Monday, December 27, 2010

Planets

Song/Poem

"The Family of the Sun"
Added 9/22/98 Original Author Unknown
Sung to: "Farmer in the Dell"

The family of the Sun,
The family of the Sun,
Here are nine planets in
the family of the Sun.

Mercury is hot,
And Mercury is small.
Mercury has no atmosphere;
It's just a rocky ball.

Venus has thick clouds
That hide what is below.
The air is foul; the ground is hot.
It rotates very slow.

We love the Earth our home,
Its oceans and its trees.
We eat its food; we breathe its air,
So no pollution, please.

Mars is very red.
It's also dry and cold.
Some day you might visit Mars
If you are really bold.

Great Jupiter is big.
We've studied it a lot.
We found that it has lots of moons,
And a big, red spot.

Saturn has great rings.
We wondered what they were.
Now we know they're icy rocks
Which we saw as a blur.

Uranus is far.
It's cold and greenish-blue.
We found it rotates sideways,
And it has a lot of moons.

Neptune has a spot;
A stormy patch of blue.
The planet has a lot of clouds
And rings around it, too.

Pluto's last in line
It's farthest from the Sun.
It's small and cold and icy, too;
To land there won't be fun.
http://www.preschooleducation.com/sspace.shtml

What we did

-Read a space book and put together a space mobile.

Playdough Planets



After memorizing the song we divided the planets up and the kids made playdough planets according to the descriptions from the song.

Planetarium

Mars


Man on the Moon



Saturn




We took a visit to the Planetarium. We watched a movie about kids in a cardboard rocket who traveled through space. They visited the sun and all nine planets. It was fun to have the kids already know a little about the planets before going.

We Learned

Livi- I went to see the Planetarium. I had so much fun. I saw a movie. I learned so much about space. I learned that Jupiter is a big storm. The red spot is the biggest storm on the planet. Jupiter is made out of gas. Mercury is the closest to the sun. Mercury is really small. It has no atmosphere, it's just a rocky ball. Saturn and Neptune both have rings made out of icy rocks. Neptune you can't see that well when you're in space. Saturn you can see really well. When you go inside the rings you have to careful because they're made of icy rocks. Pluto is now not a planet, it's just a big rock. Neptune also has some beautiful blue. Mars is red, they call it the red planet. Earth is the only safe planet to go on without a space suit.

Ezra- The planetarium is fun and we saw Pluto and we got to look through telescopes and saw Saturn. We saw the rings and the whole little planet. That telescope was so cool. And the planetarium had a space man, Mars that you can go in, and the moon which you can go in. In the planetarium was so cool that we wanted to see more, but there was no more. We saw lots of fun things. There were rings and space mans. We had to park our car really far away from and we had to walk and walk and walk so so so much that Livi keeped saying can we go through that door? can we go through that door? and Mom keeped saying "no" until we got to the right door. Then we saw the Planetarium. This guy had to sign our paper to go watch the movie. We learned about the imaginations that we can imagine being in space. We can imagination the planets, Pluto, the two ringy ones, Mercury, Venus, and Earth which we live on and love the Earth. We like our Earth. The planetarium was so much fun that we took pictures. We couldn't take pictures during the movie, but we could after.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Tools

We want to know
-if one tool and some wood could build a house
-if one pin can sew up a toy
-if one nail and lots of wood can build a whole cage
-how tools are made
-what tools are
-who was the first one to build tools

What we did

Poem
next part of "Twas the Night Before Christmas"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

Learning about tools
Website with pictures of tool, their names, and a short description, click on some the pictures for worksheet and activities

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/dictionarysubjects/tools.shtml
Using scissors as a tool- http://www.enchantedlearning.com/tracing/

how tools are made- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJQ6Cw1ROi0

awl- can make holes, sharper than a needle, used with leather
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDcCRU_PgOY
ax- chops through trees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xa14Xi7zjY
saw- are used to chop stuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IwO5oNY1_c
chisel- they are to scrape and chop through stuff with a hammer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBYT3Es6d6s
screw and screwdriver- the screwdriver is a powerful thing, if you use for a long time it makes a loud click, you use screws to drill stuff together

A tool is something that helps us
I asked Ezra what in this room is a tool. He said- the marker helps us write, a computer helps us spell, the internet helps us learn stuff, the lightswitch see light, the projector lets us see movies, the elliptical helps us exercise, the teeter-totter helps us have fun, the fan pulls the hot air out of the cabinet, the remote controls help us watch movies, books help us read
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1ENwnjHZ3I

Monday, December 6, 2010

Elves

We want to know
-how elves are made
-how can Frenchy (our elf on the shelf) live
-how is Frenchy so smart

What we did

Song
"We Are Santa's Elves" Johnny Marks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGB8BfdFWSM
Ho ho ho
Ho ho ho
We are Santa's elves.
We are Santa's elves
Filling Santa's shelves
With a toy
For each girl and boy.
Oh, we are Santa's elves
We work hard all day
But our work is play
Dolls we try out
See if they cry out.
We are Santa's elves
We've a special job each year
We don't like to brag
Christmas Eve we always
Fill Santa's bag.
Santa knows who's good
Do the things you should
And we bet you
He won't forget you.
We are Santa's elves
Ho ho ho. Ho ho ho
We are Santa's elves
Ho Ho!

Poem
next part of Twas the Night Before Christmas
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

Story
The Elves and the Shoemaker
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002706Y88/ref=dm_ty_trk
-the man was a poor shoemaker and didn't have enough money to buy materials to make more shoes, his wife said, "tomorow is a new day and things will work out"
-they went to bed, the man heard little voices, he thought he was dreaming
-when he woke up he found a new pair of shoes, he sold them for more than his usual price
-the next night the wife heard the voices, she thought she was dreaming
-in the morning there was a new pair of shoes
-the third night she tied a string on the husband to see if he went anywhere
-there were another new pair of shoes
-he sold all of his shoes and made lots of money
-they gave the elves new clothes to wear to thank them
-the elves saw the presents and put their new clothes on, they danced around the room and never came back again

Puppet Show
Ezra and Noah are elves
First Night
Ezra- "There's one shoe for me and one shoe for you, and there's one shoe tomorrow for both of us."
Noah- "Yeah! Let's make shoes!"
Second Night
Ezra- I'm glad we can make shoes for the people
Noah- me too
Third Night
Ezra- "They're really nice, but I think we're done working here."
Noah- "OK, let's go"

Elf Puppet Pattern



http://www.sisters4.com/images/stories/downloads/elffingerpuppetc.pdf

Stories
If I was a magic elf...
Noah- I would have a hat. I'll put on my hat, then I'll create magical pancakes. I would go on a magical horse to... will you come with me?.....I'll go visit my grandmas. I'll play at their houses. I'd give them magical presents like a dolphin. I would help people with my magic by writing my name.

Ezra- I would use the magic to stay alive. I would use the magic to help other people. I would help them by making stuff for them. I would make toys for the little ones and do the grown ups math for them. I'd do some jobs. If I was a real elf I'd be even smarter than right now.

Our Elf Factory





The kids made coloring books for their friends.