Space week was a blast! We’ve been to some far away places this week and the students touched down in time to make planets, rockets and even to make and name their own constellation! In the water tub it wasn’t water…It was a solid…It was a liquid…no! It was oobleck! A mixture of corn starch and water (and a bit of watercolor) looks like a liquid; if you tap it it feels hard, if you dip your hand in slowly your fingers slide in as easily as through water. It was soooo fun! And oh so messy, but easy to clean up!
At the light table we had marbles with craters and astronauts in a mirror display for some imaginative fun. We later added the sensory bottles they made.
The sensory bottles the students made on Monday. They first heard some facts about Earth, Mars, Saturn, the Sun, the Moon, and the Asteroid Belt. The students worked in groups and took turns adding items such as glitter, marbles, astronauts, etc. that mimicked the facts they learned about their bottle. Water was added and the bottles were added to the light table.
The colorful torn-paper planets they made are up on the bulletin board in the room with their rockets! They ripped strips of paper and glued them on a black circle of paper. Intentional ripping is a great fine motor activity.
The rocket ship building was spread out over two days. The students wrapped a paper towel tube with aluminum foil, taped on ‘a nose’ (sno cone cup) then decorated them with colorful stars and more tape, flags, and streamers that looked like flames for a rocket launch! They turned out so great!
On Tuesday, the students did a project to introduce them to moon phases. They first added stars to a night sky (black paper with a hole cut out in the center), a moon (gray paper they taped to the back of the black paper), and cut a piece of card stock that can slide in both directions to recreate the moon phases.
The constellation project was created on rainbow scratch paper. They first decorated the paper with star stickers then connected those with lines to make the shape of their very own constellation! The students could choose any name they wanted for their constellations.
We had the unifex cubes out for some rocket launch counting. The students worked on number recognition as well as counting and there were some big numbers!
In the hall there was a super fun astroid toss game. The kids balled up a piece of aluminum foil then took turns aiming for a numbered bowl; more number recognition and throwing and aiming practice.
Our second round of Panda going to your homes started this week. Everyone is enjoying hearing what Panda does at everyone else’s house! Panda enjoyed cuddling, skate boarding, and flying this week! The students check to see when it’s their turn with Panda.
Another thing the students are checking on regularly are the eggs in the incubator. There are 24 fertilized eggs that were put in the incubator on Tuesday and in 21 days we will be watching many of them hatch! Stop in and take a peek for yourself.
Around the room there was a lot of building, creating and all sorts of playing going on!
Stories, yoga, playing sticks and memory games during our rug time.
And recess:
We enjoy our mornings with these awesome kids and look forward to each day with them!
📣All aboard! as we shift gears to our community and transportation unit on Monday.
Warmly,
Teachers Jelena and Lisa
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