Exchange Ideas and Plans for Summer Reading 2011!

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Will you be featuring hands-on space science activities as part of your summer reading program? Are you looking for ideas? Post here to exchange ideas and plans with the 600+ members of our Explore! community!

As your thoughts turn to summer, keep in mind that your institution can be part of NASA's Year of the Solar System. Find out-of-classroom activities listed under "Organizations and Clubs." Download materials and logos to advertise your event at http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/yss/downloads.cfm. See the Explore! community calendar (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/explore/events/) to help you plan your summer.

Consider using the Explore! activity, What Do You See in the Moon? (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/explo ... ndex.shtml), to tie space science into the Collaborative Summer Library Program's "One World, Many Stories" theme. Children love reading cultural stories about the Moon and then drawing their own rabbit or man or other shape that they see on the face of the Moon.

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Here's the -- just updated! -- Explore! calendar for this summer:

May 2011
5/1 – 5/31
NASA Year of the Solar System: Volcanism!
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/yss/display ... 11&Month=5
Join NASA in celebrating this theme for the month of May!

June 2011
6/1 – 6/30
NASA Year of the Solar System: Impacts!
Join NASA in celebrating this theme for the month of June!
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/yss/display ... 11&Month=6

July 2011
7/1 – 7/31
NASA Year of the Solar System: Asteroids: Leftovers from Planet Building
Join NASA in celebrating this theme for the month of July!
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/yss/display ... 11&Month=7

August 2011
8/1 – 8/31
NASA Year of the Solar System: Windy Worlds
Join NASA in celebrating this theme for the month of August!
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/yss/display ... 11&Month=8

8/5 – 8/7
Vesta Fiesta
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/vesta_fiesta.asp
NASA's Dawn spacecraft is currently on its way to visit two asteroids in the asteroid belt. Vesta Fiesta is a nation-wide celebration of the spacecraft's arrival at the asteroid Vesta. Post your own event on the website! Resources for educators and kids are available at http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/. Consider starting a conversation with the children about where -- and how FAR away -- the asteroids are with Explore! Jump to Jupiter (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/explo ... mpJupiter/) and Solar System in My Neighborhood (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/explo ... larSystem/)