In the Sky

Its funny how we really take for granted what children 'know' and what they don't.  At ages 5 and 6, these kiddos are sponges.  I'm amazed at how excited and ready they are to learn; this year in particular, I'm taking the opporutnity to build on prior knowledge and have some awesome discussions about what we think we know and what are actual facts. Thanks to another WONDEFUL blog (Chalktalk - http://larremoreteachertips.blogspot.com/) our class is blossoming this spring!

Over the past two weeks, we've been studying the differences between day and night.  Our learning included a review of nocturnal animals, different jobs done in the day and night, and an indepth study of the sun and moon.

Facts about the sun!

 Our favorite activity of the week was drinking like astronaunts.  I showed the class multiple 'google images' of astonaunt food, then we added water from the water fountain to a spoonful of Tang and slurped it up!. 

 Another activity that just AMAZED the class was our astronaunt footprints in the sand.  We conducted an experiment on what would happen when the 'elements' from outside encountered a footprint in the green box and how the 'elements' on the inside affected the sand in the blue box. It rained over the weeked.  We talked about how the earth's land changes due to weather elements, but the moon never does since it has no 'weather'.   

After our sand footprint experiment, we mixed play sand with cornstarch and water to create our own version of 'moonsand'. The couldn't beleive the differences in the consistency and how the sand could keep it's shape after we added the other ingredients.