Space!

The theme for the second week of August was "Space". The children are having so much fun in our "summer camp" this year!

This week we read: I Want to be an Astronaut by Byron Barton
                                       My Picture Book of Planets by Nancy E. Kryulik
                                       Our Stars by Anne F. Rockwell
                                       Roaring Rockets by Tony Mitton
                                       The Birth of the Moon by Coby Hol
                                       Circus in the Sky by Nancy Guettier
                                       On the Moon by Anna Milbourne

The older children that join my class for Summer Camp do not nap during rest time. They have time in the gym in a small group while my class does. To keep them working on their skills, I make them  packet to bridge their grades.

The games that we played this week at morning meeting were so fun!
We played "1,2,3" which we have played before and is definitely a fan favorite! We stand in a circle and each child says 1,2 or 3 consecutive numbers starting with 1 up to 9. So for example: "1,2,3" "4" "5,6" "7,8,9" and the next child who would have to say 10 sits down and is out of the round. Then it starts back at one. My class really loves this one, and usually if we play it in the morning, I will hear them in centers or at their lunch tables playing their own facilitated versions of the game.

We played "Alphabet Catch" with a beanbag. We toss the beanbag around the circle and the kids have to say the next letter in the alphabet. If they drop it, we have to start back at the letter "A". This game helps us work on our communication, because the children have to let the person know that they are going to toss it to them!

We played "I have, who has?" which I originally saw being played in a Montessori class. It's so cool to see the children take over the game and help their friends follow along. Over the past year, I made a few different ones to add to my colors, shapes and Alphabet. I love having the different options now because it keeps the game feeling new and fresh!

We played "Number Ball" with a beanbag. We toss the beanbag around the circle and the kids have to say the next number. We stand in a circle and toss the beanbag across to friends and try to beat our record!

"Pop!" is a really fun game, and definitely a favorite. We stand in a circle and each child says one number as we go around. But each round there is a pop number. Instead of saying that number, you POP! the person that would be next, out. We work very hard on having good sportsmanship, and the kids have fun even if they're out because they know they get to play again in the next round!

The special activities this week were a blast.  Since we are the oldest in the school, our class took over the little school garden. We spent time weeding it. It seems that our store bought plants are surviving, which is great! We've started to get some blossoms, so that is definitely promising!

Exercise is very important, so I thought it would be fun to have some kind of special exercise activity. This week, we did Yoga! Cosmic Kids Yoga on Youtube has great videos that the children love.

Every Wednesday my class has sprinkler day. This is always a fan favorite. The children wear their bathing suits and water shoes, run around in a sprinkler outside, and play in a water sensory table. It really helps beat the summer heat!

I LOVE having a movie day in the summer. It gives the kids a chance to relax, wind down and just enjoy themselves. Plus we have snacks and make it feel like the movie theater... who doesn't like going to the movie theater? This week we watched Wall-E. 

Bubble day is quickly turning into a favorite. This week we just had a good time running around and blowing bubbles.

Our question of the week was "Where in space do you want to visit?"

For our theme "Space",  we did some neat space related activities. We talked about constellations, and how the stars show up the picture in the sky. The children picked a number to draw on a piece of black construction paper, and then poked holes along the number to make their own constellation.

We sang "Climb Aboard the Spaceship" to the tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider.

"Climb aboard the spaceship, we're going to the moon.

Hurry and get ready, we're going to blast off soon.

Put on your helmets and buckle up real tight.

Here comes the countdown, let's count with all our might.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... blast off!"

(C) 2001 - 2011 Jean Warren www.preschoolexpress.com

While we were talking about the sun, we also discussed how things look during the day vs how they look at night. I challenged the children to draw a picture, half during the day and the other half at night.

I made a little board game with construction paper and star stickers. Using dice we moved up the stars to the end of the game in small groups.

I added some cool space pages to our science binder, and space related buildings in our structure binder.

The children wrote in their journals about where in space they would like to go visit.

In the summer I have elementary children that join my class. While my pre-k students write in their journals, the older children work on a reading response page based on the book that we read at morning meeting.

For our sixth week of the  study "Buildings" we talked about towers and other tall buildings. They built towers as tall as they could, and measured them to see how tall it was.

We talked about the sun, and how shadows appear when the sun's light is blocked. The children built towers with blocks, and then traced the shadows that they created.

We explored building using plastic cups and popsicle sticks.

The children illustrated the tongue twister "Busy Builders bravely balance banging boards on the building's beams."

 Leave a comment below and let me know that you stopped by!

Outer Space!

We continued our summer fun with the theme, "Outer Space!"

During summer camp, we always have Yoga day where the school does a child centered yoga workout. The video we've been using is great because most of the poses are named after animals.

We also have splash day, where all the kids put on their bathing suits and we play outside in water tables and have a fun squiggly sprinkler to run through.

We also have some older children that have joined our class for the summer. While my kids are having their rest in the middle of the day, these children have extra play time out of the room and they also work on some practice sheets that I got from the Summer Bridge Books for K-1 and 1-2. They are great worksheets to keep the older kids practicing their skills over the summer! I love the Pk-K book and I use it through out the year for their letter worksheets.

We read this week: I Want to be an Astronaut by Byron Barton
                               My Picture Book of Planets by Nancy E. Kryulik
                               Our Stars by Anne F. Rockwell
                               Roaring Rockets by Tony Mitton
                               The Birth of the Moon by Coby Hol
                               Circus in the Sky by Nancy Guettier
                               On the Moon by Anna Milbourne

Our question of the week was "If you were an astronaut, where would you go?"

For our theme of the week,  I made a little board game with construction paper and star stickers. Using a dice we moved up the stars to the end of the game in small groups.

We talked about the differences between day and night, like different things that we see and the way that things look. on one piece of paper we divided it into day and night, and I challenged my class to draw the way things look during the day and during the night.

From _____ the kids colored stars in with the correct colors. Never can have too much practice! =]

The class painted their own planets and stars, and we made a galaxy in our hallway!

In journal my class wrote about what planet in our solar system they would go to.

While my class wrote in their journals, the older children filled out these reading response pages to the books that we read.

We made number constellations. After choosing and writing a number on a square of blue construction paper, the kids took a pencil and poked holes along the number or on the points. When they were hung up on the window, you could see the constellations! So cool!

Using play dough the kids made moonscapes and other space shapes.

We watched Wall-e!

Our song of the week was "Climb Aboard the Spaceship" to the tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider.

(C) 2001 - 2011 Jean Warren www.preschoolexpress.com

The games that we played this week at morning meeting were so fun!

"Just Like Me" is a great game when a child is feeling a little bit sad or just to get the class feeling like a group! I start by modeling with a few statements, i.e, I like vanilla ice cream. If a child also like vanilla ice cream, they stand up and yell, "just like me!" After I model a few statements like that, I will pick a few children to be the leader. It's so cool to see them thinking about what they want to say!

"Pop!" is a really fun game, and definitely a favorite. We stand in a circle and each child says one number as we go around. But each round there is a pop number. Instead of saying that number, you POP! the person that would be next, out. We work very hard on having good sportsmanship, and the kids have fun even if they're out because they know they get to play again in the next round!

We played "Crocodile by the Lake". I found the idea for this game last year and adapted it to be my own. I turned a box into a crocodile with bulletin and construction paper, then filled it with little cards that have a letter, number or shape on them. The children have to reach into the crocodile's mouth (while he's sleeping of course), pull out a card and name what's there. Also hidden in the belly of the crocodile though are SNAP cards (the crocodile wakes up and SNAPS his mouth shut!). Once we pull three SNAP cards, the game is over!

The Weather Changed" is a fun game. The kids decide on movements for 5 different weathers before we start. I start as the Weather Person and go through the different weather, while we change the movements. Then the kids get a turn as the weather person!

We played "Body Drumming". Using only our bodies, we do different motions to make sound and rhythm. I model first and either make a pattern for the children to follow or I have them follow a sequence of 3 or 4 motions. Then I will pick a few children to be the leaders. I love this activity because it's something a little different, you can't get "out" and it's fun to see them trying to focus on when the motion is going to change.

That's all for now! Leave me a comment please if you visit! =]