This week was Out of this World because we talked about space, solar system, planets, gravity, astronauts, and the moon. We learned that our sun is actually a star and it’s a billion degrees hot! The sun is 93 million miles away from Earth and if we were to drive there, it would take us more than 170 years to get there! The children said that it’s too far and we wouldn’t be able to get close to the sun because of how hot it is. The children learned that Earth is the 5th largest planet, it’s the 3rd planet to orbit around the sun, and it spins at 1,000 miles an hour but we can’t feel it spinning. Earth is also one of the planets that has its own moon. Earth is the only planet that can sustain life because we have gravity, air, and water. We learned that Jupiter is the biggest planet and Mercury is the smallest planet. We learned that some planets are too hot to sustain life and some are too cold. They learned that everything has gravity and that’s what the planets don’t float away in space but we can float away if we jumped off the space ship. We learned so many new things this week and it’s hard name them all!
I read books to the children and I had them recall details about what I had read. They were able to answer my questions. We made a Qq word list and the children practiced writing Qq on the magic writing board. They did a Solar System letter matching where they matched the uppercase letters with the lowercase letters. We recited letter sounds after listening to letter sounds songs.
We did a number recognition activity where the children had to pick a number they recognized and count the number of unifex cubes. The children played Solar System bingo and they did a Solar System number activity where they had to put either 0-5, 0-10, or 11-20 in order. They did a planet patterning activity where they had to make patterns using the planets.
We took turns painting green on our blue circle so they it looks like Earth. The children used popsicle sticks to make a rocket ship and they played with playdoh. We did a pastel Aurora where they used pastel paints on black paper.
We had a fun week learning about Space, the planets, stars, and solar system. Some of the children used our dress up clothing and pretended that they were astronauts going into space. I overheard different conversations ranging from which planet was the smallest to which planet was the coldest. I am happy to report that they know that there are 8 planets.
If you did not bring in a toothbrush, please bring one in as soon as you can. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out!