A Journey Through The Inner Solar System

SPACED OUT PT. 1

Chapter 1: Just Another Day

It was just like any other day. The twins woke up, brushed their teeth, had their favorite bowl of cereal for breakfast – Jimmy ate Fruity O’s and Steff had a big bowl ChocoFlakes – they caught the bus and made it to school. Nothing strange about it.

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/archive/tags/cereal/default.aspx

Ms. Mileur’s third grade science class had been all about space for the last week and the twins were sick of it. Jimmy thought the solar system was cold and black and boring and Steff thought space was too far away for her to care about.

After the science lesson, Ms. Mileur called the twins over to her desk.

“Jimmy, Steff, I noticed the two of you had a hard time paying attention during science today. Is everything okay?”

“Space is just boring.” Jimmy said.

“Yeah,” agreed Steff, “suuuuper boring.”

“Oh, well in that case,” Ms. Mileur wrote something down on a piece of paper, folded it and handed it to the twins, “Take this to Room 13.”

Click here to go to Room 13

Click here to go to the playground

Chapter 2: Same Old Science

http://www.lessons4sundayschool.com/images/sunclipartbulletinboard.jpg

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13Inside the twins discovered it was the janitor’s office. But it did not look like any office they had ever seen. There were computers and flashing lights and buttons everywhere. A low humming noise was coming from somewhere. The only cleaning supplies Steff could see were in a small box underneath a desk full of papers.

“Look,” whispered Jimmy, “Whaddaya suppose that is?” He was pointing to a large blue sphere glowing in the back corner.

“That is uh…” the janitor fumbled over his words, “its like a school bus. But only for really special field trips.”

“We want to go on a special field trip!!” the twins shouted.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“Please,” begged Steff, “Anything is better than science.”

“Well, I do need some guinea pigs to test it out on. Oh alright.” He pushed a few invisible buttons on the sphere and a door slid open. The kids jumped in.

“Now be careful. Don’t leave the pod. No matter what.” And with that the pod started spinning faster and faster.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.” Jimmy said worriedly.

But it was too late.Chapter 5

• … the Sun is not a plant but a star.

• … the Sun is the center of our Solar System. That means all of the planets orbit around the sun.

• … the Sun is a big ball of gas!

• … the Sun warms and gives light to all of the planets.

The sphere shot up through the roof of the school and flew faster and faster through the sky. The world was quickly becoming smaller and smaller. The twins sailed past the clouds and out of the atmosphere.

“Look!” Jimmy pointed. “The moon.”

They zoomed past the moon and towards the bright sun.

Click here to visit Mercury

Chapter 5: The SunClick the screen to see some facts about the

Sun Did you know…

Chapter 6: Mercury

Instead of heading straight into the sun, the sphere quickly turned and began to orbit around Mercury. The kids could see the planet getting closer and closer through the glass walls of their pod.

“Where are we?” Steff asked Jimmy.

“Mercury, I think.”

“How can you tell?”

“Well, Mercury is the planet closest to the sun. And it looks like our moon because of all of it’s craters.” Jimmy said. “Ms. Mileur said that today in class.”

Steff examined the planet carefully. “Wow. Look how small it is. And it has no moons.”

“Yeah. Woah! We’re taking off again.” Jimmy grabbed on to his seat.

Click here to go to Venus Image from http://www.cksinfo.com/clipart/space/planets/mercury2.png

Steff grabbed her brother’s hand as the pod took off towards Venus.

“Wow, look at all of the clouds around Venus. Let’s get out and explore.” Jimmy said.

“NO! We can’t. Remember what Ms. Mileur said. Those clouds trap heat in the planet. Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System!” Steff shouted.

“Oh that must be why the janitor told us not to get out of this thing. What else did Ms. Mileur say?”

“Well, the surface of Venus is like the Earth’s, and Venus is almost the same size as Earth. That’s why they are sister planets.”

Chapter 7: Venus

Click here to pass Earth Click here to

visit Earth

Chapter 8: Mars

Jimmy and Steff zipped passed Earth.

“Look, there’s home. I miss it.” Said Jimmy sadly.

“Yeah, me too,” Steff agreed, “but look at Mars.”

“Wow, it’s sooo red. I guess it really is “The Red Planet.” Jimmy said.

“And it has two moons! We only have one. Do you remember what their names are? Phobos and Deimos, right?”

“Yeah. It looks cold. Do you see those polar ice caps?” Jimmy pointed to the white patches at the top and bottom of the planet.

All of the sudden the sphere started to shudder and shake.

“WHAT IS GOING ON!?!” The twins shouted.

Image fromhttp://www.cksinfo.com/clipart/space/planets/mercury2.png

Click here to go back home

Chapter 9: HomeThe sphere took off again, hurtling towards earth.

“We’re going home!” Steff shouted with joy.

“We’re going to crash!” Jimmy screamed.

The blue pod whizzed past the Moon and shook as it entered the atmosphere.

“We’re on fire!” Steff screamed.

“Yeah, the friction of the atmosphere creates heat on our pod that turns into fire.” shouted Jimmy.

The sphere began to slow down as they got closer to the ground.

“There’s our school!” said Jimmy. “We made it.”

Back in their classroom, Ms. Mileur asked them why it took them so long.

“Oh,” said Steff and Jimmy, “just learning about science.”