Friday, January 25, 2013

Exploring Outer Space

Preschool was out of this world this week!  We had so much fun learning about our solar system and the job of astronauts.  We watched a video clip of the first monkey to orbit the earth and so many questions ensued that we just had to learn more about astronauts.  We saw where the astronauts live in the space station and saw what they ate.  We even tried some astronaut ice cream.  We all decided we like the real thing much better.  The children were such engaged and eager learners.
 After learning all about the planets and meteors that orbit the sun, we went outside to play meteor ball. This preschool version of dodge ball wore me out pretty quick but those kids just kept on going and going.
Gideon happy to be outside on a gorgeous winter day.

 The first step in our art project was to shake a box filled with paint, glitter and "planets" (marbles).  They were continually amazed by the process.

 The next step was to create their own galaxies with planets and stars.

  After washing the paint and glitter off the "planets" we played with the marble run.  It's so fun to watch the children work together in teams to create and build.

 Bouncing on a mattress is the closest we could come to experiencing what it would be like to walk on the moon. 
 Yeah they loved this!
 Abie counting out stars.

 Such a silly boy!

Astronauts ready for their physical training.  

 Kooper racing through the obstacle course.


 The children couldn't help but zoom around with the rockets they made during art.

 After watching a short video of a space shuttle launch, we had to try to launch our own rockets.

The children took turns being the sun while others chose a planet to be and orbited around them.  Mostly they either wanted to be the smelly planet Venus orbiting close or Pluto orbiting way out (I know, I know, it's not a real planet but rather a dwarf planet).

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