Monday, November 3, 2014

M is for Moon!

We're taking a little break from our letter of the week project for the Holidays. We'll pick it back up in January. In the meantime, look out for some fun Christmas posts!

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We went to the Moon this week!

The resources we used this week were…

Songs:

Videos:

ABCMouse.com 'The Letter M Song'
Storybots 'The Mighty M'
Storybots 'Time to Shine (The Moon Song)'

Monday:

This week we got Many Moons by James Thurber, Hello, Harvest Moon by Ralph Fletcher, When Moon Fell Down by Linda Smith, Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, New Moon by Pegi Deitz Shea, and Moon Plane by Peter McCarty from the library.


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We read through our books, talked about the letter “M,” then Sadie did her moon mosaic. Then, I helped her add it to her alphabet book.

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Tuesday:

On Tuesday Sadie had lots of fun painting a 3D moon. To make the 3D paint, I mixed 4 parts white paint with 1 part flour. I traced a white circle on a black piece of construction paper, and then Sadie painted inside the circle (sort of). The paint has a super cool texture that looks just like the surface of the moon. I wrote “Mm” and “Moon” on the paper, and we hung it up on the fridge.

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Wednesday:

We used a paper plate and a printable stars to create a moon and stars mobile on Wednesday. I wrote a large letter “M” on the edge of the paper plate, and then Sadie (with help from dad!) colored and glittered the plate and stars. While she was decorating we talked about the letter and practiced saying the sound.

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When she was done decorating, I cut out around the “M,” which created a man in the moon face with the middle point of the “M” being the moon’s nose. I drew an eye above and a smiling mouth below the “nose.” Then, Sadie helped me tape one piece of ribbon to the top of the moon, and another to the top of the moon’s crescent shape. I cut out the stars, and then we taped two on the hanging ribbon and one in the moon’s crescent.

It looks super cute hanging up in our living room!

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Thursday:

Sadie had a “moon cheese” snack on Thursday. I read the adorable poem The Cheese Moon by Gareth Lancaster (included in the lesson plan), and then I served her “moon cheese” and crackers. I just put several different types of cheese—cheese stick, shredded cheese, and sliced cheese—on a plate with some crackers. I explained that the spacemen mice brought the moon cheese all the way from the moon just for her snack. She loved it!  

Friday:

The moon sand we made on Friday was definitely Sadie’s favorite activity of the week. We threw some black and purple glitter into 2 cups of flour, and then mixed in ¼ cup of vegetable oil. Sadie always loves combining and mixing ingredients.

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I put the mixture into a large, shallow baking dish, and Sadie dug right in. The moon sand is super soft and moldable. I gave Sadie a few kitchen utensils, and she loved digging and scooping the sand. This is really similar to the kinetic sand you'll find in stores, but literally a fraction of the price!  

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Weekend Fun:
This weekend go to the planetarium and learn even more about the moon in new, fun way! Or, if you don’t have a local planetarium, just take it outside. Lay a blanket on the grass and spend some time looking at the moon and hanging out with your family!

Our planetarium doesn’t kids under 4 (how lame), but we spent some time outside looking up at the moon. Sadie is so fascinated, and it was a great opportunity for me to take a second away from the business of life to relax and marvel a bit. 
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Download the lesson plan HERE! and enjoy!

Note: make sure you set up your printer to print borderless before printing the lesson plan!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to use the comment section below or email me at janiewhitetaylor@gmail.com. I’d love to help you make the project work for your little one! 

Happy learning to you and your future nerds!

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