Outer Space

Hello Blue Room Family and Friends,

In Blue Room we kicked off the new year with some much-needed brainstorming. After deciding to explore outer space as our next project topic, we asked the children, "What would you like to learn about outer space?" They answered:
* Rocket ships going to space and to the moon
* Rocket ships that go to the rings of Saturn
* Planets, bees, cars driving, stars, rocket ships and Earth
* Rockets going to other planets and into outer space
* Fly in a rocket to lava planet (sun)
There were so many ideas from all of the children, but where to start?

We started out with a small video clip about constellations, highlighting the Big Dipper and Orion. The children really took to the Big Dipper. The children drew the Big Dipper with chalk and placed their seven stars on. Some our the children of course wanted more than seven stars. :)















Connect the dots (a precursor to making our own constellations) was a tricky concept for most our three-year-olds who are just starting on number recognition. They definitely were able to connect all the dots, just in their own preferred order. :)
















We then moved into creating our very own constellations, naming them, describing them and counting how many stars were in their constellations.














With Teacher Rosemary we learned about our solar system through art. The children created the sun using acrylic paint and cling wrap, and were able to spread it with their fingers.





Chalk pastels were used to make each planet. Teacher Rosemary talked about the different colors and sizes of the planets.

















During science we watched a short clip of a rocket take off. "He's blasting off," said Yejoon. "That's so cool," said Landon. They saw Neil Armstrong land on the moon. The children were in awe of what they saw - all of their jaws dropped.

The sky's the limit...we cannot wait to see where the children's interests take us!

I also have some very exciting news to share with you all... Ryan and I are expecting baby number 2 in July 2017! Evelyn is very excited to be a big sister. Your children are already coming up with hilarious names for the new baby and trying to guess if it's a boy or a girl. :)

Hugs,
Teacher Kristina

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Moon, stars and more....

Dear Blue Room Family and Friends,

LEARNING about our Earth's MOON!

Last Tuesday was science with Teacher Rosemary and what a fun morning we had! We started off by watching a short video of the first man who walked on the moon, Neil Armstrong. My friends were so excited to see how Neil Armstrong stepped out of his spacecraft and said those very famous words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Included in the video were also great pictures of the moon's surface, covered in craters, pits and scars.

After the video, we filled a round bin, depicting the moon, with flour and a top layer of cinnamon.











Each child then received a glass pebble (asteroid) and threw it onto the moon, creating their own craters.











What a great visual to understand how craters on the moon are made!

Finally, we created our very own classroom moon with a playground ball, paint, glue, and a touch of glitter.























It proudly hangs in our classroom! With all the excitement, I wouldn't be surprised if we have a few future astronauts!

Teacher Rosemary also made us an awesome sensory bin filled with moon sand that had an unusual texture and scent. The kids loved it!





G and L exploring moon sand. L counting down....ready for take off.





A and P very focused.

We wanted to connect all this far-away space talk to our children's direct experience, so we talked about the sun rising and setting every day as the Earth turns around. During circle time we talked about the things we do in the morning and the things we do in the evening. Some children realized there were some things that we did both in the morning and in the evening, and some things were opposites, such as wake up and go to sleep, take pajamas off and put pajamas on, just to name a couple.

Using markers on 4x6 photo paper (they love the glossy surface for drawing), each child drew one activity from our brainstorm. Then we worked together to sort them into "morning" and "evening" activities.


The children liked getting to draw in a different space - on their laps during circle, rather than at the table.



What do you do in the morning?



What do you do in the evening? These are posted on our classroom wall if you get a chance to find your child's.

Classroom constellation...





Each child was a star and they took turns tossing the yarn to a friend. It was a challenge for the children to keep a hold of their string, but they were in awe of what our constellation started to look like.





When asked, "what do you see when you look at your constellation?" Most of the children said a spider web and some said different animals like a horse, pig, and cat.






Making their tube "telescopes" to see the Big Dipper.





The children decorated their telescopes with colors and stars.





After we added the Big Dipper to the lens, the the children used a tack to poke the seven stars. That way the light shone through when they held up their telescopes.  The children enjoyed getting a closer look at their favorite constellation, the Big Dipper!

Hugs,

Blue Room


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Science -- Walking Water (1/3/17)

Hi Blue Room Family and Friends,

SCIENCE FUN with Teacher Rosemary!!

What a fun way to bring in New Year 2017 by introducing and engaging my friends in some of my favorite science experiments.

Our first experiment was called the "Walking Water" experiment where water walked to form a rainbow. There's no better way for preschool scientists to learn about capillary action and color mixing than by observing a walking water rainbow.





We put colored water in each jar, then built "bridges" of paper towels between each jar to watch the capillary action do its thing.


We visited back later to check in and see...





In our second experiment, we created colorful rain clouds and learned how rain is formed. My friends learned that when water droplets evaporate and continue to collect in a cloud, they get heavier. When they get too heavy to float on the air, water droplets will fall to the ground as rain!














Our final experiment was not only fun...but so beautiful in color! Candy science! My friends were working in groups of 4 to create a circle of Skittle candies on a paper plate. When the circle was completed, warm water was poured onto center of plate...creating a beautiful array of colors as the colorful candies dissolved.

















It's such a joy to observe my friends as they get excited, learn, engage in conversation, and make their own predictions. We love science!

--Teacher Rosemary

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