Thursday, January 26, 2012

Sun and Moon Activities... with a fun freebie game!

Hey sweet friends!
Well, we went to the museum yesterday. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. The dinosaurs were the coolest thing. I had to keep little hands and feet from climbing on the rail. Do field trips wear y'all out too? HA!

This week we have been learning about the sun and the moon as well as talking about day/night activities.

We started off by talking about what we know about the sun. Sorry I don't have a picture of our moon chart! I left school and completely forgot to take one!



We are still working on number recognition and so I made this little activity for my sweeties. They draw a number card and place the corresponding number of yellow straws around the sun.



 We cut and pasted beginning and ending sounds.


 This is our moon poem/song that we sing. It is to the tune of the Farmer and the Dell. I think I got this idea from Julie Lee and changed up the words. I wish I had a picture of our sun song!


I introduced the term 'sphere' to the kids. We read a book all about spheres and then they made their own. They rolled a die and made the number of spheres as shown by the die. My kids LOVE play doh and it is such a great fine motor activity. We use play doh a lot. :)




For the ABC center, I had my little ones match letters to word cards. Or, if they are ready for independent spelling, they chose the blank cards to write the words.




 Our Mr. Sun glyphs turned out super cute!! I was so proud of them. They are really getting the hang of glyphs. Just about all of my sweeties chose the orange suns because they like day time the best. I think there were 2 that chose the yellow ones. :)



Lastly, I wanted to share a really fun game with y'all that I made. It is called Craters on the Moon. I created this game for my sweeties who struggle with number recognition. You can click the link below to purchase. Basically, all you do is turn all of the cards face down and give each child a moon game mat and approximately 6 quarters (or some type of manipulative.  So, the kids will draw a card from the face down pile, identify the card and keep it. If they cannot identify the card, it goes back into the pile. If they draw a Craters on the Moon card, they get to place a quarter on their game mat. When their game mat is filled, the game is over. My little ones love games like this so I knew it would be a hit! Seriously y'all, it is allllmost as fun as Vroom, Vroom! (So you know that means it's FUN!!)
*The picture here is before I changed the craters on the game mat... I like the smaller craters that are in the freebie game better. You live and you learn. :)




All of these activities (and more!) are in my Sun/Moon activity pack that will be available soon!! :) It will definitely be posted by the end of the weekend and maybe even tonight. :)

Tomorrow is our 100th Day of School so I'll be sure to post about what we did. I am still getting things together for that. Is it the weekend yet? :)

Giveaway ends tomorrow! :)

I'll leave you with some encouragement. I have this on my desk and I read a new inspirational quote each day. It's always such an encouragement for me and I hope it is for you as well! :)



8 comments:

Erin Lukas said...

Such cute ideas!! I love the Mr. Sun Glyph!!

Erin

Creating & Teaching

Cupcake said...

Love all this!!!

A Cupcake for the Teacher

Mrs. L said...

What is a Scrappin Doodles Freebie License? I would love some more information. Thank you!
Life with Mrs. L

Unknown said...

Love Love Love your unit! Adding it to my wish list! You are so creative Julia! :)
Cheryl
Crayons and Curls

Erica said...

Fabulous ideas for the sun and the moon!

~Erica

www.sprinklestokindergarten.blogspot.com

Tami said...

These are such wonderful ideas. You are an amazing teacher!

Michelle Griffo said...

These are cute ideas! I like the sun and toothpicks!

Michelle
Apples and ABC's

Pennie said...

Thanks for the game. It's a fun way to practice counting and recognizing numbers.