Nashville, Lakeville students see stars during Mobile Ed visit

One goal of any school is to make education fun and memorable, and the recent endeavor uniting Nashville and Lakeville elementary schools during Right to Read Week April 22-26 took the kids to the moon and well beyond.

On Wednesday, April 24, Mobil Ed Productions came calling, and with presenter Dr. G came a trip through space, where students got a firsthand glimpse of the moon, sun, stars, planets and the many galaxies that seem so far away.

The portable planetarium dome featured a giant silver blow-up sky dome that allowed each student to enter into darkness, only to be introduced to the heavens above through plenty of displays that brought space to life.

“It is something that is so unusual and exciting for the kids,” Nashville/Lakeville Principal Brian Zimmerly said. “Plus, I think space is always something that is intriguing to kids of all ages because it’s so vast and there’s so much up there.”

Zimmerly said they actually started talking about a space-themed Right to Read Week last year, and with the solar eclipse taking place this year, it was the perfect time to put everything in place to create a space week.

Themed days like Moonwalk Monday featuring mismatched socks, Our Very Own Eclipse Day where the kids were invited to wear sunglasses, Glow Day with neon clothing, Starry Night/Sunny Day featuring yellow clothes, and Space Helmet Day and Flashlight Friday gave the kids plenty of fun things to experience.

Then there was all the reading going on and the many class experiences built around space.

Zimmerly said classes had guest readers from the community come in to read space-related books to the students while others utilized YouTube applications that had prerecorded video readings from astronauts.

“Mrs. Kurtz had John Glenn talking about his trip around the Earth via video,” Zimmerly said. “We had all kinds of different things and let the teachers do their own thing in bringing in exciting new ideas into the classroom.”

However, the big silver dome proved to be the highlight of the week.

Nashville teacher Brooke Mast had seen a smaller version of the dome in preschool and suggested they bring in the big one for the entire two-school population.

With the dome being the centerpiece of the week, in which they invited parents to join their children in experiencing the dome that same evening, teachers put together plenty of space-related activities in the classroom to build a space-themed week.

“The kids loved this,” Zimmerly said. “It’s incredibly informative and unique, and these are the types of things that kids will remember for a long time. Like the sign on the side of the dome says, ‘They bring the field trip to you,’ that’s exactly what this was, and we’ve really enjoyed the experience.”

Students from both schools came in groups of two, first the kindergarten and first grade, followed by the second-graders and third-graders and finally the fourth-graders and fifth-graders.

The experience presented plenty of oohs and ahs as planets, constellations, the stars, and even a trip on a rocket from the Earth to the moon and back transported students through space.

“There’s thousands and thousands of galaxies out there,” Dr. G told the children. “They’re different shapes and sizes, and there are so many that we won’t ever explore.”

Prior to ushering the children inside the planetarium, Dr. G. talked to the students about the importance of understanding space, the universe and how our own solar system works. He said paying careful attention could possibly pave the way for something exciting.

“If you’re not careful, you might learn something,” Dr. G said. “But there is so much out there that we can’t ever get through it all in the time we have together.”

The entire week culminated in the Nashville Fun Fair, which drew each community together to celebrate the universe.