Week 14 - Friday

Circle time:
As described in earlier circle time post
Letters of the week: O and P
Theme of the week: Outer Space and Planets

Arts & crafts:
Today the kids made planets out of balloons and paper plates. First they decorated the outside ring of the plate (that I had cut prior to starting) using various colours of paint. Once they were dry I inflated a balloon into the middle of the plate and gave them option of further decorating their planets with outer space themed stickers. We then hung their creations from the ceiling!





Free play at stations:
None.

Story time:
Strawberry Shortcake and Sad Mr. Sun by Lexau/Sustendal
Our Earth by Amos
The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System by Cole/Degen
Just Imagine by Shrode/Eubank

Cooperative game:
Dominoes and Bingo

Science experiment:
This week's science theme: Outer Space and Planets of course!

Today I demonstrated how the earth orbits around the sun and how this produces the changing of the seasons. First we inflated a yellow balloon to use as the sun and placed it in the center of a hula hoop which represented the earth's orbit. Then we inflated a blue balloon to use as the earth and stuck a sticker in the upper half (northern hemisphere) to show where we live. Being sure to keep the balloon slightly tilted (since the earth's axis is at an angle) we moved our "earth" around the "sun" and saw how first one and then the other hemisphere tilt toward the sun. The hemisphere tipped toward the sun experiences summer and the hemisphere tipped away from the sun experiences winter. I also reviewed the notions of night and day and how whether or not our part of the earth is facing the sun determines what part of the day it is (as we had done in an earlier experiment this week).


Physical activity:
Gymnastics and Sports Skills Development class at Le Petit Gym.

Outing/social time:
Gymnastics and Sports Skills Development class at Le Petit Gym.

Worksheets:
Finding words that begin with O and P, finding pictures that begin with O and P, colouring O and P word pictures, filling in the missing O and P, writing uppercase and lowercase letters K-O, filling in missing letter in outer space theme words, theme dot to dot, multiple choice quiz about planets, tracing planet names.

Hands on math:
None.

Computers:
Outer Space and Planets games on the iPad (Alien Rock Lite, Letter Wars, Space Images, Solar System Lite, Rocket Chimp, 8 Planets).

Music:
Danced and sang to our Outer Space and Planets theme compilation cd.

French:
French is emphasized throughout the entire day; especially theme related words. Today we practiced saying "J'ai faim" when they are hungry and "J'ai soif" when they are thirsty, and also continued to reinforce all of the notions that we covered in previous weeks. We will continue to practice these sentences all week.