From the Inside Out

from our Priority Montessori Inner Earth nomenclature

We are learning about the layers of the earth . . . by building a small model from the inside out.








from Guest Authors S.A., 3rd grade; O.S., 2nd grade; C.H., 1st grade:
Yesterday, we learned about the different layers of the earth.  They are the crust, the asthenosphere, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core.  The crust is the outside layer of the earth.  It is a thin layer with rocks and dirt.  The asthenosphere is right under the crust.  It is a thin layer too, made up of melted rock.  When the magma comes out of volcanoes, it is called lava.  Next is the mantle and it is a thick, mostly-solid layer.  Then comes the outer core.  It is right outside of the inner core.  The inner core is the middle of the earth.  It is a solid ball of iron.  


Today, students worked in pairs to make Layers of the Earth necklaces.

(We used Sculpey Bake Shop oven-bake polymer clay.)

We began with the inner core.

Next, we wrapped yellow around the inner core to represent the outer core.















We covered that with a layer of orange to represent the mantle.




















Over the mantle went a thin, thin layer of brown to represent the crust.  This was followed by thin pieces of blue spread over about 3/4 of the Earth to represent the hydrosphere.

Spheres were carefully placed in trays labeled with student names and stacked to take home.  After a short stint in the freezer, they were ready to be cut into hemispheres, revealing the layers.

I used a toothpick to drill a hole across the top of each half, and then baked them at 275 degrees Fahrenheit for about half an hour.

I then threaded each hemisphere with narrow ribbon to make a necklace.

Ta-da!

There's a Book for That!
How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World by Faith McNulty
The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth by Joanna Cole

There's also a cake!