Space Party!

Here are some pics from our awesome space party!

Our special snack included "alien" cookies and "moon juice" (yellow food died ice cubes in purple kool-aid)

Our craft project included "make your own alien"

 It's all about the process!

 "Pin Moonbear in the Rocketship"

Planetary Spin Art (using tops and dreidels - because I always have some on hand :))

Moonshine water and plastic stars (we tried leaking the fluorescence out of highlighter to turn the water yellow...but five highlighters still wasn't enough for this much water!)

Crazily enough - my boss happened to have bought a new exerciser from Costco! Yippee! It was perfect for our spaceship that we played in all month! We decorated the sides with our own planetary pictures and the inside with glow-in-the-dark stars and planets!

No party is complete without the decorations! This is some black plastic table cloth material covered in glow-in-the-dark stars and planets! The kids never wanted the lights back on!

Paper Mache Planets

Let's preface this by saying this is my first attempt at Paper Mache since my own school days.  Since I'd forgotten exactly what was involved, I found lots of great directions from different preschool bloggers.  All of them saying how much fun this project is.  It's not that fun.

The hardest part of paper mache is getting the kids to touch the mache mix.  Even after they helped us mix the 1 Part Flour to 1 Part Water.  Sure, now you guys turn into a bunch of compulsive hand washers!

Then there's the patience piece.  Each balloon needs at least 2 layers (up to 4).  This turned into a teacher project where the kids handed us pieces ("no! I don't wanna get my hands dirty!") and we got touched the mix and covered the balloons.  And it was a lot of work!

 Painting them was the fun part! 

 I guess these could be Jupiter...

Mars and Earth were the two top choices. 

A beautiful finished project! I'm not sure how to hang paper mache from strings yet, so I left the balloons blown up and tied the string to that!  It's a great effect - just warn parents before they walk in and bop their heads!

Planet Essays

If had a spaceship and could visit any planet - which planet would you visit?

 Saturn: "I'm going to eat ice cream on Saturn's rings!"

 Mars:

Mom: "I see Hannah up in space."

Dad: Why is Hannah up in space?

Mom: "I see her up on Mars!"

Earth: "I would stay on Earth because my daddy is here."

Make Your Own Nonfiction Books

Solar System Books

Tying into our literacy theme this month, we learned about non-fiction books and facts.  The kids picked their favorite facts about the Solar System to make their own books.

"There are 8 Planets in the Solar System."

(a picture of the planets I used to have over my bed when I was little)

"You have to wear a space suit on the moon or you will float away."

"The sun is too hot.  It is a star. Neptune is far away from the sun."

More Saturn's Rings

Saturn is a class favorite because of the rings!  After learning what they're made of (ice and rocks! The kids really want to ice skate, race, and eat ice cream on the rings of Saturn) we focused a lot on the shape of the rings!

"Saturn's Rings" Play Dough for Fine Motor Skills

We liked the "Saturnesque" shape and small size of the magnet bars.

We also played "Spin Around Saturn" with our hula hoops for gross motor skills!

 We got up to 7 "rings"! Phew! What a workout!

Saturn's Ring

What shape are Saturn's rings? Circles! We created art using big circles, little circles, all sizes and colors!

 "Saturn"

Saturn's rings are made of rocks and ice (sometimes pieces as big as a car!)  We didn't have ice, so we used colored sugar to represent it. 

I'm not sure why, but salt and sugar has a tendency to make our paint melt and look quite messy.  But it's more about the process than the product!

Colors of Neptune

Neptune is one of my personal favorites! Look at those colors!


To begin - we brainstormed what will happen when we mix oil with blue paint (liquid watercolor).  Then we added glitter for effect!   

We decided to use vegetable oil to create the affect of the translucent Gas Giant!

The paper plates turned out beautiful!  

Painting with oil is a mistake that I have made more than a few times.  It's actually a real bad idea.  Not only will it never dry (it is greasy forever so don't send it home!), it drips on other art (leaving greasy stains on everything on the drying rack), and will start to smell quickly.

Mars Dough

Mars Dough

Ingredients:

1 C Water

3 C Flour

1 1/2 C Salt

1/4 C Oil

Red Food Color

Cinnamon

Mars Dough! More fun than your regular play dough!  Not only was it great for making the largest planetary volcano (found on Mars) and the largest canyon in the solar system - but it makes some awesome aliens, too!

The Colors of Mars

Mars - the Red Planet!

Our open-ended art project today was painting with the colors of Mars: Brownish Red

Not only are these adorable - they smell delicious!

Planet Mobiles

Being a teacher means having to make the tough choices.  For me, this meant deciding to teach Pluto as a non-planet (aka Dwarf Planet).  I spent the first twenty years of my life believing in 9 planets in our Solar System, only to have to teach 8.  Anyways...

These are open-ended Planet projects, so the children chose their own shapes and colors to create their own planets.  This child really liked rocky planets:

 This child got a little more accurate:

Earth's Gravity

Gravity is awesome because it makes total sense.  There is an invisible force on Earth that holds us to the ground.  When we jump up, we fall back down.  Don't believe it? Try it.

We did try it.  We tried it with our bodies, with books, balls, and a dozen other things the kids brought to circle.  It was so much fun we decided to test gravity outside by trying to pop our balloon up into the air and make it stay.

 Gravity may have won - but we had more fun!

Moon Art

After learning about the surface of the moon, we devised our own mix to recreate the rocky, crater pocketed moon!

We used white paint splashed into a dash of flour, mixed until lumpy but paintable.

 After getting the surface painted, we used different size circles to create our own craters.

 Viola! Adorable moon art!