Space!

The children explored all things space! We talked about planets, stars, humans exploring space, astronauts, rockets and the moon. We read books all about the planets, rockets and stars. In circle time, we sang the song “Zoom, zoom zoom we’re going to the moon” and recited the poem “I’m a little rocket.” 

When talking about planets we discussed that we live on the planet earth. One of our projects was making planets using coffee filters. We took our planet book and observed the colors that each planet had. The children chose to make Earth, Jupiter and Mars. For Earth, they used green and blue markers. For Jupiter, they used red, orange and yellow. For Mars, they used red, orange and brown. First, the children colored the coffee filter with markers. Then, they sprayed water to blend the colors. The planets got glued to a black background and the children added yellow stars. 

For another project, we observed a picture of the moon then created our own moons using aluminum foil. The children used their strength and motor skills to ball up the aluminum foil then using the newly formed ball to make crater looking patterns onto a paper cut into a circle. That was also glued to a black background adding stars again. 

The final project of the week was name rockets. The children found the letters of their name and glued them into a shape of a rocket. They added stickers using their fine motor skills.

In the sensory table, the children explored space themed sand with astronauts, a moon rover and spaceships. 

The children made an astronaut puzzle and a puzzle with all the planets as we talked about each of planet names.

The children made stars out of yellow homemade play dough. 

On the rug, the children explored and played with rocket toys. 

On one of the easels, the children used space themed magnets to build their own solar systems and space scenes. 

On the other easel, they used their fine motor skills to peel and stick space themed stickers to make sticker collages. 

Outside in the snow, the children made snow angels and enjoying building “snow castles” in the sand box using sand shovels and buckets. 

In music class, Ms. Wada introduced us to a new instrument called the triangle. We learned how to properly hold and play the triangle. We played to and sang the song “My favorite things.” We discussed that the instrument was named after its shape.