Week 14 - Tuesday

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 put together a mobile of the solar system. Nicki drew all the planets, Gabe wrote out all of the planet names and Roxy stuck all of the stickers on the banner. Their great teamwork made for a fantastic result!




Free play at stations:
Normally we have free play at stations throughout the house every Tuesday and Thursday, but the weather was so hot and humid today that we decided to scrap the indoor play and keep cool in the kiddie pool instead. After all P is for Pool!

Story time:
Dora Climbs Star Mountain by Inches/A&J Studios
Mickey Mouse - No Place Like Earth by Amerikaner/Loter Inc.
Sun by Tisdale
Jetsons on the Move by Gave/Marks

Cooperative game:
Clue Jr.

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

Day and Night
Today I read the kids a Winnie the Pooh book called "Where Does the Sun Go at Night?" and then we all went into the closet for a quick and easy demonstration of how day turns into night and vice versa. First we stuck a sticker onto a balloon "earth" to show where we live. Then we turned on a flashlight to use as the sun. I demonstrated how when our part of the world faces the sun it is bright and daytime and then rotated the balloon around to show that when our part of the world faces away from the sun it is dark and nighttime. I also reminded them that it takes a full day of 24 hours for the earth to rotate completely around its axis.

Physical activity:
Outdoor play in the kiddie pool and first soccer game of the season.






Outing/social time:
First soccer game of the season.

Worksheets:
Coloring O and P word pictures, tracing letters O and P, tracing O and P words, counting and finding numeral, writing numerals 9 and 10, themed picture matching, cutting small zig-zag lines.

Hands on math:
Today I wanted to review ordinal numbers with the kids since we have been talking a lot this week about which planet is 1st from the sun, 2nd from the sun, etc. To do this I had each kid bring out 5 small toys from their rooms and line them up. I then asked them to show me which one was 3rd for example, or tell me what position a certain toy was in. I then asked them to line them up any way they wanted to, as long as the particular toy I named was 5th, etc. This was a bigger hit than I thought it would be and they wanted to continue playing long after the lesson was done!

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.