Pistes d'exploration

Discuss and write whether you think this book is helpful if you are trying to find out what astronauts do. Explain your reasoning.

Before reading the book, brainstorm words related to the topic that begin with A, C and S. Discuss their definitions.

Find and share five interesting facts about____ (choose an aspect of space).

Make a poster about space words known to the class.

Create a class space alphabet book (or quilt), using unfamiliar words from the book. Write a description for each chosen word.

Talk about what you would enjoy exploring if you were an astronaut.

Check out the chapter titles and define any new vocabulary. Make predictions about the chapters’ contents.

Create a five-question quiz on one of the chapters. Write the questions on index cards with the answers (upside-down, in very small cursive) on the reverse. Use the cards to play a quiz game with a partner or as a class.

Create a second two-page spread for one of the chapters to provide additional information on the topic. Include the author’s multimodal choices: illustrations, font changes, photos, headings, subheadings, sidebars, statistics, etc. Compile an Encyclopedia of Space, Volume II with all these new pages.

Postcards From Space: The Chris Hadfield Story, Earth and Sky

Mots-clés

Non-fiction , astronauts , outer space , planets , solar system , stars , universe

Commentaire descriptif

Simple everyday language and bold, eye-popping visuals introduce young children to the wonders of space. The book opens with an exploration of telescopes, radio waves, space equipment, astronauts, rocket ships, space shuttles and disasters, while the second half examines the solar system, planets, stars, asteroids, galaxies and more. Detailed pictures and sketches help increase the reader’s understanding of the content, and an explanatory note opposite the table of contents indicates that those topics marked with a star have material available for download at the Usborne Quicklinks Web site, for use in school projects. A helpful age-appropriate glossary at the end includes terminology (e.g. asteroid, nebula, comet, light year, gravity) that appears throughout the book. Children will be surprised to learn that even as they sit still to read this book, they “are still moving through space at 1000 km (600 miles) a second.”