Hi! My name is Jessica Craig, and I love space, just like Jackson does! I also enjoy watching Doctor Who. I have always enjoyed learning and being taught interesting facts. I hope that you can also see that learning is fun!

Jackson was not happy. He didn’t know what to do. He had already played with his stuffed animals, Turtle the turtle, Hedgy the hedgehog, and Pokey the dog. Jackson thought about what he could do, when he remembered what he had learned about in school yesterday. His teacher, Miss Smith, had told him about stars and other things in the sky. He got an idea.

“Mommy!” Jackson called. “Can I go to the stars?” Mommy looked at him and told him that if he wanted to go to the stars, then he could travel in his magical pirate ship, but he needed to remember to bring a coat. Jackson was so excited, he jumped up and down. He ran all over the house, collecting the things he thought he might need for the trip. Finally, he was ready to travel to the stars. Jackson flew his pirate flag and started to sail to the stars with Turtle, Hedgy, and Pokey.

Discovering Earth’s Life

The ship had barely lifted off of the ground, when Hedgy tapped Jackson on the shoulder. “Jackson, have you seen the amazing and

exotic animals outside?”“Hedgy, there are no exotic animals outside. We are just above my

house.”Hedgy looked at Jackson. “Take these binoculars and look to the

mountains.”Jackson looked and saw a lot of plants and animals. “That’s cool! I

never knew that there were so many plants and animals by my house!”

“Do you remember what Miss Smith told you about plants and animals in the world?” asked Hedgy. He continued, “She said that all the plants

and animals on Earth were in something called the biosphere.” Jackson exclaimed, “I do remember! She also said that the Earth was

made of four different sections, called spheres.”

Rising into the Air

“Jackson!”, Hedgy called, “Look over the side of the ship!” Jackson looked over the edge of the ship and saw Earth. “Wow! I didn’t know the hard stuff on the ground looked like that from above!”

Hedgy said, “Jackson, don’t you remember what Miss Smith told you? That hard stuff on the outside of the planet is called the lithosphere.”

“I remember! She said that it’s the rocks and dirt on the Earth,” Jackson replied. “Thanks a lot, Hedgy!”

Looking at the... Water?

Jackson was looking all around the ship for more interesting things in the world. All he saw around him was water. Jackson was frustrated. “Hedgy, do you see anything that is interesting?” “There are a lot of cool things out here!” said Hedgy. “You just have to look for them. For example, do you see the ocean and the clouds? Those are part of a sphere called the hydrosphere on the Earth. All of the ice on Earth is also part of the hydrosphere. Did you know that less than 3% of the Earth’s water is drinkable?”Jackson looked at the clouds. They were so big. Were the clouds AND his water AND his ice AND everybody else’s ice and water less than 3% of ALL the water on the Earth? “Thanks, Hedgy! I’m learning so much with your help!”

Above the EarthAfter a very long time, Jackson’s magical ship was above the Earth. He could see the Earth and the twirling clouds around it.Jackson wondered what all the gases around Earth were called, so he asked Hedgy. “Hedgy, what are all the gases that surround Earth called?”

Hedgy smiled and said, “It’s the last of the four spheres of the Earth. It’s called the atmosphere. It protects us from the sun. The sun can hurt us a lot if we didn’t have the atmosphere. A lot of the gases that you see are nitrogen and oxygen.”

The Cold in the North and the South

Jackson saw some white on the top and on the bottom of the Earth. Turtle saw the white stuff, too. Jackson asked Turtle, “Do you know what the white stuff is on the Earth? It wasn’t there

when I was on it.”

Turtle said, “The white stuff is snow and ice. It has always been there, but you have not always been able to see it. The two ice and snow chunks on Earth are called the polar regions. These

places have a lot of snow the whole year round. They are around the North and South Poles. They are very cold during the whole

year.”

The Middle EarthJackson was still a little confused. He decided to ask Turtle about his question: “If the North and South Poles are very cold, then why do I live with sun and snow in the same year?”

“Very good question, Jackson,” Turtle responded. “You do not live in a polar region. You live in what is known as a mid-latitude region. That basically means that you have cold AND hot seasons. It also means that the temperature changes a lot in the year.”

“Thank you, Turtle!” Jackson happily said.

Days and Years“Hey, Jackson!” Turtle called, “Do you want to know

about how Earth’s days and years are made?”

Jackson thought for a minute. Then he said, “Why not? I’ve already learned a lot. Let’s learn a little

more.”

“Great!” exclaimed Turtle. “I know you are probably thinking that days have nothing to do with where

we are right now. The Earth is turning on an imaginary stick called an axis. The axis goes through the North Pole and the South Pole. When the Earth goes around the axis so that it ends up back where it started, a day has gone by. It is called a rotation.”

Going Around the Sun Jackson was excited to learn more about the Earth, so he asked Turtle, “I understand what a rotation is, but what’s a year have anything to do with the Earth and where we are now?”

“Well,” Turtle continued, “the sun is how we get a year.” Jackson was confused, so Turtle kept talking. “The Earth goes around the sun. It’s called a revolution every time that happens. We call it a year. It takes a little longer than a year to revolve around the sun.”

Jackson remembered Mommy talking about a leap year. “Mommy said that every four years, an extra day is added to the calendar.”

Turtle responded, “That’s right! We have a leap year to make up for the extra little bit of the year that we have.”

Off Into Deep Space

All of a sudden, Jackson’s ship started moving away from the Earth. “Hey, Pokey, where do you think we’re going? I can see a lot of planets.”

Pokey barked, then said, “We’re moving out into the solar system.” After Jackson asked what a solar system was, Pokey said, “A solar system is a sun with planets and other objects that revolve around it.”“That’s super mega awesome!” exclaimed Jackson.

Deeper Into Space

As they moved deeper into space, Jackson began to get cold. He put on his coat. “Brrr,” Jackson shivered, “I’m glad that Mommy told me to bring my coat.” They passed more solar systems, until they were very far away from Earth. There was a big, swirly thing on the edge of the ship.

Pokey called to Jackson, “That big, swirly thing is called a galaxy. It’s a big group of stars. Some of the stars are part of a solar system.”

“It really is a small world, after all,” Jackson thought.

Back to Earth

Jackson was starting to get tired from the long adventure. He laid down on the ship and fell asleep. When he woke up, the ship was back on Earth. “Hedgy, Turtle, and Pokey must have put it back here,” Jackson thought. He got up and hugged his three friends. “Thank you so much for that adventure!” Jackson was very happy, but he was also hungry.

“Time for dinner, Jackson!” Mommy called out to him.

Jackson rushed inside to eat. He sat down at the table. Mommy put his favorite dinner, chicken nuggets that looked like dinosaurs, on his plate. “I wonder where the dinosaurs came from and where they are now,” Jackson thought. He said aloud, “Mommy, tomorrow, can I visit the dinosaurs?”

“Of course you can, Jackson,” Mommy smiled at him.

“Thanks, Mommy!” Jackson happily said. He could have an adventure every day!

Works Cited

Pictures:

• http://marshall.org/space-policy/

• http://www.desktopanimated.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Doctor_Who_1.jpg

• http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1423/927149909_4a0a124013.jpg

• http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/atlas_obscura/2013/09/05/biosphere_2_experiments_in_a_sealed_off_artificial_earth_in_oracle_arizona/biosphereinterior.jpg.CROP.article920-large.jpg

• https://geolt11.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/examples-of-physical-features.jpg

• http://www.itsnature.org/Photos/images/large/ocean6.jpg

• http://www.philmeadowsmusic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/earth.jpg

• http://images.clipartpanda.com/hot-and-cold-thermometer-bigstock-illustration-of-thermometers-w-49787687-tgatoh.jpg

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