Astronauts!

Space is such an incredible subject to get students interested in and learn about! We did our space unit about a month ago, but I still have yet to put away space props in dramatic play and space books in reading area because the kiddos are so interested in the subject!

used with permission of parent

We did everything from launch a rocket, become an astronaut, zoom past asteroids, stars, and planets, and even try astronaut ice cream, to creating amazing aliens. Simply incredible to see how much the kiddos are interested in space - it's a wonderful place.

The 3 main things I wanted the kiddos to learn during the week were:
1. stars make pictures called constellations
2. no oxygen in outer space so that is why astronauts wear helmets
3. the names of the planets

We talked about constellations, the kiddos really liked the idea of pictures in the sky, and shooting stars. Using styrofoam balls, foil and a few crepe paper ribbons, we created shooting stars that the kiddos ran around the room with after they finished.

However, our main event of the entire week was to become astronauts.

• I gathered up large paper bags from a local Kroger and folded up the opening until it was 1/3 of the way rolled up.
• Then I cut a large face opening in the middle to create the visor area of an astronaut helmet.

The kiddos then used their fine motor skills to make sure the astronauts helmets were up to code on star stickers and colored markings. ;D


Let's face it, it's pretty hard even as adults to remember the names of all the planets. My first thought was, "How am I ever going to get preschoolers to remember?" Then divine intervention hit me - through song.

Here is the song I have used for the past two years to get students to remember the planets in order, thanks to www.everythingpreschool.com 

Planet Song (sung to the tune of Ten Little Indians)

Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
and the very smallest of all
is Pluto.


YES, I do know Pluto is not considered a planet anymore and YES, I was a great teacher and conveyed the news to my class that it is now considered a dwarf planet. No worries!

Dr. Seuss! Who let you loose!?

Oh boy, I have been gone awhile. I do apologize, life gets crazy, fun, and sometimes not so fun, but I am back and ready to blog again!


Theo LeSieg, Theodor Seuss Geisle, or as the world knows him best, Dr. Seuss. Many of us learned to read (or begin memorizing stories) by reading Dr. Seuss books, so what better way to honor a man, who is a major part of our reading lives, than by dedicating a day to him and reading every year on his birthday, March 2.

Read Across America (http://www.nea.org/grants/886.htm) has become such a phenomenon that every year in my class we decide to dedicate the whole week to reading and to good ole' Dr. Seuss. This year, we took a different Seuss book every day and expanded off of it.

These are our own "Wockets" to take home in our pockets!

All materials for this project were purchased at the Dollar Store!

Tuesday we took a trip to the Zoo and created some wild and crazy animals to inhabit it! Take a look...

• I printed out 3 copies each of 6 animals; a lion, an elephant, a turtle, a kangaroo, a horse and a cow.
• Then I chopped each one in half with a back end pile and a front end pile.
• Each child got to pick one front end picture (glue it down) and one back end picture (that doesn't match the front end) and line them up to create a crazy new animal for our zoo.
• After the new animal was created, each child got to name their name their new animal - personally this was my favorite part - too cute!

Wednesday, we can't skip the classic, "Cat in the Hat" hats! We discussed patterns and what color comes next. Of course we embellished with Dr.Seuss stickers from Michaels.

Thursday was Dr. Seuss's ABC's and each student had the beginning letter of their name printed out, then they had to follow the lines made by the printer with string and glue the string down to their letter. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of this, but it's great practice for beginning letter shapes!

Friday was the celebration day and we made our own version of green eggs and ham, aka sugar cookies with frosting and green m&m's...mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Psssstt: have a classroom wish list weekly with 2-3 items on it so parents might be able to help donate supplies to the classroom! (that is how we got our sugar cookies, frosting, and M&M's)

Dr. Seuss week may possibly be my favorite week of the school year! Each day we also did different themes in our classroom,

Monday: be your amazing self!

Tuesday: Red and White Day!

Wednesday: Crazy Hair Day!

Thursday: Silly Sock Day!

Friday: Pajama Day!

Colors - Primary to Secondary

I absolutely adore doing a Color Unit! It is all about the kiddos discovering for themselves what colors they can create. They have to be scientists and their job is to make a new color using the primary colors and record their observations. They are beyond excited when they create a new color, even though most the time it turns out brown. ;D

My favorite color wheel - Oriental Trading Company

Introduction to math equations through art! My go-to art project every time we do colors because it truly shows the kiddos exactly how to make a secondary color while using primary colors.

Primary Color Equations

Not only shows how to combine colors to make a new color, but also shows that 1 hand + 1 hand = 2 hands!

Mouse Paint



We read Mouse Paint in order for the kiddos to get a better grasp of how to mix primary colors to get secondary colors. To put their new found mouse mixing skills to work we did a marble painting art project.

- Three clear marbles for each student (clear to represent the white mice blending onto the white paper to get away from the cat)

-1 white sheet of paper per student

- red, yellow, and blue paint in cups for each child with spoons

-1 plastic tray per student

Have students place marbles on white paper in tray and swivel tray back and forth to see the marbles "run and dance" around the paper. After they get how to control the marbles, have students place one marble in each of the paint cups. Pick up marbles with spoons and place on paper. Students will continue to swivel tray up,down, back, and forth to watch the "mice" paint!

Mouse Paint! Where did the primary colors mix to make a new color?

Here are some other books I use during the color unit:



" Little blue and little yellow share wonderful adventures. One day, they can't find one another. When they finally meet, they are overjoyed. They hug until they become green. But where did little blue and little yellow go? Are they lost?"



"The girl in red, the girl in yellow, the girl in blue, and the boy in black and white are all set to stir up the rainbow. Watch them create a living kaleidoscope, step by step by step."

 

 

 

 

 



"Colors, feelings, images, and words jostle and bounce off one another in this lively picture book, creating as much fun as any box of crayons has ever had."

"Clear bright illustrations show all the cars of a train bringing the reader the excitement of movement through day and night, country and city."--Booklist.

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This was just a snippet of our color unit. I will add to this post soon. Thank you for visiting Classroom Conspiracy and feel free to share ideas and projects that you have done!

-Jackie

Ice, Ice Baby!

Well we haven't had a lot of snow this year in Indiana, however we have had a lot of ice, so I decided we should learn and experiment with this cold, slippery substance in class all week.

We began the week off right by me humming the instrumental part to "Ice, Ice Baby" and the kiddos chiming in with the words to the verse. HILARIOUS! Even more hilarious when they started greeting other teachers and their parents with this phrase when they were asked what they learned about in class that day. I will be doing this every year now as a tradition.

Everyday, our class has a circle time where we do the calendar, sing our "Days of the Week" song, and introduce our unit. I froze water in a container and I had one container just full of water. During circle time, to introduce the the subject, I had each kiddo take a turn to feel the difference between the solid water and the liquid water. Then we discussed our observations.

1. With the container of water, I let each student choose a toy or object to put into the container. Some of them sank, others were floating - this lead to side discussion (YEY! I love when the kiddos want to discover more!). Then I told them I would put the container in the freezer overnight and we will see what happens to the water and the objects tomorrow.

Froze water with objects inside, over night to show kiddos what happens to water when it gets really cold.

Everyday we split the kiddos up to go to centers. This gives them more interaction with new friends and they can get in a deeper level of play without distractions when there are only a few kiddos in each center. It also allows the teacher to get a better grasp on what a student does/ does not understand about a concept because it is a small group where the students are more likely to participate.

2. For our sensory table center, I just filled it to the brim with ice, added a few plastic cups for dumping and filling, as well as a few Arctic animals for pretend play.

Ice had already begun to melt in table - great spring board to discuss solid vs. liquid, but still the same material.

Kiddos didn't mind the coldness at all, they were having too much fun!

Objects frozen in ice. Kiddos were playing with it while we monitored how long it would take to melt.

3. The next day we discussed Igloos and people who live in the snow and ice. We decided we wanted to build an ice castle!

The night before (very important) I froze two dozen plus solo cups of water in different sizes and some bigger plastic containers as well. Food coloring was added to some to give our ice house a cool factor. 

Tell kiddos to bring yucky gloves or supply them with plastic gloves so they can better enjoy the activity.

My kiddos thought the colored ones were neat, but they didn't like the color getting on their hands.

We all went outside to the playground to begin building with our ice blocks. 

The ice castle didn't make it too far, but when our time was up, they did enjoy seeing how far the ice could slide on the playground!

4. Again, freeze everything the night before you need it or else it WILL NOT be fully frozen and that can affect experiments and visual aids. I froze water in a clear circular container and grabbed a teaspoon full of ice melt on my way into school. For a visual aid of how ice melts we did an experiement with ice, ice melt, and food coloring.

Let the students touch the ice so they know it is fully solid, not beginning to melt yet. Pick a few points on top of the ice and make small piles of 5-7 pieces of ice melt by the edges of the container and some in the center. It will take 10-20mins to melt the ice a bit.

Rock salt placed at different points around container.

Have students observe with their eyes the water at the bottom of the container and how the ice wobbles in the container now. THEN the fun. Add a different color of food coloring to each point the ice melt was placed and watch the pathways that were formed from the melting ice appear! 

Can you see the places where the ice has melted?

5. ART: there is not to terribly much one can do with ice and art, but painting with colored ice is one!
Fill an ice cube tray with water, add different colors of food coloring and popscicle sticks, freeze overnight. We discussed the Ice Age period and how mankind would wear skins of animals to keep warm as well as paint their stories on cave walls because they didn't have story books like we do now. So the kiddos painted a story using colored ice cubes. You like that segue way? LOL!

Make sure you use water color paper to paint on or the water will tear right through the paper.

6. Archeologists at the sensory table: I couldn't find any Ice Age plastic animals at Toys R' Us or Target and I really did not feel like driving across town to Walmart, so I settled for plastic dinosaur fossils at Hobby Lobby. I froze the fossils in layers so they wouldn't all be sitting at the bottom of the ice. The day we looked at the Ice Age we discussed wolly mammoths, saber-tooth tigers, and other animals that lived during the time period that we have found buried in ice. Dinosaur fossils were found under the ice too, right? Hey I had to make the connection somehow.

During center time, I added the ice blocks which contained the dinosaur fossils to the sensory table, along with "digging tools" a.k.a spoons.

The kiddos had to be archeologists and work together to try to gently free the fossils.

Digging holes through the layers - Making progress!

It was a fantastic week! The kiddos were so involved and when we went outside they were all incredibly excited when they would find a patch of ice on the ground because of the rain the night before. As teachers, we will never get a lot of recognition for all we do, if any, however knowing a child is excited about learning is a huge nod to us that we must being doing something right!

Until next time! Jackie