Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me (part1)

I love Eric Carle, I have probably said that before. Since we are working through a space unit and this week, we were to learn about the moon, it was only fitting to use this book. Problem, though, I don't own this book and the school library was fresh out. What to do? Well, we watched it on youtube. It isn't the same as having the book and being able to appreciate his art work but it will do.

It is hard to read this book and not discuss moon phases. So, we decided to make a moon phase chart using small paper plates. We talked about how the moon looks like it gets smaller but is still there. J painted the plates to follow the phases.

J made a moon phase turn wheel so when we look at the moon, we can discover what phase it is in. She cut the whole thing herself. I love the look of concentration while she cuts on the lines.

We are learning a rhyme about the sun and the moon so J made a sun. She glued tissue paper squares onto a large paper plate.

Our rhyme of the week is Hey Diddle Diddle. J colored a mini book as we learned the rhyme. We also watched Goodnight Moon on youtube which ties in with our theme.

We worked on patterning skills by using candy (T version of M&M's). She looks thrilled, doesn't she? She perked up when I said she could eat them!

I found these capsules with space sponges inside at the Dollar Store this summer. You put them in water and they expand. J loved this. She waited patiently for them to pop out of their shells and then she proceeded to play with them like they were fish.

Not too bad for a dollar! We ended up with twelve different space sponges. Another exciting thing we did was use the iPad to see the stars in our hemisphere. Using an app called Star Rover, I went onto our balcony and set my location. The app marked all of the stars, planets, the moon, and the sun for us to see in our hemisphere. We were able to "see" the pictures of the constellations, that has always been hard for me to do. We played around with this for awhile, looking at the stars, amazed at what was in our sky. Cool app.

We still have much to learn about our moon - see ya soon.