Wonderzone, Episode 1 Discovery



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Welcome back to Wonderzone! This week, we explore the wonders of the universe, and think about our place in it. We may be small, but we are a very special part of God’s creation. How do you feel about that?!

You should have received a Fact File, or a Lab Book: these contain some extra information and activities, and things to think about and discuss. The books also have the Bible readings printed in them for you to read and keep.

On Monday morning we’ll email the link to the video as well as links to some fun songs: that will save you having to type them in. The songs have actions– it might be a good idea to choose one every week and have a go at following the actions, especially if you need a bit of a workout. I’ve also put the words of the Wonderzone song on one of the sheets … it’s the one they sing at the end of every episode.

In this week’s pack you will find

❖ A solar system kit (in a big white envelope)

❖ Sheets of A3 and A4 paper

❖ Wax crayons and a pot of dark poster paint

❖ Ingredients for salt dough

❖ Star cutter

❖ Metallic acrylic paint for dough

❖ Pepper for the experiment in the video (the instructions there are quite clear)

Any problems: contact us via penicuikholidayclub@ or phone Joan Cape on 674276

In the next episode, we’ll be exploring The Gift of Light; as well as a new video, there will be another resource pack delivered to the door.

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Experiment: The solar system

Make a scaled down solar system that will fit in your house/garden….. or maybe the park!!

You will need to read the instructions and gather all the bits first, then work out where you’re going to do this - a trip to the park might be a good idea if you want to do it in a straight line. If you just want to get an idea of the different distances, you could have fun seeing how you can fit it into your house or garden……… and get some sense of just how HUGE the universe is! Have fun!

To create the model, we need to shrink the universe down to fit in your house. This is what it would approximately look like if we scaled down the sun to look like a large ball.

First of all, try to collect the things in the “size” list – doesn’t matter if you don’t have the exact things (I really don’t like grapefruit!); similar sized things are fine – it’s just to give a clear idea of the huge range of sizes of the planets.

Then, put the ball down – this is the centre of your solar system. If the sun were shrunk to this size, the next planet Mercury would be 16 steps away and would be the size of a seed. Place each planet in the same manner, but when you come to Jupiter and beyond you might want to just throw the items as they are so many steps away!

PLANET SIZE DISTANCE

The Sun A large ball at your front door (or wherever makes a good start place.

Mercury A seed 16 steps away

Venus A marble 31 steps away from the Sun

Earth A marble 45 steps away from the Sun

Mars A pea 60 steps away from the Sun

Jupiter A tennis ball 225 steps away from the Sun (throw it!)

Saturn A grapefruit 405 steps away from the Sun (throw it!)

Uranus A mandarin 800 steps away from the Sun (throw it!)

Neptune A mandarin 1270 steps away from the Sun (er….jog?)

Mums and Dads: it works just as well if you divide all the numbers by two….it still gives the idea that it’s a VERY long way from the sun, or even the earth, to the furthest away planet. And it still gives the general idea of the sizes of the planets in relation to each other.

Suggestion: you could have a look at these (or similar sized objects) at home, then go for a walk, measuring out the steps and marking in a way of your choosing where each planet would be …. Then walk home along the trail to get a sense of the distances.

Alternatively: Make your own solar system using the kit enclosed in your resource bag (if there are two of you, you can do this between you)

Ask via the email address if you want to know what’s in the kit.

Night sky paintings

You need

• A sheet of paper

• Wax crayons

• Black or dark blue paint

• Paintbrush

• A pot of water

Using the wax crayons, draw a night sky scene: planets, stars, maybe the moon, or even a shooting star or a rocket. You want nice heavy lines and shapes.

When you’re happy with what you’ve drawn, take your paint brush and paint over the whole picture – you want the paint not to be too thick (if you think it’s too thick, add some water): the paint shouldn’t stick to the wax areas, and you should finish up with a night sky scape!

Some other ideas

Paint a sheet of paper black, or dark blue.

Then create your own sky scape using buttons, paper/card shapes/glitter, or whatever you can find in the house and sticking them on. You should have some glue left from last week (I hope you do!).

Do you have any play dough, or modelling clay…… why not make a planet?

Or use one of your sheets of paper and draw or paint your planet!

• What would you call your planet?

• What sort of place would it be?

Can you find out some facts about the planets? There’s space to write them here

You can find more about the planets here (ask your parents to help you find these)



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A special poem: Psalm 8

Today, Sheila read Psalm 8 to us – do you remember? It was written by David, the father of King Solomon (we learned about him in the last episode). Here’s a little bit to remind you:

Our Lord and Ruler,

    your name is wonderful

    everywhere on earth!

You can find the whole of this psalm in the Bible, in the Book of Psalms (Contemporary English Version). It’s also in your Fact File, or Lab Book, along with some activities – have a look! Remember: if you have any questions, or if you draw some wonderful pictures about the psalm, we’d love to see them: ask someone in your house to send them to us at our email address.

********************************************************Bake a star mobile

You need:

• 125mls water

• 125gr salt (in your bag)

• 250gr plain flour (in your bag)

• A star cutter (in your bag)

• A bowl

• A rolling pin

• A baking tray (lined with non stick/greaseproof paper if possible)

Put the salt and flour into the bowl. Mix together. Then add water gradually to get a fairly stiff dough, like pastry. If you don’t need it all, that’s fine!

Use your hands to work it in to a ball, then sprinkle a little flour on your surface and roll out the dough. It doesn’t want to be too thin (it will break) or too thick (it takes ages to dry out). About the thickness of a couple of £1 coins should be fine.

Cut out as many stars as you can and place them on the tray.

Now you need to make a hole so you can hang them up. Find something suitable to poke a hole through one of the points big enough for a thread, or a string to go through (not too near the edges or they’ll break when you hang them up).

Then put them in the oven at a very low setting: Gas Mark 1 or 130 degrees for about 3 hours. They should feel firm and dry at the end of this time.

Leave them to cool on a cooling rack.

Then paint them as you want: we have given you some acrylic paint, but they look nice painted white, or spread with glue and then scattered with glitter.

Then, as shown in the video, find a piece of stick, and some thread, ribbon or string, and make them into a “mobile” to hang somewhere in the house as a reminder of the wonders of the universe which God has made.

CONSTELLATIONS

In the video, we heard about a CONSTELLATION: a constellation is a group of stars that, when you look at it in the sky, makes the outline shape of a creature or a thing. In the video we are told about a constellation called Cassiopeia. She was a very beautiful, but very vain, queen of the ancient Greeks. This constellation is in the shape of a W.

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Why not colour this picture in to remind you of the shape of this constellation, and how it got its name?

Learn and imagine

This site tells you lots about the stars and the constellations:

Ask an older person in the house if it’s ok to watch it!

Maybe you have some books about the constellations? Have a look and see what you can find out.

Choose an interesting constellation and try to draw the star shape and the lines around it.

OR design your own new constellation – what would it look like? What will you call it?

(You can use this space, or another sheet of paper)

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