Explaining a Day, Month, and Year

Suppose that you need to explain the concepts of a year, a month, and a day to a small child such as Elsie. Could you do this? First, you should know a couple of things about Elsie:

1. She is extremely smart for just turning four years old (I know that you're thinking, "Hmm..... she must get her intellect from her mother." Well, you're right.) Elsie will follow your line of thought quite well.
2. If you use the terms rotation, revolution, orbit, or any other term used specifically for astronomy, she might not know exactly what it means (Many adults wouldn't know what the terms mean either.) Be sure to explain these things as you go.
3. It would help if you related these concepts to things a 4-year-old would know about -- like Disney movies (especially Rapunzel from Tangled and, of course, Cinderella), Elmo from Sesame Street, Legos, Clifford the big red dog, Super Why, Angelina Ballerina, etc.
   

For each concept (year, month, and day) describe the motion of the Earth, the moon, and the sun. Good luck.

Planet Presentations 2013

Comment: I eagerly await the chance to become an expert on each of the planets of our solar system.
Question: Who is going to give me that opportunity?
Answer: The Crazy 8s
Another Question: How?
Another Answer: This week they will be researching a specific planet, collaborating in groups, and developing a presentation that will blow away (in a good way) anyone who is fortunate to be in attendance.

Below is a link for some useful planet research sites.

Planet Presentation Links and Instructions

The Growth Mindset

We've talked about character traits (like grit, optimism, self-control, etc.) that lead to success. It can be extremely difficult to improve those traits if you don't think they are modifiable. That's what this video is about. Simply having the mindset that you can improve and "get better" is vital to actual growth.
Growth Mindset TED Talk
What is the thing you take away from this video?