Preschool Planets

 We're still a little behind learning about the planets with Mother Goose Time.  April starts the ocean, but it will probably be another week of space before we're all caught up.  The kids have been loving all the crafts we've been making.  Every day is something new.

Since Venus is covered in clouds the kids used cotton balls and paint to create their interpretation of the planet.

They sponge painted Jupiter and added a sticker red storm to it.

Uranus was made by collaging tin foil and paper.

For Saturn they wrapped yarn "rings" around the round planet.

Neptune was made by rolling balls through paint to give it a swirled effect.

They've been using their journals throughout the month to work on the color, shape, numbers and letters of the month.  I use these one on one with them to see how much they know and how they are progressing.

We've used shape design pieces and mats and math story cards to work on math skills.

We're also practicing building space words, and playing games involving the letters of the month.

The kids have played numerous games this month that involve movement and learning the order of the planets.

They also worked together to draw a giant solar system and then turned it into a big puzzle that they solved by working as a group.

And we've been playing fun games like space lotto and space bingo.  

Mercury, Earth and Mars

We've been spending a day learning about each individual planet with this months space theme from Mother Goose Time.

 We've talked about the order the planets are in, and how they revolve around the sun.  The kids got to play a game where they stood on the sun and tossed bean bags to the planets.  

They also traced different sized circles on a big piece of paper and made a classroom solar system mural.

We talked about how Mars is a windy red planet.  The kids made wind storms using the parachute and tried to throw "dust" off of it.

They also made their own red sandy Mars pictures.

The letter R was introduced this week and the kids completed their letter R pages for their alphabet books.

They took turns playing trip to Mars.  They would roll the pocket cube and move their space person the corresponding number of places.  This is a good way to teach one to one correspondence in a fun way.

The kids practiced making giant letter R's by golfing a ball around the oversized letter.

They made collages of Earth using plates and different colored paper.

They painted red and blue planets for cold and hot Mercury, and then added glitter to make them extra sparkly.  

Three more sight words were introduced this month:  look, up, and.  They got practice finding them in the I Can Read books.

Astronomers and the Sun

We're leaning all about space this moth with Mother Goose Time.  We've been doing a lot of fun activities, unfortunately my camera battery died and I wasn't able to get pictures of some of the games we've been playing.

The kids painted paper plates, and added sticker eyes and drew facial features to make sun masks.  I wasn't able to get pictures of the finished project, but they turned out really cute.  

When learning about astronomers the kids decorated tubes and pretended they were telescopes.  They used them to go on a color hunt around the room and also to find and count stars.

One of the letters this month is S, so they were able to finish another page for their alphabet books.  We've been working on them all year, and add 3 letters a month.

We've been playing lots of games involving counting and sorting stars.  We've been able to talk about more and less and most and fewest during these games. 

The Moon and Stars

We've finally started March's space theme with Mother Goose Time.  The first two days we spent learning about stars and the moon.  This is the very first theme I started blogging with 3 years ago, and it is one of my favorites.  

I taped stars all over the room, and the kids had to collect them and then sort them by size/color.  They loved this and I had to rehang them 3 times, and then the following day they asked to play it again.

The kids made star headbands and decorated them with glitter.

The kids practiced writing their names, the older ones are starting to write their last names.

One of the manipulatves this month are glow in the dark stars.  The kids used them to build constellations. 

This months rhyme time poster is Hey Diddle Diddle.  When we got to the part with the cow I changed it to one of the kids names, and they got to jump over the "moon."

They decorated bags and made moon rocks out of tinfoil.

They also used paly dough to made moons and added craters.

We'll be using the my little journals all month, today the kids made a paper moon for the cover and practiced writing their name.

Wonders of the World

This week with Mother Goose Time we learned about wonders of the world.  We discussed places like the Grand Canyon, the Matterhorn, Sequoia National Park, Ayers Rock, and Victoria Falls.  The kids really enjoyed learning about these places and finding where they are on a globe and map.

They used eye droppers and paint to make waterfall pictures,

made mountain goat headbands while learning about the Matterhorn,

and made collages of sequoia trees.

We started working on the letter Q this week, and the kids got to use watercolors to paint the alphabet sheet.

We played some world bingo,

and also played Race Around the World.  These games help the kids practice counting, taking turns, following rules, and how to be a good sport.

They also worked together to build a giant mountain, and when it would fall they would yell avalanche.  

The week the kids each got their own passport.  Every day when we learn about a new world wonder the kids get a sticker to add to their passports and draw a picture of the place we learned about.  We will also be using these next week, which is great since the kids are really loving adding stickers to them.