3/23/10 – 3/25/10

Tuesday, 3/23/10

Today we became astronauts. Our small class of 7 began our day drawing what we might see in the day time sky and the night time sky. Ms. Chrissie had found us some really neat paper and very special crayons. The same crayon colored two different shades depending on which paper you used. And then the children used my white board as a resource where I had written “Day” and “Night” to label their own papers. I loved the independence displayed by the children when asked to complete this task. :) This week we are exploring the stars in the sky and the moon. I wanted the children to start thinking about what they might see in the night time sky from their own back yards. And of course contrast what that might look like in the day.

Then it was off to MM where read Stars. This book confirmed for us that our Sun is a Star. We also learned that not all stars are yellow. Some shine blue and some shine red. We were all surprised to learn that stars shining blue are the hottest and stars shining red are cooler. Because of the colors we would have assumed the opposite. Especially since our beautiful blue planet Neptune is cold. Our star the sun is right in the middle of those two temperatures so it shines yellow.

Then we were off to create our astronaut space helmets. This was met with much enthusiasm. Every one spent a lot of time decorating their helmets. Using space stencils, stickers and foam space stickers. They turned out very cool and were a perfect addition to the rocket packs each child received. I had put them together before class and the kids helped with the tissue paper flames that would shoot out the bottom.

In the afternoon we put on our space gear and were ready to blast off our stomp rocket in the gym. It is the simple things in life that are the most fun. A simple toy that you jump on and as a results sends a foam rocket flying into the air is great fun. It was a contest to see just how high our rockets could fly. Stone and Harrison's flew the highest when they touched the very top of our gym ceiling.

Wow!!! 4...3...2...1...BLAST OFF!

And we can not forget how gorgeous our weather was today. We had a wonderful time playing outside on the playground and our day ended with a birthday party and doughnuts for Harrison. :)

Wednesday, 3/24/10 (Ms. Chrissie's Corner)

We had a blast on Wednesday rolling around the galaxy learning about constellations (a 4 clap word! - we sounded out each syllable with a clap) and then creating our own galaxy art project with constellations of our own!

At morning meeting, we read the book "I am a Star" which took us on an illustrative journey through the images one would see through a telescope and taught us about astronomy. Those students knew that people who are especially interested in this month's curriculum in the planets and solar system might someday want to go to college to study to become astronomers or astronauts. This conversation took an interesting veer off to discuss the fact many daddies and mommies went to college and some of them met each other there. As stories began developing, I quickly got the class back on our correct orbit! :) We discovered that the North Star never moves from its position in the sky, and sailors use it to help navigate, and that it also has another name "Polaris".

Our big project of the day was to make our own constellations. We dunked marbles into glitter paint and put them into a big tin can with a piece of black paper. After alot of rolling and shaking of the can, our friends opened the lid and discovered the galaxy they had created. We discovered that if we made it a 2 or 3 step color process, removing one set of paint dunked marbles and replacing it with new paint-coated marbles, it created an interesting effect. Some friends were willing to invest the time, others went for immediate gratification and either chose 1 color or said "put them all in at once!". We tried it all! After the paper came out of the can, the stars were applied to create the constellations. It was interesting to watch the process each student used to choose where and how to put their stars. They even knew if they were using a hot colored stars (blue) or cold ones (red)! Be sure to view the the photos of this project.

We also worked on a dot to dot exercise. Each child was given verbal instructions one-on-one on how to complete a dot to dot (to first find the number 1, look for number 2, put the marker down on the dot and then draw the straightest line they possibly could to number 2, pick the marker back up off the page, and find the next dot they should go to). I got alot of "I know how!" But, dot to dots can present different challenges depending on their approach. Some go too quickly, missing the marker in their haste to finish, others miss some of the instructions, and some may skip numbers due to numeral recognition. As a method of kindergarten preparation for following verbal instruction, and to help them slow down and do neat work, (and receive guidance and praise for all effort), the instructions I gave were to write their name neatly in the top corner, and to work slowly and neatly so their lines would be straight. I watched up to about #4 on the dot-to-dot, and if they were on target, I left them to finish by themselves to see how they did independently. Friends who wanted/needed more guidance received one-on-one help as needed. I was very pleased with our students work and their ability to follow the instructions. Ms. Cari and I will continue to give the class more work that will be representative of what they will see in Kindergarten next Fall. (wow, can you imagine it?!)

Chapel was exciting today as Ms. Sissie and Ms. Tina took everyone outside to enjoy the fresh air and the SUN! What a wonderful thing our Sun is to our planet...and to our happy children who got to enjoy alot of it today. In fact, it may be time to send in some sunscreen. By the time the day was through, we had a couple of friends who had some pink cheeks!

After recess, we took turns rotating at three table centers of the rocket game, light bright, and beating Ms. Chrissie at Space Go Fish! We took our space memory game cards and turned it into a 4 person Go Fish game. I found, yet again, that our class is full of kids with minds like sponges and they have amazing memories of who asked who for "the alien" or "the planet Venus". They were sure racking up the pairs!! I lost several hands, a little pride, and possibly some hearing due to the gales of laughter and taunting preschool smack talk as they soundly beat me fair and square! All too soon it was time to eat snack and head for home after another great day at school!

Thursday, 3/25/10

Today was the last day in our Solar System unit. Thank you every one for sending your child in their planet color. We practiced our song in the am with great success. And now I have learned that is when I need to video tape. I was not thinking and right after an amazing time with Ms. Jane I asked them to line up and sing our song so that I could video tape for your guys. Mistake! They were exhausted and wanted nothing to do with Ms. Cari's plans. :(

In the am we made a card for Ms. Jane, since it was her last day with us. No one had any trouble telling me what they loved about Ms. Jane's classes.

They were given a Space Code rocket ship to decode and color. This was a challenge and one we will try again. The goal was to look at the code box where it told us that all pictures of the sun were to be colored yellow and all pictures of the star paint red, etc. I had friends who just started coloring with out hearing all my instructions. Others who only had patience enough to circle the image and not color the entire box and just a couple who saw the project to completion. That sheet is in their red folders. If you would like to have them finish coloring their sheets that would be great practice for them. Even if they say resist because they just don't like coloring insist they finish. There is a lot of coloring in Kindergarten. Much to my own son's chagrin when he told me at the beginning of the year that all this coloring is a “waste of his time”. :) We have not choice. It must be mastered.

I met with each child individually to wrap up our planet fact sheet. Just about everyone was able to tell me one or two things they liked about their planet.

Our focus today was the Moon. We read Moonshot, or I should say paraphrased (it is a long book). It has wonderful illustrations about the flight of Apollo 11 and the landing on the moon. “Cold and quiet, no air, no life,...” Apparently the kiddos knew much about the things told in this book due to the help of “Space Buddies” and one other popular show I just can't recall at the moment. :)

After we experienced this adventure through print, the kids had a chance to make their own moons out of grape play dough. They also drew themselves as astronauts and placed their American flag in place.

Ms. Lyneve let us borrow a really fun box full of Moon toys. The kids spent all day playing with the astronauts and space shuttles. Really helped us to reenact the scenes from the book we had just read.

In stead of music today Ms. Chrissie took the class for some special space time. They viewed constellations on the ceiling, read some fun books and even made up a new space song. :)

At lunch time we read a sweet book, Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star. Based on the song of course, a little girl makes a wish on a star and this star takes her for an adventure in space. She sees the sun and the planets and gets dizzy while riding the rings of Saturn. :)

Ms. Jane is always wonderful, but today she out did herself. I told her we were studying the Solar System and she came up with really fun exercises all related to our unit. She had mini hula hoops that they held around their waste as rocket ships. They would blast off and then run around the gym to the theme music of Star Wars! Then they would land on a planet when the music was off and then blast off again when the music came back on. They raced past meteors and gathered moon rocks and much more. The kids had a wonderful time.

We finished our day with a quiet afternoon of play. We read The Berenstain Bears On the Moon at snack time. And saw that they put a flag on the moon just like we did.

Next week...EASTER!