Space From Earth

We have had a BLAST with the first week. Our Experience Curriculum topics were Star, Sun, Moon, Astronomer and Comet. We started off the week talking about STARS. Our Make & Play art project was to make Star Headbands. This was super easy to make but they had fun doing it. Each child got two large, yellow stars. They got to decorate them any way they wanted. This kids LOVE markers. You can use crayons or colored pencils. Whatever your child wants to use. Then you take some blue construction paper and make a headband with it. Next attach the stars to the headband and let them run around playing with it. Some kids actually love theirs so much, they show up the next morning still wearing it. I would use glue and tape and forget the staples if you have younger children. Plus the stables bother some children’s head when they wear it. You want it to be fun so if they don’t like wearing it because it hurts, it won’t be fun.

The children got to use paper plates to create a Sun. Our Invitation to Create activities are fun because we give them the resources and they get to do it however they want. We will talk about what it might need to look like and how they can do that with the supplies they are given. We put paper plates, yellow, orange and red paint, scissors and paint sponge squares on the table. We talked about how we could make the edges seem like the explosions. We decided if they took scissors and cut the edges that would make it look similar. Then they took the paint and had fun making the sun and mixing the colors. The two year old’s used smaller plates.

The moon is a fun thing to talk about because children learn about the moon from a very early age, just like the sun. We can SEE those every day. Each month, we get a journal. The front cover is the very first thing we decorate. This month, they got to take a circle shaped paper and wad it up to make it wrinkled. Then they put it the circle on the journal. It looks just like the moon with the craters and all. Their Make & Play activity was a bag of Moon Rocks. They decorated a picture to glue to a small paper sack. Then they took a sheet of foil and tore it into pieces and rolled into balls.

Our Invitation to Create telescopes were made with paper tubes (smaller around than toilet paper rolls but if that is all you have you can use that or a paper towel roll) and some space stickers. Our stickers didn’t want to stick to the tubes so we wrapped them in clear packing tape to keep the stickers on the tube. The kids had fun during snack times having the star light shine on the ceiling. It is really easy to add a little element of fun to our day with something like that.

We have such an huge amount of EXTRA craft supplies built up over the past 25 years that we have been teaching so sometimes Miss Jenni drags a bunch out and gives the kids an extra Invitation to Create activity. They made telescope that day so they needed some “stars” to find with it. We did the letter S coloring page and some of the older kids, 4 through 6 years old are getting really good at coloring IN the lines. I love to see what they come up with every week.

The children made a Make & Play Comet with large pompoms and crepe paper. It was super simple to make but we had a challenge of getting the crepe paper to stay connected to the pompom. We ended up stapling it but it was a challenge to do that. The kids through them up in the air and they would come down fast with the “tail” flying behind them. I wasn’t able to get any pictures of them doing that since we had to help them make it. We had some clear, colored pattern blocks to use on our light table with our shape design mats. They also had some glow in the dark stars that we used for other activities to put on there and turn all the lights off to see if it was going to glow. Kids of all ages enjoyed their turns at the light table. Some even used this time to learn to work together and share. That isn’t always the case with preschool/early elementary kiddos.

We made sure we got a new puzzle or two for our space theme. And we found a really neat magnet box that has a type of puzzle that they children really seem to enjoy. There are cards that you pick from and you have to “build” that picture from the items IN the box. It is really a neat idea.

Like I mentioned before, we got some glow in the dark stars and a set of constellation design mats. They weren’t the exact size but there were several different sizes and the kids got to use the one “closest” to the size needed. We got a couple of these big trays for these types of activities. The small cookie sheets from the dollar store have served their purpose but sometimes they just aren’t big enough. I am planning on getting a few more, a little at a time.

Everyone knows reading is a HUGE deal here. It was fun to capture these two reading together because sometimes they tend to do more fighting over toys or chairs than these sweet moments. you have to catch them when you get the chance. He is telling her everything about the book.

I hope you enjoyed our time together this week. If you have any questions about the activities, just let me know. Check back for another post about week two’s Space & Sky adventures!

Remember, There's Adventure Around Every Corner!

*Please note that at this time we were using our "homeschool's name", BCAA.

Original post date Mar 6, 2021