NASA Engineers and Astronauts

We were so intrigued by Neil Armstrong and the other astronauts who visited the moon, that we wanted to learn more about traveling into space. We learned that NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The men and women who work for NASA plan and prepare to send astronauts into space, as well as share information gained through satellites about space. 

We pretended that we were the men and women who worked for NASA. We watched several videos about what it was like to be an astronaut and fly into space. We viewed many parts of NASA's website to watch footage taken from satellites, such as the Hubble Space Telescope. 

Our favorite part about working for NASA was looking at the many different space shuttles. We decided to create plans and construct our very own space shuttles. 

Using plastic bottles, cardboard tubes, and LOTS of masking tape we each constructed our own space shuttle. 

We learned that working for NASA is very hard work! It takes a lot of time, patience, and attention to detail.

We spent time making sure that our constructed shuttles matched our original plans and were sturdy enough to fly into space!

We used card stock to create the wings of the space shuttle.

Next, we decided to paint our shuttles to complete the process. We decided to use red, white, and blue as colors for the shuttles. We used brown to paint the external fuel tanks.

Once our space shuttles were dry, we used our plans to add details to our shuttles such as windows, lights, and labels.

The finished space shuttles looked absolutely amazing! 

Not only did we create small versions of a space shuttle, but the men and women of NASA decided we needed a large space shuttle for our classroom. We voted upon the colors and details of the space shuttle, as well as the name. The Gibbons Crowe was created carefully by all of the NASA workers of our class!