Y is for . . .

 . . . yellow yarn

. . . Yes day! 

What would you do if the answer to every question you asked was yes?

Planet Mobiles & Magic Painting

One of the questions that both classes asked on our KWL chart was "What planets are there?" To study it a little more we made these simple planet mobiles. 

They aren't traditional planet mobiles. It isn't completely scientifically accurate, but I have my reasons for doing it this way- Preschoolers don't really have a concept of really long distances and I wasn't interested in comparing the planets' distance from the sun, I wanted to compare the size of the planets and count with the kids how many there were all together. So, this is definitely a preschool planet mobile because it is linear instead of 3-D. 

Anyway, we used this to discuss the different planets, the size of the planets, we compared their sizes and counted the planets. We also discussed how earth is the 3rd planet.  

Before we attached the planets, the kids made magic painting. As they painted, suns and moons and stars magically appeared on their paper. If you ever choose to do magic painting with your kids be prepared to hear words like, "Whoa!" and "It's magical!" and "Zowie wowie!" I kid you not, these are some of the things that the kids said while they were painting. 

To make your own magic painting, draw a picture on a white paper using a white crayon and then paint the paper using water colors.

Here's What You Need:

• a long strip of white card stock paper with magic painting on it (see above instructions). I just cut 3 inch strips on the card stock and stapled two together.
• water color paints
• black pipe cleaners
• tape
• pictures of the planets - I used these three links which I found on first-school.ws but it's kind of complicated to get to so I hope these links work for a while. : )
• Link1
• Link 2
• Link 3

 Here's What You Do:

1. Paint your magic painting strip with water colors and let dry.
2. Cut out the planets.
3. Tape planets to 1/4 of a black pipe cleaner and then to the painted strip of paper. 

S is for Star

To start our study on outer space, we learned how to draw stars. I made five points on a black paper and labeled them a through e.

Before the kids connected the dots, I showed them how to draw a star  a bunch of times. We practiced saying which direction our hand should move with each line we made. Then, the kids each choose a chalk color to draw their own star with and they connected the dots and colored in their own star.

We sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and I taught the kids the star wishing rhyme: 

Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight.

I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.

We also made shooting stars that turned out to be a big hit with the kids. 

I was surprised at how much the kids loved them because they were so simple to make.

Here's What You Need:

• Sticky backed glitter foam paper (I found it in packs at Walmart)
• Dowels
• Gold ribbon

Here's What You Do:

1. Cut out two stars from the foam paper. My stars were 3.5 inches in diameter. (I ended up cutting the stars out for the kids because it was a challenge for my kids to cut it out by themselves.)
2. Cut 3 lengths of gold ribbon. Mine were 6 inches. 
3. Put the 3 ribbons on one side of the sticky foam. Put the dowel in the middle.
4. Sandwich the other star on top of the ribbon and dowel.

Shooting Space Ships

Coolest activity ever! We made space ships that actually shoot up into the air using plastic cups and rubber bands. 

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . .

Blast off!

Miranda was so patient with me because it took a lot of tries before I got a shot of her rocket in the air. So sorry for the funny faces, but as we say at our house, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit." 

I sincerely, recommend you try this activity because it is so much fun. When I made them and tried them out the night before, I had fun playing with them too. : )

Here's the rocket outline I made for this activity. Feel free to use it if you want.

Here's What You Need:

• two plastic cups (they have to be the same size)
• two rubber bands (thin rubber bands don't work as well unless you use a drill)
• tape
• scissors or a drill (if you have one)
• rocket outlines
• crayons

Here's What You Do:

1. In one of the cups, cut 4 equally spaced slits on the top of the cup about a 1/2 inch long. Put a piece of tape at the top of the slit to prevent it from getting bigger. OR if you have a drill - Drill 4 small holes  equally spaced apart around the cup. This works much better because then the rubber bands don't slip out of the bottom.
2. Cut one of the rubber bands and slip it into two opposite slits. Tie a knot on each end. (It should be fairly tight.) Repeat with the other rubber band. (You can see what it looks like in the picture above of the rocket flying.)
3. Print out the rocket outlines. Color and cut out. 
4. Tape rocket outlines to the rubber band cup. Pull the rocket cup down over the other cup and let fly!

I got the idea from familyfun.go.com.

Oval Aliens

We made oval aliens this week. This activity really brought a smile to my face because I was able to just step back and let the kids create. The only instructions were that the body had to be an oval.

 

 

Here's What You Need: ( Really, you can let your imagination fly, this is just what we used.)

• sticky back foam paper
• construction paper
• pom poms
• googly eyes
• pipe cleaners
• liquig glue
• scissors

Here's What You Do: 

1. Kids cut out the oval from the foam paper and loosely stick it to the construction paper. 
2. Cut up the pipe cleaners for arms and legs. Slide them under the foam and press the down to adhere the sticky part.
3. Add embellishments with pom poms and googly eyes. 

The idea came from another great preschool teacher at http://www.brilliantbeginningspreschoolutah.com. 

Outer Space

We are studying outer space this month. Some of the great books we are reading dealing with this theme are:

On the Moon by Anna Milbourne

and What's Out There? by Lynn Wilson

Both of these books are great at explaining space and the planets in simple terms without sacrificing all of the great information that there is to learn about space. 

Outer Space was our focus for part of letter o week. We started by making made a KWL chart. 

A KWL chart has three sections. The first section is K for what we already know. The second section is W for what we want to know. You fill these two sections out before you start learning about your subject. The last section is L for what we have learned. You can fill this out at the end of your unit. For us, we are filling it out as we go.