Sweet Smiles Preschool: Our Milky Way Galaxy...

I started the morning working on our literacy workbooks one-on-one with the kids. This one touched my heart! It reads, "My planet is green and white. It has a lot of special kids on it. I named it Zoomer (because it moves fast)!" Once the kids are extremely efficient at the letters and their sounds, their inventive spelling really takes off! I am so proud!

The kids also worked on the number 17 in their math workbooks...

On this day we learned what a galaxy is. I asked the kids what they could find in a galaxy. They replied with, "Rocks, stars, planets, comets, etc...." It is fun to hear their answers because it shows just how much they have learned this month!

I took our foam stars and tossed them on the floor. We danced around the stars as we sang,
"Do you know our galaxy?
Our galaxy, our galaxy?
Do you know our galaxy?
It's called the Milky Way!
(Sung to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?")

After our song, I asked the kids to sort the stars by their colors...

I showed the kids this photo of our Milky Way galaxy. I asked them if they think there is milk in the Milky Way? They got a good laugh out of the question. They are smarter than that! I explained that when you look at the Milky Way from Earth, billions of close-together stars form a white milky glow. We wondered a lot as we looked at this photo...

Our craft for today was to make a "Galaxy Glitter Design!"

I squirted a rainbow of paint colors into a Styrofoam bowl. I also squirted a bunch of glue in the center of the bowl...

I gave each child a piece of black paper and a cotton swab (q-tip). They swirled the colors together and made a galaxy swirl design on their paper.

Then they sprinkled rainbow colored glitter on their art. I encouraged the kids to name their galaxy. Some of the names were: "Nick," "Zoomie," "Planet," "Sky," and "Horsie!"

I didn't think much of this project, but the kids LOVED it! It is funny how so many times I think the kids are not going to like something, but then they really do.

I asked the kids to look at our galaxy photo again and name the colors they could see. I explained that many colors can be seen in a galaxy. This has to do with the temperature of its stars. Younger, hotter stars give off a blue color, while older, cooler stars give off red. For our next activity we made GALAXY GOO!!! A.k.a. Flubber!

We mixed equal parts liquid starch (sold at Walmart) and school glue. I used a 1/3 cup to measure the equal parts. Each child got to make their own bag.

Each child got to choose their own color as well.
They dropped a few drops of food coloring in the bag...

When we sealed the bag this is what it looked like...

The kids mixed their substance together as best as they could while it was in the bag...

When we dumped the substance out of the bag this it was it looked like. It was a wet sticky CRAZY mess! I have done this before though, so I knew the more they worked it together with their hands, the more it would come together.

Some of the kids were a little fearful of getting messy at first...

...but they eventually warmed up to the idea after they saw all of their friends having so much fun!

When the goo was completely formed, I cleaned the table and the kids had a BLAST playing with it!!!! This was so much fun!!! My ears hurt a little though! There was so much screaming, squealing, and giggling! The kids were just so excited they could hardly contain themselves!

For our next activity I asked the kids what they think would be difficult about jumping in space. I explained that in outer space gravity doesn't pull us down like it does on Earth. We weigh a lot less on the moon than we do on Earth. Neil Armstrong actually bounced as he walked on the moon for the first time! I showed the kids our new Rhyme Time Poster. We recited the rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" together. Most of the kids already knew this one from Memory!

We took turns replacing the words "the cow" with our names. When we said our name we jumped over a pillow that we pretended was the moon!

I laminated our poster and had the kids circle the sight words we have learned about so far this year...

We also worked on the number 17 page in our journal...

I asked the kids to imagine they discovered a new galaxy. They wrote and completed the sentence, "My galaxy has 17..." They used pom pom balls that I attached to clothespins to make 17 marks on their paper.

After our paint dried we colored the rest of our paper black and added details to our paint marks...

This was our book for today...

I also set out this book for the kids to read to themselves...

Later in the afternoon we played a new Space board game that Mother Goose provided. We crumbled up a piece of tinfoil to use as game pieces! I thought that was a pretty fun idea on Mother Goose's part!