Rockets & Spacecraft Multi-Subject Unit Study for Upper Elementary
An Upper Elementary Level Rockets & Spacecraft Unit Study for Students in 3rd to 5th grades and for Family-Style Homeschooling
In this Rockets and Spacecraft Unit Study, your 3rd to 5th grade kids will learn about different spacecraft such as the space shuttle, Orion, and Apollo; how to make a balloon rocket; John Glenn’s missions; Katherine Johnson and her work at NASA; the Apollo 8 mission, and much more!
This rockets & spacecraft unit study is a part of our Astronomy to Astronauts Series. Each of the four sections has activities for Early Learners (preschool to 2nd grade), Upper Elementary (3rd to 5th grade), and Middle to High School (6th grade and up).
Moon and Stars: Early Learners, Upper Elementary, Middle & High School
Space and Planets : Early Learners, Upper Elementary, Middle & High School
Rockets and Spacecraft: Early Learners, Upper Elementary, Middle & High School
Astronauts: Early Learners, Upper Elementary, Middle & High School
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Rockets & Spacecraft Language Arts
Independent Readers
A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle continues the story of Meg and Charles Wallace, and their friend, Calvin. The themes of courage, family ties, and resourcefulness are explored while the trio travels through time and space. This book is the second book in the Time Quintet series.
Family Read Aloud
Adventures Beyond the Solar System: Planetron and Me by Geoffrey Williams is available on Kindle and Audible, or look on Amazon for used copies as it’s out of print. This sequel to Adventures in the Solar System: Planetron and Me is a wholesome story of a young boy whose toy rocket becomes a real spaceship that takes him into outer space where he learns about astronomy.
Writing
Fiction
Owl and Wormy: Bright Lights and Starry Nights by Andy Runton is a wordless picture book perfect for making up their own story. Your elementary kids can write a short story that includes dialogue using the book as a guide or base for their outer space story.
Research
Have your students research one of the Mars Rovers spacecraft and mission. They can use the free Mars Rovers resources and printables from our sister site, Homeschool Helper Online, to write their report (these printables are included in the Rockets and Spacecraft Unit Study Bundle)
Grammar & Handwriting
For families that use narration as a way to learn grammar, here is a Galaxies, Galaxies Narration Worksheet in the Free Resource Library with quotes from Gail Gibbon’s Galaxies, Galaxies. There are three different difficulty levels to use with your 2nd to 12th graders.
For the narration pages, select the passage that best matches your child’s writing and spelling abilities. Then, read the passage to your student all the way through first. Then read it again, 2 or 3 words at a time, giving them time to write it down. Tell them to do their best, but not to get “caught up” in making sure it’s all spelled correctly while they are writing. They can go back when they are done to fix any spelling if they want.
When they are done, give them the original page (that you read off of) and let them “check” it and fix any spelling or punctuation mistakes. Talk to them about any spelling or punctuation rules that they used, just to help cement it in their brains. It’s really important for them to check it, not you. It seems to give them ownership of it and makes them remember the correction.
Use the Rockets & Spacecraft Copywork Worksheets in the Free Resource Library to practice grammar and handwriting. There are 3 pages in 3 different levels for early elementary, upper elementary, and middle/high school. The early elementary and upper elementary levels come in both print and cursive.
Use the Rockets & Spacecraft Copywork Worksheets in the Free Resource Library to practice grammar and handwriting. There are 3 pages in 3 different levels for early elementary, upper elementary, and middle/high school. The early elementary and upper elementary levels come in both print and cursive.
Rockets & Spacecraft STEAM
Outer Space Science
This week, we continue our science study with the book, Smithsonian Eyewitness Explorer Night Sky Detective by DK Children, which is a fabulous choice for families wanting to learn about astronomy–and it’s a great addition to your home library. This book is filled with 30 hands-on activities that explore the night sky, constellations, stars, sundials and more.
This week, I suggest reading pages 26-29 and 42-43. There are activities to complete on each 2-page spread.
Use this site to see which satellites will be passing over your house tonight. “Create” your own satellite with this Satellite sim game from NASA
Your kids may also enjoy this free space learning pack to take with them as something fun to do while they are at a siblings dance class or sports practice.
Rockets and Spacecraft Technology
Learn more about telescopes and the James Webb Space Telescope with this interactive game “Scope it Out” from NASA
Listen to the Tumble Science podcast’s The Solar System’s Wild Ride. Check out the extra information and videos on their blog, too.
Read these short articles from NASA Knows! about their rockets and spacecraft programs:
- rockets and how a rocket works
- Apollo program
- the space shuttle program
- the heavy lift launch vehicle (a kind of rocket)
- the International Space Station.
Explore NASAs current spaceship missions to collide with comets and asteriods in order to collect data and specimens from them.
Rockets and Spacecraft Engineering
Use the Identify the Spacecraft cards that come in 3 levels (found in the Rockets and Spacecraft Unit Study Bundle) to learn the names of common spacecraft. Your kids may want to have 2 copies to play a memory style game, or use them to help them build a spacecraft with LEGOs.
Using Legos, build a replica of Voyager or Apollo. Use the following links to see what those spacecraft looked like. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has a
The Apollo missions main goal was to land on the moon. Try this Safe Landing on the Moon challenge to help your kids better understand the physics and engineering behind the lunar landing.
Or, create a balloon-powered rocket with a water bottle, a straw and a balloon using Home Science Tool’s instructions. Or for a simpler version, make a balloon-powered hot wheels car that also uses Newton’s Third Law of motion.
Rocketry by Carla Mooney is a solid explanation of the science behind rockets as well as the history of rockets. There
Learn more about the amazing engineering feat that SpaceX recently did with their “reusable” rocket boosters. Read this article and watch this Starship video from SpaceX of the first time they successfully caught the heavy booster.
Rockets & Space Craft Fine Arts
Draw or color a picture of the Voyager space craft while listening to the music sent into space on the Voyager. You can find the music selected to represent all of humanity (!) in this video.
Study Vincent van Gogh by reading either Katie and the Starry Night by James Mayhew or Vincent Can’t Sleep by Barb Rosenstock.
Your intermediate level kids can re-create Van Gogh’s Starry Night using one of two techniques. First, they could use the aluminum foil and finger painting style that the younger kids will use.
Or, alternatively, they could use the fork scraping method outlined by The Pinterested Parent.
Rockets and Spacecraft Math
Learn about binary numbers (ones and zeros) with this video from Socratica Kids
Complete pages 4-5 of this free printable from NASA about binary coding.
Make a binary code bracelet
Rockets & Space Craft History & Extras
Biographies
Apollo 8: This short video produced by NASA interviews the three astronauts from the Apollo 8 mission and tells of their determination and motivation to complete the mission. Great inspirational message!
Have your kids read the Childhood of Famous Americans book, John Glenn: Young Astronaut by Michael Burgan to learn more about one of the early astronauts.
Listen to Brains On! podcast “Earthrise: The Picture of our Planet that Changed the World” to learn about the famous photo taken from Apollo 8. This podcast is one that everyone in the family will enjoy. FYI, this podcast does discuss the big bang theory of how our solar system formed from 11:30 to 18:50, so if you don’t subscribe to that theory, you may want to preview or omit that section.
Apollo 8: The Mission that Changed Everything by Martin W. Sandler reads more like a documentary film than a living storybook, but don’t let that deter you from checking out this resource. It’s filled with engaging photos and quotes and stories of the people involved in the Apollo 8 mission. The author also provides historical context of the politics motivating the United States to get to the moon first (The Space Race). This week, I recommend reading chapters 1 to 4.
Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly is another mash-up of history, biography and to a lesser degree, story. Despite being a picture book, it may be too long for those in early elementary grades, but it does have an impressive amount of facts, vocabulary, and history for 4th grade and up. Plus, it’s an amazing true story of overcoming societal limitations!
Rockets & Space Craft Devotions
Our family loves the devotional book Indescribable: 100 Devotions about God and Science by Louie Giglio! These
The following devotions match up nicely with this week’s rockets and spacecraft study: pages
- 48-49
- 52-53
- 54-55
- 74-75
- 96-97
More Ideas for Your Rockets and Spacecraft Unit Study
Grab this coloring and activity book from the Kennedy Space Center about rockets and spaceships.
Check your local library for Dr. Dave Williams book, Mighty Mission Machines: From Rockets to Rovers. Also, look for his book, Go For Liftoff for next’s week study of astronauts to see what training is required to be an astronaut. Dr. Dave is a former NASA astronaut and is also an aquanaut (he lived in the world’s only underwater ocean laboratory).
Family schooling naturally has an overlap between learner’s abilities. That’s why morning baskets and unit studies work so well for homeschool families with more than one kiddo! Therefore, there may be activities at another level that be of benefit to your family even if you don’t have any students at a different level. Check them out below:
Rockets and Spacecraft: Early Learners, Middle & High School
Be sure to follow my Pinterest board Astronomy and Astronauts for more great ideas for your Rockets and Space Craft unit study!
Most importantly, pin one of these images to your favorite board so you can refer back to it during your Rockets and Space craft study.
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