Saturn...

I introduced the kids to our new letter Z friend today!

We worked in our workbooks right away in the morning.

We worked on the letter Z page in our literacy workbook...

 We worked on our sight word recognition while writing in our literacy workbook...

We also cut apart planets and ordered them from largest to smallest in our math workbook...

Today we learned about Saturn!  

I asked the kids what they see when they look at Saturn.  They noticed the rings right away!

I explained to the kids that Saturn has several hundred rings that give the appearance of one very wide ring.

I cut circles from paper in four different colors.  We made an ABCD pattern in the shape of a ring around our Saturn cutout with the circles.  (An ABCD pattern is the type of pattern we are learning this month.)

We held hands and circled around the Saturn cutout as we sang, 

"The rings of Saturn are ice and rock,

Ice and rock, ice and rock.

The rings of Saturn are ice and rock, 

Round and round they go."

(Sung to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus.")

I explained to the kids that Saturn spins so fast that its middle is actually flat.  I set out my Lakeshore number mats (numbers 1-10).  Each of us took turns choosing a number...

 We spun around the same number of times as the number we chose.  

We could choose whether or not we wanted to spin fast or slow...

Next, I gave the kids the blue ribbons for our Saturn wand craft.  I challenged them to think of as many different things they could do with their ribbon before I gave out the craft directions.

P waved his ribbon in the shape of a ring/circle...

 L pretended his ribbon was a river...

 N pretended her ribbon was a jump rope...

 "A number 1!"

 "The letter P!"

 The letter R!

 "The number 7!"

 "Handcuffs!"

 "A band-aid!"

 J used his for measuring!  He found out he is taller than the length of his ribbon!

 "Daddy's tie!"

 "My pet!"  She pretended it was a leash!

 "A really loooooong mustache!"

 After we played imaginatively with our ribbons, we attached them to a colored craft stick.  We colored our craft stick and wrote our name on it...

 The kids danced to the song, "Saturn Swirl" on our Mother Goose Blast Off to Space CD while they waved their Saturn wands.  The song instructed the kids to try to make planet rings with their wand...

For our next activity I asked the kids why they would or would not want to travel to Saturn.  One child replied, "Because it would be cool to ride on the rings!  It would be like a frozen water slide!"  We put on our own play with our Mother Goose Little Theater Script titled, "Space Journey!"

 In the past we have done these plays and there are not always a role in the play for every child.  We either have to make the remaining number of children part of the audience (which is sometimes just as fun), or we have to repeat the play a second time.  This time there was 10 acting positions, 1 for each child! 

We imagined the yellow stool was the sun!  Here are the 8 planets, plus Pluto all lined up!  They are so excited for this!

 J was the narrator!

 We needed an audience, so we set up the dolls and stuffed animals!

You would be surprised at how much they LOVE doing this!  When it is their turn to speak, I tell them what there speaking part is, and they repeat it after me.  They also had an action to go along with their part.  They felt so proud of themselves!

 After all the planets played their part, "Pluto" was asked to act small and sad because it is no longer considered a planet...

 At the end of the play, all of the "planets" orbited the sun...

 I clapped loudly for the audience and the kids took their bow!  They did great!  When it was playtime later in the day, some of the kids were retelling the story and acting it out again! 

For our next activity, we sat in a circle and reviewed the letter S...

 We passed around the hands-on letter S and traced it with our finger...

 I asked one volunteer to write the sounds we hear in the word "Saturn."  We do a lot of inventive spelling in preschool...

 I told the kids I was going to call out an action, and if the action started with the letter S they should do it.  If the action did not start with the letter S, they should not do it.  Some of the letter S actions were: sit, skip, step, stand, swing, and spin.  When I wanted them to end the action I said, "Stop!" (Another letter S action.)  Some of the non-letter S actions were: jump, hop, run, walk, and roll.

Spin...

 Squat...

I set out a station where the kids sorted objects that can and cannot spin...

 These were our books for today.  The National Geographic books are some of my favorite books!  love the easy text and awesome photos!  This was a big one though.  We only read through the first chapter.  We will have to read more a different time.  The Saturn book was in English and Spanish.  The kids always enjoy when I attempt to read Spanish!

On a side note...This was our weather for today!  It is hard to believe after just welcoming spring! 

Thinking positively though, the snow was perfect for building a snowman!!!!

 The kids named their snowman "Frosty Olaf!"  

"Frosty is his first name, and Olaf is his last name!"