We will be learning more about the space shuttle and its crew of astronauts with daily updates from the Monarchs In Space website. Today we found out that the space shuttle is named Atlantis. The STS-129 Mission has an official logo; the astronauts of the STS-129 Mission wear the patch on their suits. We have a patch in the classroom to look at. The space shuttle is an orbiter. It is traveling around the earth, out in space. It is flying to the International Space Station called the ISS. and carrying equipment, tools, and parts for the space station in addition to experiments. One of their experiments is the caterpillar experiment that we know as Monarchs In Space.
The crew has a commander, a pilot, and mission specialists. They are all astronauts. They will fly the shuttle to the ISS to meet another astronaut who has been living on the ISS for two months. They will bring her home when they return to earth. On Wednesday, the space shuttle will meet the ISS and "dock" so the astronauts can board the space station. We have reference books, photos, and kindergartners' drawings in our classroom hanging above our "All About Space" table.
In addition, we have posted a calendar to count the days the caterpillars are in space, we have a posted a thermometer to measure the room temperature near the rearing boxes, we have pictures of the astronauts (the space-bound crew) and a class photo of kindergarten (the earth-bound crew) hanging by the table. Every morning a brief update about the upcoming day is posted.
Today in our journals, we explored how to put shapes together to represent our ideas of spaceships, real and imaginary.
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