Venus...

Today we learned about Venus!  I asked the kids how they think Venus and Earth are similar.  They gave out a few good guesses, but didn't know that Venus is Earth's sister.  It is about the same size as Earth but is hotter and has no water.

 We used our hands to pretend that Earth and Venus are talking back and forth as we sang...

"Where is Earth?

Where is Venus?

Here I am,

Here I am!

How are you my sister?

Very hot and cloudy!

I'll see you at night!

For you I'll shine bright!"

(Sung to the tune of "Frere Jacques.")

 I asked the kids what they see when they look up at the sky during the day and at night.  We explored the room and made note of what we saw when we looked up...

 Our Spanish words were still on the ceiling from our activity days ago.
We took this opportunity to review our Spanish words...

 I read our new "I Can Read" book titled, Look Up! 

"Look," "up," & "and" are our sight words for this month.

Each time I said the words "look up" as I was reading, I asked the kids to briefly look up for a moment.  This way I knew they were following along, and they could participate in what was being read to them.

 

 Then I passed out the books and we read the book again as they followed along in their own book...

  I LOVE these books!  They are so much fun!  

I only wish Mother Goose would make more than 1 per month.

 I asked the kids to circle the "up" words...

 ...and underline the words "look" & "and."

 At the end of every book there is always a page for the kids to complete or illustrate.

I encouraged the kids to complete their page and then label their pictures or write a sentence...

 For our next activity we looked for things in the room that have a pattern on them...

 We reviewed our ABCD pattern on our calendar...

 Then we sorted the photos for our new pattern card...

 We took turns completing our new ABCD pattern card (Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, repeat)...

 That is one long pattern!

 I also encouraged the kids to come up with a new pattern of their own.

 We learned Venus is so hot because it is close to the Sun and has thick clouds that keep the heat inside.  Venus is actually hotter than Mercury!
We filled a sock with rice and tied the end to create a "beanbag."

 We took turns squeezing the sock and exploring the feel of it.

 Then we microwaved the sock so that it was warm.
The kids noticed the rice smelled differently when it was heated...

 

 We sat in a circle and passed around the "beanbag" that we called "Hot Venus!"
We played music from our Mother Goose CD. 

 When the music paused the person who was holding the "Hot Venus" got up and ran around the circle as if they were running on hot Venus!

 I asked the kids how they think the Earth would look if they were standing on Venus.  They replied with, "Cloudy," "Small," and "Blue and Green."  I explained that Earth would look like a little star from Venus.  The kids were a bit surprised to learn this.

We played a game where we tossed beanbags and then took big steps to get to them... 

 We counted our steps as we walked...

 Then we spun around like planets...

 I tossed out the sun photo that Mother Goose provided.  The kids froze in their spot, and then estimated how many steps it would take them to get to the sun.  They took the steps and counted to verify if they were right or not... We played a few rounds of this.

 I set out our Geoboards!  We had two space theme pictures to work with!

 We completed the missing numbers in our math workbook...

 We matched ending sounds in our literacy workbook...

 Our books for the day.  Star Seeker is a book that was provided from Mother Goose Time years ago.  The Venus book was in English and Spanish.  The kids always enjoy when I speak in Spanish (not sure I do very well, but I try).

I rolled with the "beanbag" sock idea and made the kids stress balls out of balloons.  It was fun to feel the different textures of each balloon (flour, corn syrup, sugar, and oatmeal).

 I got a giggle out of watching the kids play with them.  They instantly imagined they were little "pumpkin people" and they pretended they were talking to each other.  I LOVE their imagination!  Something as simple as a balloon can spark the most creative thoughts!