Sun & Moon Preschool Lessons with Mother Goose Time

This months theme with Mother Goose Time is Blast Off to Space.  Day 2 we learned about the Sun and Day 3 we learned about the Moon.  I have to say, I learned some things I didn't even know!

I posted this picture on my Facebook page because it sums up everything we learned about the sun.  We learned that the sun is a medium star which is why it is yellow (Large stars are Red and Small stars are Blue.  We learned that on Day 1). We learned that the cooler spots on the sun are orange and called sun spots. We learned that the earth orbits around the sun. We also learned that the word sun starts with the letter S. Oh, and did you know that the sun spins on an axis too and it takes 25 days to make a full rotation.

MGT gave us the idea of having one of the children stand and spin while we counted to 25.  I had Lachlan give it a try and he kept on spinning too fast.  He would make a full rotation by the time I counted to 10.  So we did it over and over again.  I kept having to tell him to slow down.  It was a great way to get across the idea that 25 days is a long time so the sun must spin really slow. 

Day 3 was all about the Moon but of course along the way we learned new numbers, 7 & 17 and did a little math too.

I gave Peter the lead on this activity.  I told him to find a ramp and gave him a hint to look in our hotwheels road bin.  He found the orange piece that I had in mind and brought it out to the living room.  Then we set it up on the foot stool and I placed the number card along with the end of the ramp inside a tray.  Peter rolled "moon rocks" down the ramp and tried to land them on the number counting card.

In the Teacher's Guide under the Moon Grab lesson there are two additional tips.  One to Simplify and one to make the lesson more challenging.  I liked the Challenge option.  First I had Peter roll all the moon rocks down and then we did a little math.  I had him count how many moon rocks landed on the card and then how many were not on the card.  I wrote out the equation 12+5=17. 

As they continued to play I got ready for making Moon Rocks.  MGT provided us with a flour salt mixture to make salt dough.  I put the mixture in a little bowl and added a small cup of water and something to mix it with.

Hey look, I made it on the blog.  See my shadow taking the picture.

 First Peter decided to mix up the flour/salt combo. 

Then he added the water.  I used those little medicine cups.  MGT had told us to do 2 tablespoons of flour/salt to 2 teaspoons of water.  So I put in 4 Tablespoons of the flour/salt mix and 4 teaspoons of water in those little cups. 

It was a little sticky at first and the mini whisks just clumped up and didn't work so well.  We took the dough out and put it on the tray to kneed.  I had to add just a touch of the flour/salt to their dough to make them a little less sticky. 

I had Adam join us at the counter and gave him a tray with the Balancing Moon set we got from Mother Goose Time this month.  I can't believe this came in the box as a manipulative.  Sadly, Adam was too interested in what the brothers were doing and the balancing Moon didn't get much attention, until he decided to throw the whole thing on the floor. 

Lachlan and Peter both decided just to make one moon rock.  They put their moon rock on a tray and I baked them in our little toaster oven. 

Peter, really badly, wanted to just keep adding water to his dough.  I had to talk him out of it.  But when the rocks were done and baking I let him add as much water as he would like to the bowl of left overs.  Lachlan joined in too.  I told them we should leave these trays out over night to see what happens.  I might have them document their observations in their My Little Journals. 

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