Space Theme in Preschool Co-op

My family is involved in a weekly homeschool co-op and I love that I get to be the toddler/preschool teacher. I have 6 students ages 2-4. This week I decided to revisit the space/astronaut theme that I did with my girls at home.

I always start out with a book. Our first book that we read was

 

 On the Moon by Anna Milbourne

Then we did a a couple songs and rhymes. First we sang “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Then we sang “Five Astronauts Went out to Play.” You can find this printable  in my ABC section  under Aa is for astronaut.

After singing time, I had the students break out into small groups and work on individual activities. Some did a vocabulary match. These are words found in the book. I printed and laminated one page to be the control card, and then printed the second page and cut it up. You can download this from Homeschool Creation’s Astronaut Preschool Pack.

Some students worked on a shadow matching game, also found in the Astronaut Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations. We  played with blue Playdoh, but I forgot to take pictures of that activity.

About half-way through the class (after snack etc.) We sat down for another book.

Constellations: A Glow-in-the-Dark Guide to the Night Sky

I didn’t read this book, but rather showed them some of the glow-in –the-dark constellations. They loved it! I talked about how sometimes groups of stars remind us of pictures. Then we looked at the picture and noted where the stars were on the picture. Next we turned off the lights --I thought they’d be a little afraid, but they loved seeing the stars glow!

After showing the constellations, we talked about other things we see in the sky. Then I laid out photos of the 8 planets (something I got when I was a 1st grade teacher) and planet sequence cards from 1+1+1=1’s Solar System Preschool Pack. We counted the planets. We talked about which planet we live on. We pointed out which was the 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. planets. Then we sang a planets song:

There are eight planets in our solar system
There are eight planets in our solar system
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
There are eight planets in our solar system.
(sung to “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain”)

Click the photo to download a printable version.

 

After that, we went back to the tables to do a pin-push activity. I saw this idea at Counting Coconuts (btw, she has a lot more space ideas on her site)  and knew the kids would love it. I cut some pieces of foam-core board  and then printed individual constellations.  The students used jumbo push-pins to mark a hole on the stars in the constellation. This was a hit!

Whew!  After all of that, some kids colored and others had time for some free-play. There are still so many cool space ideas that I have bookmarked that I might just stretch this theme out for another week! :)

More space-themed resources:

Aa is for Astronaut from Totally Tots
Living Montessori Now space-theme post part 1
Living Montessori Now space-theme post part 2
M&M constellations & Oreo cookie moon phases

New Printables

Yesterday was my first post on Totally Tots! I shared what we did for our “Aa is for Astronaut” unit.
I created these printables to go along with the unit, so be sure to check the post out!
 
I love creating free printables for others to use with their children or students. The biggest problem though, was finding them on my blog. I tried to keep my link list current, but I would forget to add them. The link list also didn’t do a good job showcasing what I had available. So I decided to go ahead and make the printable section easier to use. Now when you click the free printables tab(I’ll be switching it to the new link this weekend), it will take you to a printables homepage. From there you can click on various categories.

It will take me awhile to get everything moved over, but I am excited about the ABC printables page. I’ve already have it up and running. I hope you find this helpful!

~Maureen

Letter A: Toddler/Preschool Time

My 3yr. old has been a little out of sorts during the school day lately. Then it hit me---she was bored! I needed to do something a little more challenging for her, so she started "Letter Time" this week. Our letter of the week was A. Of course that seems obvious, but actually I picked it because I knew she already recognized the letter since it is a part of her name. I haven't decided if we'll go ahead and do all the letters in order or if I'll switch it up. We'll see.

Since I'm not one to reinvent the wheel (I don't have the time!), I purchased Erica's Letter of the Week Preschool Curriculum. She has printable activities plus a lesson plan for each letter of the alphabet.  My goal is to get all the activities printed, cut, laminated and put in large envelopes sorted by the letters. Then when I need it, all the resources will be together. As I said, it is my goal. It has not become reality yet--lol. Since we are still at the introductory phase with letters, I only printed a couple of activities that were included. I know that we will probably go through the alphabet at least one other time (w/ little sister in tow next year) so I"ll save some for then.

 

This activity was an size sort activity available in the download. My daughter put the ants in order from biggest to smallest and from smallest to biggest. Then we talked about the colors.

  

We used the letter sort mat. For more variety, we switched it up by hiding capital and small letter a's in a bowl of macaroni. She dug through the bowl and then placed the letter on the appropriate side of the mat. She really enjoyed this.

  

Here she sorted capital a's and small letter a's on the mat. These were the ants that were included in the download.

 

Next we did a letter A craft. I got this idea from Totally Tots, who got it from No Time For Flashcards.

Then on Friday our toddler/preschool co-op did apple activities which fit perfectly into our "Letter A" theme--- and this wasn't planned at all. The kids talked about the different colors of apples, read apple books, tasted apples and played an apple game---which they loved!

I blogged about an apple unit earlier in the year: Everything Apples and Apple Collage Craft

 

Mrs. S. came up with this adaption to the finger-play "Five Red Apples" She had red, green and yellow balloons in a pile on the floor. The children stood in a circle (well as close to a circle as 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5yr. olds can) and did the following poem. When their name was said, they got to "pick an apple" aka balloon from the floor. When everyone had an apple they had fun tossing them in the air. I think the kids played this game at least 4 times.

Five Red Apples

(or however many children there are in the group)

Five red apples hanging in a tree (Hold up five fingers)

The juiciest apples that you ever did see.

(Child's name) came by and wanted a treat (pick a balloon)

And one little apple was hers to eat.

For more preschool ideas check out: