Please vote here for our kids’ astronaut collage photo to help them get a chance to chat online with one of their idols, Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield. There is no registration required to vote, and it only takes 1 click to get your vote in. Since there is only a link to the group of submitted photos (rather than a specific link for individual photos), here is what the photo that we submitted looks like. Although I could not find confirmation of this, it appears as though we can vote every day because I was able to vote yetesday only once, but then was allowed to vote again today.
Our journey to space, on an astronaut collage photo:
My kids and I have been learning about space and astronauts quite a bit over the past few months. Our motivation to focus on this topic has been partly because of my oldest son’s interest, and partly because of the upcoming space launch where a Canadian astronaut, Col. Chris Hadfield, will be the commanding chief. We used the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) website as our educational resource. There is so much to see and learn from their website.
As part of our space activites, we teamed up with a bunch of Moms and kids from the region, and participated in a photo contest hosted by the CSA. To enter the contest, we needed to take a picture with a cutout of Col. Hadfield, or digitally insert his photo into one of ours. We decided to put a little twist in our photo entry as we opted for a photo collage of our kids dressed in an astronaut costume and standing on a fun planet that they created on their own. To add a bit of variety, we placed some of the astronauts in a bright space shuttle. This was a really fun process, plus it opened up so many opportunities to talk about space and astronomy with the children. On the most part, the kids all got a lesson on the International Space Station (ISS) prior to their astronaut photo shoot. One of the kids’ biggest misconceptions seemed to be that the ISS was built on the moon. We put together a little chart to help them get perspective of exactly where the ISS exists.
The quote on the flag is so inspiring for any child who dreams of going to space someday. The quote comes from a recent interview in which I heard the Col. Hadfield say that commanding a space ship is no longer “just a wild little kid’s dream but actually something Canadians do”. It was that quote that inspired us to get the kids to create their own planets, because who knows what they might be able to discover someday. The possibilities are endless and we wanted to give them a creative outlet to express that sentiment (plus it was fun too).
Finally, my son also did a show ‘n tell in his SK class on how space rockets fly into space and land back on earth. It was quite technical, but he did a great job explaining the whole process. To congratulate him for all his hard work, that evening I handed him an envelope that we had received from the CSA which included a few space posters, pens and rulers. I told him the CSA sent him the kit because they had heard that he had done such a great job talking about rockets at his show ‘n tell. Big smile !!!! It was quite impressive considering he is only 5 years old.
After all their hard work learning about astronomy and space (outside of regular school expectations), the kids involved in the photo contest deserve a lot of recognition. Your vote would be a great way to show the kids that working hard pays off.
