The Sun!

In the morning I set out our February calendar.  The kids generally have fun playing with this after the month has concluded.  They like matching up the numbers on the cards to the dates I wrote on the calendar.  They also like sorting the cards and making patterns.  I think it is cute when they reminisce about the special days we wrote on the calendar as well (birthdays and holidays).

 We learned about the sun today!  We passed our hands-on letter S around the circle as we said the /s/ sound.  After the letter made its way around the circle a couple of times, I said "Sssssstop!" 

 The person who was holding the letter S when I said "Sssssstop" went to find the peek-a-boo letter S on our alphabet strip on our circle time display.

 She revealed that S is for sun!

 I asked one child to stand in the center of our circle with her arms up like she was the sun.  The rest of the kids held hands and circled around her as we sang "The planets spin around the sun, around the sun, around the sun.  The Planets spin around the sun, in our solar system!"  (Sung to the tune of "London Bridges.")

 I asked the kids if they think the sun moves.  J replied with "Yes, because when we are driving in the car the sun follows us!" That seemed like a pretty logical answer!  I explained that the sun actually rotates around an axis much like Earth, but it takes the Sun 25 days to make one complete rotation.  We acted this out.  N spun the globe as he orbited around the sun.  B was the sun and she spun around as well while he circled around her.

 Since I told the kids it takes 25 days for the sun to make one complete rotation, I asked them to count to 25 and turn slowly one time around.  This was A LOT more difficult than you would think.  They did a great job trying, but they would turn around about 4 times in the time it took to count to 25.

We were given new journals for the month of March.  On the cover of the the journal there was a picture of a rocket with a window.  I asked the kids to write their name on their journal and then draw a picture of themselves along with someone else.  I explained that the person with them could be their friend, a family member or a even a family pet!  L is laughing hysterically here because he drew a picture of his stuffed animal sheep upside down.  It was fun to hear what they already know about gravity in space!

What color is the sun?  This photo of the sun is our daily topic poster for the day.  We learned that the the colors of the sun depend on how hot it is.  Cooler areas appear orange and are called sunspots.  the sun can also appear pink or red.

We worked on the letter S page in our journal.  I asked the kids to draw a picture of a sun using one or more of the following colors: yellow, red, orange, and pink.  Then I had them draw a picture of something they like to do outside when the sun is shining.  They did their best to write "Fun in the sun!" K drew a picture of herself going down the slide outside...

P like playing in the grass...

What is smaller than you?  What is bigger than you?  We reviewed the color and size of the stars from yesterday.  I asked the kids to bring me red, yellow, and blue items found in the room.  We sorted the toys by their color.

Next, I asked the kids to sequence each group of toys from biggest to smallest...

What could be dangerous about the sun?  We passed around a warm washcloth and explored how it feels on our skin.  I explained that the sun warms the Earth, but its rays can be harmful and damaging to our skin.  Sunscreen protects us!

We played a different game of Hide 'n' Go Seek!  L held the flashlight and pretended to be the sun while his friends went and hid somewhere in the preschool.

When he found his friends he shined the flashlight on them.  They pretended the sun was shining on them so...

they ran back to home base and pretended to spray sunscreen on themselves.  (This was an empty bottle of sunscreen.)  We waited until everyone was found before playing another round.  The kids LOVED this!

Counting stars in our workbook...

Playing Memory - a preschoolers favorite game! 

We matched up uppercase letters to lowercase letters.  The memory cards had a sun on every card...

Our books for the day...

After snack we went outside for an entire hour!  The sun was shining and the weather was beautiful!  Then I set out these rhyming CVC word sets.  I encouraged the kids to read with a friend!

I also set out some tracing worksheets with sheet protectors over them.  The kids wrote with whiteboard markers and using a tissue to erase their markings.

J was tracing the lines of the planets orbiting around the sun...