Earth and Mercury

Day 6 and 7's topics were Earth and Mercury.  Elli was sick both days, so she wasn't as into the lessons as much as usual.  We talked about how Earth is different from other planets.  One way is that Earth has living things on it.  The letter R was introduced.  I made rabbit holes and placed them in a trail to the provided rabbit photo card.  The girls hopped from hole to hole, counting how many hops it took between each hole and writing the letter R on each one.  They had so much fun with this that we did it a bunch of times.

 We also made alien headbands.  Elli refused to wear hers. 

I gave the girls blue and green ice cubes and coffee filters to play with while I made an orbit out of painters tape on the floor.  We talked about how planets orbit around the sun and also how Earth rotates while orbiting.  The girls took turns being the sun in the middle, and planets orbiting.
Since we were talking about aliens, I added in a paper plate spaceship with pom pom alien craft.  I added the foam stars and planets to our orbit and they played with their spaceships for quite a while.  Addie pretended to fly to different stars and planets.

We ended by mixing shaving cream with paint and dipping paper circles in them.  After they started to dry I scraped off the remaining mixture for a marbled look.

We stated day 7 by talking about the weather on Mercury.  It gets extremely hot and extremely cold.  We sang "Hot Mercury" to the tune of "Skip to My Lou."  When it was hot we pretended to walk on hot ground and when we sang the verse about being cold we pretended to shiver.  We talked about what would happen if Earth were closer to the sun.  I held a hair dryer out while the kids walked forward to the heat.  Then I put the sun photo card on the floor and gave the girls different directions about where to put the hands on letters in relation to the sun. Elli needed a little help with some of the directions. 

 Mercury and Venus don't have any moons.  We counted how many moons Jupiter has and then Addie made a planet out of blocks and either added or subtracted moons based on what the spinner said.  We ended up with 10 moons after playing for a while. 

Elli checked the temperature with her tongue

Next I filled a bowl with ice water and another with water warmed in the microwave.  We talked about how Mercury has extreme temperatures and used a thermometer to check the temperatures in the bowls.  Then the girls made their Mercury craft.  Blue paint was kept in the fridge overnight and the red paint was warmed in the microwave.  They finger painted their planets and then added glitter.

Mercury has lots of craters and also wrinkles called Lobate Scarps.  The girls collected pillows and blankets and put them in a big pile.  I hid the Spanish word cards in the "craters" and the girls climbed around Mercury looking for them. 

 We finished up by working on workbooks and completing the R page in the my little journal.  Normally we finish with Dance N' Beats, but Addie is getting over being sick and Elli is sick, so there was not a lot of energy for dancing.









http://new.inlinkz.com/luwpview.php?id=504642

An InLinkz Link-up