Preschoolers Go Green

We started off the week learning about the planets so I could explain to JJ where he lives and that we have to do our part to keep the Earth healthy. Here are some things Preschoolers can do to help Save the Planet

• JJ puts our cereal boxes and milk jugs in the recycling bin
• He turns off the water when he brushes his teeth
• He turns off the lights when he leaves the room. He was so happy when he could reach the light switch, it was a sign he was getting bigger.
• He has helped pick up trash during our neighborhood clean up day, he loves to use the grabber
• He helps put our plastic bags in the little bathroom trashcan

We use paper bags to make crafts and we are going to go through our recycle bin to make a neat craft tomorrow.
                   What things does your preschoolers do to Go Green?

Preschool Solar System ~ Wednesday

He started by making the Galaxy. Dilute some white paint with water. Either place it in a water bottle and spray your black construction paper or just flick the diluted paint around the page with your paint brush, which is what we did.

Next, paint  each planet. I found a picture image online and patterned each planet after that.

More Planet Painting

Here is his Solar System. I included Pluto, but explained it's a dwarf planet.

It didn't take him very long at all. I had little plates with the colors he needed for each planet and as soon as he was done with one, I was ready with the colors for the next. We painted Mercury brown, Venus yellow, Earth blue and green, Mars red, Jupiter yellow brown and red stripes, Saturn yellow (I forgot to add the rings before the picture, just used pipe cleaners), Uranus teal, Neptune blue and Pluto orange.
 He got smart by the 4th planet and was just rolling his styrofoam ball in the paint and just touching up when he was done rolling...ingenious preschooler. He is going to be an efficient, problem solver :)

Preschool Solar System ~ Tuesday

While he is working on his Solar System, he makes a bigger earth. He starts with a paper plate, white sheet of paper, blue and green paint

Pour the green and blue paint on the back of the plate

Smear it around the plate with a paint brush

This is what it should look like, the whole plate covered

Flip it in the middle of the paper and push all around

Lift carefully and you have the earth

Preschool Solar System ~ Monday

He is working on a solar system out of styrofoam

 

He is looking at a lot of cool pictures of our solar system and galaxy

My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Peas

  This is the sentence I learned when I was little to remember the order of the planets.

M ~ Mercury
V ~ Venus
E ~ Earth
M ~ Mars
J ~ Jupiter
S ~ Saturn
U ~ Uranus
N ~ Neptune
P ~ Pluto

I realize Pluto was demoted in 2006 to a "dwarf planet", but I decided to still teach him the sentence and explain it later.

I taught a little about each planet:

Mercury ~ very small and close to the Sun. It  is both very hot and very cold
Venus ~ very HOT. It has active volcanoes and quakes and lots of craters to prove it
Earth ~ perfect distance from the sun to have living creatures and humans. Also, it's the only planet  to have water
Mars ~ the Red planet. It's very similar to the earth, but it doesn't have an atmosphere to hold any water
Jupiter ~ the largest planet. It has a big red spot. It is known as the Gas Giant
Saturn ~ it is also known as a Gas Giant. It has hundreds of dust rings that go around the planet
Uranus ~ also a gas giant. It's methane gas makes it look like it's a bluish-green color
Neptune ~ farthest gas planet. Also looks blue to us because of the methane gas
Pluto ~ because it was smaller than most moons around the planets, they demoted it to a dwarf planet

Spring Break

Having a break in the great outdoors. 

Looking for sticks to roast hotdogs and marshmallows 

Preschooler Busy Bag Ideas ~ Shapes

Sally/Simon Square. 1 lg. square, 2 lg. rectangles, 2 sm. rectangles, 2 sm. squares, 1 sm. triangle, 1 med. triangle and 1 pair of googly eyes.

Sorting/Shape Activity. Find Pattern here and here. You can also use items to sort shapes and numbers. You will also need some pony beads and foam shapes

Tangram Pattern here.

Double Trouble Shape Match. Cut your paper in half, 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 and divide into 8 boxes. Across the top stick 2 shapes and colors. Preschooler will match below.

More shapes and colors.

Sally/Simon Square~
*Build a person with the shapes
*Get them to start with a square
*Get them to start with a triangle

Shape and Color Sorting~
*Match colors
*Match shapes
*Make patterns

Tangram~
*Cut out pattern
*Make a bunny
*Make a penguin

Double Trouble Shape Match~
*Match Shapes
*Match Colors

Preschooler Busy Bag Ideas ~ Counting

Five Fabulous Frogs. Pattern is here and here. You can get the frogs at the dollar store or at Amazon

Counting Caterpillar. You need a swimming noodle and a rope. Cut your noodle in 21 pieces, numbering 1-20 and the extra one draw a cute caterpillar face on it.

Dice Number Game you can find here. Roll the dice and put a reusable dot on the number in square 1, then play again.

Number Tracing Cards can be found here.  Great for practicing numbers and counting.

Fun ways to reinforce counting.