On Monday this week we started a new Mother Goose Time theme: Blast Off to Space!
I am so excited about this one! If you are not yet aware, there is a space exhibit set up at the Science Museum. P and I took our kids there last weekend. It was a lot of fun, and for a couple of extra dollars you can get a year membership! The "Journey to Space" movie playing at the theater was the coolest part! Check it out if you have the time!
I started our space unit by introducing the kids to our new shape for the month. We passed around the star and counted how many points it has.
Then we counted how many fingers we have on one hand. They both have 5!
We learned that stars sometimes look like they are twinkling, but they actually shine a constant light. The movement of dust and rocks in the atmosphere makes stars look like they twinkle. We turned the lights off and demonstrated this with a flashlight and a block...
Next I showed the kids the new paper magnifying glasses and theme poster for the month...
They had to find the pictures on our poster. I always ask the kids to give a thumbs-up if they see the picture. Then I choose one person to describe where the object is using positional words (above, beside, between, below, etc.). The magnifying glasses also have discussion questions or activities on the back for me to read to the kids (related to the object found).
We told the kids that the sun is actually a star! We had to sing "Oh Mr. Sun!"
We practiced writing our names on new name recognition tags. I wrote the kids names first. I have them trace their name and then try writing it all on their own. (Image was blurred for confidentially.)
We placed all of the nametags face down on the floor. We took turns choosing a nametag and reading whose name was on it. The person whose name was chosen was asked to act out the life of a star...
After a star is around for a long time it explodes. This is called a supernova. We squatted down low and curled our body up small...
Then we jumped up and pretended to explode like a supernova...
We made star wands with glitter!
I gave the idea of writing the first letter of their name on their star with glue, but also allowed them to decorate it differently if they wanted to...
I laminated the stars provided through Mother Goose Time and taped them on the walls throughout the classroom. We learned that stars can be red, yellow, or blue. The red ones are "red giants." The blue ones are "blue dwarfs," and the yellow ones are medium sized.
The kids had to go "catch a star" by gathering all of the stars from the walls. They brought them back to our circle time area.
We worked as a group to sort the stars by size...
The kids practiced writing the number 7 in their workbooks today (7 and 17 are the numbers we will be learning about this month). I taught the kids how to draw a star! They were all successful in my eyes, and feeling pretty proud!
Today was also Dr. Seuss's birthday!
We made rhyming Cat in the Hat masks!
We also ate green eggs and ham! Here is the "I'm not so sure about this" face...
I set out all of our Dr. Seuss books in our reading area...
I also have Dr. Seuss books on CD. We started with our Cat in the Hat book in our listening center. We will switch the books out throughout the remainder of the week.
We LOVE to READ!
We made a healthy Cat in the Hat snack!
We cut Thing 1 and Thing 2 wigs with crazy scissors...
These are a few of my favorite things!
I gave the kids their own Thing 1 and Thing 2 whiteboard as a gift! They had fun drawing and writing rhyming words before going home...
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