Space Unit Part 1

Last week I went ahead and prepared a fun unit of projects, crafts, songs, and even some simple science experiments all about space! I decided to try and get back on the ball of actually writing out lesson plans and prepping for projects for the fall. We have some workbooks I will be breaking out that help with tracing shapes and letters, and attempting writing on our own. Hopefully I can keep this up (and keep the blog updated as well)! Enjoy your sneak peek into our week!

Finished products!

Tuesday

We had a slight rocky start since we all haven’t been together since Friday. Once our sharing issues were under control, we were ready to roll. We did our usual routine and update our calendar. I had to dig through my month signs to find the one for September. It is unreal that this month is here! Tristan will become a big brother at some point this month and yet it seems like just yesterday Ash told us she was pregnant! Where did this year go?! Anyway, we updated our calendar and had some free play time while I got myself organized. Then we climbed up in our chairs and talked a little bit about outer space and what we thought was out there. They knew stars were in the sky and we named some planets. I read them “The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot” while they colored in pictures of astronauts. I snapped a quick picture of them to put in the astronauts helmet and we moved on to our next project---Rocket Ship Footprints! Later today, I will be cutting out the finished products and they will be gluing these onto one big picture of space. We headed outside to soak in some rays and play in the pool while the weather is still warm enough. As a refresher of what we did a little earlier on, I asked them while they were having their popsicle snack if they could name some of the planets we talked about. They managed to remember Earth and that it was blue, the red planet Mars, and…Anus. Wow. So we need to work on that a little bit more before we start sprouting facts to the public. At least that’s a start!

Wednesday

Today started off a little lazy. Lily didn’t wake up until after 8, and Tristan was actually very content sitting on my lap and snuggling, so I ate that up and resisted the urge to run around doing a hundred other things. We watched Miles From Tomorrowland, so that at least went with our space theme! After breakfast, we did our calendar and then had some free play time while I got our project and experiment for the day ready. We used watercolors to paint different illustrated space words for a mini book we are making. I let them have the water and paints to themselves and it worked for a little bit without a mess or a fuss. We switched gears to talk about experimenting. I found one called Fizzing Jupiter that looked like fun. I didn’t quite have all the right ingredients, but I thought it was worth a shot for entertainments sake, at least. You start by mixing water and baking soda until it becomes moldable, then you add drops of vinegar until the ‘planet’ fizzes. I started off with a cup of baking soda and ¼ cup of water. I had to add a little more water slowly until I was able to mold them. The recipe called for liquid paint, which I did not have, so we just kept it white. It also called for vinegar, and all I could find was extra stinky red wine vinegar. We still tried it! I molded the dough into three balls each, all while asking what they thought would happen when we added the vinegar. I prompted them with questions like “Do you think the planets will pop, fizz, or explode? Then I gave them a dropper to drop the vinegar on. They were very serious while doing it! I would like to try this again this week with a bigger dropper, slightly less stinky vinegar, and I might use food coloring to make the balls look like planets. I think they would get a bigger kick out of it if it was on a larger scale. I also might let them mold their planets themselves, depending on the mess level the food coloring leaves behind. Always room for improvements! We cleaned up and went outside for some fresh air, then came in to get ready for nap, and read our book Earth Space Moon Base.

Thursday

I have mentioned it before and I have tried to fight the powers that be, but Thursdays are so rough! Even with tons of activities planned and constant switching gears, we get lost in the whining and hitting and being mean chaos. I was sure this week we could get past it because we weren’t together on Monday, so today would feel like a Wednesday and I had enough projects and hands on activities for the whole week but nope. You win, Thursday. We did manage to make some pretty cool alien robot spaceships out of a paper plate and a plastic cup. They decorated them with markers and stickers and were very proud of their work. We were going to make some Alien Slime/Goop or retry our experiment from yesterday, but I just couldn’t take the whining and fighting over who was singing what song. We got bathing suits on a swam a little instead. We tried reading our space story for the day, Skippyjon Jones and the Spice, but that book was kind of long and they were kind of all of the place still, so I skimmed through and then we headed for some naps. Maybe after lunch we can attempt to do some experimenting or Alien Slime play. Or they just nap until everyone gets home.

Friday

Ah the most beloved day of the week has arrived. It started off slightly rocky, but we got into gear and started with a good breakfast and some giggles, and we were back on track. We got dressed and had some free play time while I got my stuff together. I am pretty impressed that we got most of the projects and sensory things I had planned done this week! I have a few more projects and ideas for our space unit that I think I am going to carry on into next week because it is another four day week. We used our big kid table today to do our projects. We used foam circle brushes to stamp white paint on a circle to look like the moon and all of its craters. After our moons were done, we practiced writing and tracing the letter A and tracing circles. I don’t expect them to be able to write right away but they are doing such a good job trying and get really excited to use a pencil! We climbed up into our chairs for our next task---making goop. I used a different recipe than the last time I made it, so it took a couple tries of adding more of this and that (cornstarch and water) to the mixture. I added a couple drops of green food coloring and we called it our alien slime. It kept us entertained for quite some time! And the cleanup is fairly easy. You can add water and make it more like a liquid, or add more cornstarch and solidify it a little more. I stored some in a plastic bag to use next week, and it is a fun but tricky task scraping it into a ball then quickly adding it to a bag before it liquefies again! We had some snack and then headed outside for some fresh air. We read our remaining two books before nap, Harry and Horsie and Light Up the Night. We need to venture to the library and trade in some of these space books for new ones!

Have a good LDW!

Books we read:

The Three Aliens and the Big Bad Robot by Margaret McNamara and Mark Fearing

Skippyjon Jones Lost in Spice by Judy Schachner

Earth Space Moon Base by Ben Joel Price

Light Up the Night by Jean Reidy

Harry and Horsie by Katie Van Camp

Resources:

Fizzing Jupiter Experiment: http://fun-a-day.com/fun-science-space-theme-fizzing-planets/

Goop Recipe: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Goop/