milky Way” “I Look ‘Out’ at the Stars” Read Aloud: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Roald Dahl) Student Texts: Third Grade: Book Club Choice - Arthur and the Comet Crisis (Marc Brown) Book Club Choice - Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System (Joanna Cole) (3.9) Second Grade: Book Club Choice - Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon (Mary Pope Osborne) (2.1) Book Club Choice - Magic School Bus Out of This World: A Book about Space Rocks (Jackie Posner) (2.8) First Grade: Book Club Choice – Space Ant Goes Home (Celia Warren) (1.6) Book Club Choice – The Wind and the Sun, an Aesop Fable (Jenny Giles) (2.2) Other Materials: Bead Story (timeline) of Universe, special box and cloth (teacher made material) Bead materials for students Black Strip (purchased timeline)

7. ~ Day 5 through 9 ~Uni-verse = One SongStudents will listen to songs created with inspiration from our Solar System. They will visualize and create images to represent what they hear. They may also be inspired to create their own song of the universe. • Writing ~ quickwrite: What does the song of the universe sound like? Writing process, reading response logs, Universe ABC book page • Listening & Viewing ~ Holst’sThe Planets, MagicSchool Bus Out of this World or Gets Lost in Space • Reading ~ Non-fiction space books, book club books • Speaking ~ Sharing, Universe story beads • Maybe MinilessonTopics: Identifying main ideas vs. details, Sequencing, Prewriting, Identifying: Purpose, Audience, Form Resources Teacher Texts: On Earth (Brian Karas) Looking Down (Steve Jenkins) Read Aloud: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Roald Dahl) Student Texts: Non-fiction space books Book club choices Video: MagicSchool Bus Out of this World (Magic School Bus Video Series, Scholastic) Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space (Brian Meehi, Videorecording, Scholastic) Audio: The Planets (Gustav Holst, composer, CD) Other Materials: Bead Story (timeline) of Universe, special box and cloth (teacher made material) Bead materials for students

8. ~ Day 10 through 14 ~Blue and Green ArkStudents will hear stories of the formation of the Earth and learn about Earth’s eras. Students may be preparing writing for publication and for engaging in a performance response to their book club book. • Writing ~ Writing process, reading response logs, Universe ABC book page • Listening & Viewing ~ Magic School Bus Inside the Earth, Clock of Eras • Reading ~ Non-fiction space books, book club books • Speaking ~ Sharing, Clock of Eras books • Maybe MinilessonTopics: Drafting, Capitalization, Punctuation, Questioning, Connecting Resources Teacher Texts: The Blue and Green Ark (Brian Patten) Read Aloud: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Roald Dahl) Student Texts: Non-fiction space books Book club choices Third Grade: Era books (Doug Mann) Video: Magic School Bus Inside the Earth (VHS, Reading Rainbow Library) Other Materials: Clock of Eras (teacher made material)

9. ~ Day 15 through 19 ~You Are the “U” in UniverseStudents will celebrate their writing publications and reading performances. Students will be encouraged to reflect on their studies and predict what their history will next reveal about our planet as we prepare to begin the next chapter: The Story of Life. • Writing ~ Writing process, reading response logs, Universe ABC book page • Listening & Viewing ~ Universe ABC class book • Reading ~ Concluding non-fiction space books, book club books • Speaking ~ Sharing, celebrations of reading and writing • Maybe MinilessonTopics: Developing a writing rubric, Meeting in revision groups Resources Teacher Texts: Read Aloud: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Roald Dahl) Student Texts: Non-fiction space books Book club choices Other Materials: Bead story timelines Students’ Written Publications Class Universe ABC Book Reading Performance Projects

10. Other Student Resources: • Note Cards • Post-it Notes • Reading Response Journals • Writer’s Notebooks • Guided Reading Texts • Third Grade: • The Jupiter Stone (Owen Paul Lewis) • My Place in Space (Robin and Sally Hirst) • Second Grade: • UFO Diary (Satoshi Kitamura) • There Was a Bold Lady Who Wanted a Star (ChariseMericle Harper) • Floating Home (David Getz) • First Grade: • I Want to Be an Astronaut (Byron Barton) • Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me (Eric Carle) • Beegu(Alexis Deacon) References: Duffy, Michael and D’Neil. (2002) Children of the Universe: Cosmic Education in the Elementary Classroom. Hollidaysburg: Parent Child Press. Lillard, Angeline Stoll. (2005) Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. Websites: Cosmic Education & The Great Lessons http://www.sudburymontessori.ca/elementary/cosmic_education.htm Great Story Stuff for Kids!http://www.thegreatstory.org/kids.html Montessori for Everyone: The Five Great Lessons of the Elementary Curriculum http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/The-Five-Great-Lessons_ep_66-1.html The Montessori Methodhttp://www.michaelolaf.net/1CW312MI.html

11. “Let us give the child a vision of the whole universe. . . We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe, and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.” ---Maria Montessori, To Educate the Human Potential