Here's a look at our activities!
Galaxy Moon Sand!
I made it by mixing
- 2 cups plain flour (all purpose)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup salt
- 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
- Up to 1.5 cups boiling water (adding in increments until it feels just right)
- food coloring (black for the sky- this is supposed to look like the sky)
- star confetti from my local craft store
On the first day of our new unit, we learned about astronauts and why and how they explore space. They were then asked to think about the job of an astronaut and why they would want to be one. When they filled out their "applications" to be an astronaut, they created a self-portrait of them in space. How cute!
We also read the silly favorite, Aliens Love Underpants. We use this book to talk about reality versus fiction and author's purpose. AND to remember all the joy and fun reading can bring! When we finish, the bees create their very own underpants and describe what they would do if they ever met an alien! Definitely one of their favorite activities!
"I would give him a salami sandwich. Good boy Alien"
As we begin to learn about the solar system and the planets, the students make a space headband, with the sun in the center of their forehead... because it is central for all planets, and the planets in order following around the rest of the band. I used our NEW projector to show videos from Storybots about the order of planets and specific planets. Love this one We Are the Planets and this one The Planets Song. If you search Story bots and planets, you will discover a video for the sun and moon as well!
During art, we used the shape of small paper plates to create our own solar system with Lakeshore's puffy paint. When it dries, it still looks wet and sticky but it is dry and puffy! Perfect for planets!
In our beloved, and MESSY, sensory table, I created some moon sand for the kids. What I love most about it is that it smells SO GOOD. And of course... that it is so easy to make. To make it you need to mix:
-as much flour as fills the container you are using
-one container of baby oil
Just slowly mix in the baby oil until the sand reaches the consistency you want.. I did it until it started to make small balls... so it was perfect for shaping.
-one container of baby oil
Just slowly mix in the baby oil until the sand reaches the consistency you want.. I did it until it started to make small balls... so it was perfect for shaping.
Here we did a sight word project to go with a lesson on the sun and the moon and their movements. We learned that the sun does NOT move, but we move around it and that the moon only orbits our planet.
We learned that we can only see the moon because it is reflecting the light from the sun. To demonstrate this effect, we shut off the lights and used two similarly proportioned balls, one moon and one Earth and a flashlight. We then tried the flashlight in different places to see what happens to the moon and what we could see from the big ball (Earth). Then we used tin foil (bring extra because they often rip it apart by accident) and glue and glitter to make the sun and the moon.
We also diverged a bit from the school writing curriculum (YAY) and worked on a 3-5 part story about space. FREEBIE in my freebie section! I left the prompt open and jogged their creative juices with ideas for fiction, nonfiction, informational and any other type of story I could think of. We worked so hard on the pictures and words over two weeks that they came out beautifully and were added to our library!
Here's a writing checklist I make available to the bees for when they are "all done" and need a little help editing their work
When learning about stars and constellation stories, we created our own constellation and stories. I used my three hole punch to create hundreds of white and yellow stars and instructed the kids to make a picture using the tiny circles. They were then to connect the stars with a white colored pencil to better show their constellation. After, they wrote a short story describing what the constellation is, how it is created, and the story behind it.
"a tree"
As our final project, the kids created their own rocket ship from the Lakeshore kit. We first cut and spelled out our unit vocabulary on small squares and placed them aside. Then we TOOK OUR TIME to create rocket ships that were beautiful enough to fly to space. Finally we pieced the rocket together and glued back our vocabulary to create an art project with a purpose!
Our astronaut can have are chart... the kids laughed at my astronaut...
Some of the best books we used during our unit!
AND! I discovered the greatest thing on Earth. A sight word fluency and fitness video that gets the kids up and moving and excited to practice their sight words! A miracle! And its free right here.....Click to witness the miracle
Here's my kiddos doing it!
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