Our Spaceship

Dear Parents,

This week we worked on our spaceship. We saw a spaceship in one of our books and painted ours white too. The children worked in groups using rollers. Someone said, “It has to be all white!”

We worked on our helmets and oxygen tanks. We painted them white also, like the ones we saw in our books. Everyone tried on their helmets twice before we painted them. The helmets produced many smiles. We tried on our oxygen tanks to figure out how to fit them.

We played in our spaceship in the big room. 

We searched in our books to find a picture of a control panel. We found one in our airplane book. While half the class was tumbling with Larisa, the rest of us worked on our control panels for the spaceship. We glued buttons of paper, foam, cardboard, and card stock. The buttons are every color of the rainbow, and gold. 

After affixing the control panels into the spaceship, most children immediately climbed aboard and started pushing buttons. 

On Friday everyone made flags to leave on the moon during our Blast Off. Two children asked if we were really going to the moon. Others responded that it was just pretend. We talked about using our imaginations, and that our spaceship is only made of cardboard. Then we went into the big room to read our book Roaring Rockets and act out the story.

We’ve been reading: I’ll Catch The Moon, Planet Earth, Night Sky, Planets, Wheels, Not A Box, A Trip To Mars, I Want To Be An Astronaut, and Luigi’s All Night Parking Lot. 

Reminder parents are invited to our Blast Off! on Thursday February 12@9:30am.

It was a busy, busy week,

Therese

The Planets

Dear Parents, 

On Tuesday we began working on the first four planets closest to our sun. We used balloons and papier-mâché. The children worked in small groups to dip and stick strips of newspaper to each balloon. Everyone worked patiently to thoroughly cover the balloons. 

The next day, while half the class was tumbling in the big room, the rest of us added another layer of newspaper to our planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. We also added color using tissue paper. 

The children reported that in tumbling they had acted like robots. We read in one of our space books that we send robots to study other planets. Everyone walked like a robot to the big room to play. 

During circle, we jumped up on the count of three, leaving Earth all together, if only for a split second. We also read: The Planets, Earth, and A Is For Astronaut.

We made Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune in a day. We used pipe cleaners, styrofoam balls, wooden sticks, bubble wrap, brown paper, and duct tape. We still need to make Saturn, Pluto, and the sun!

We went to the bagel shop — twice. They accidentally double-booked, so when we arrived, there was another class just beginning their turn. We went back to school to play in the big room for fifteen minutes. When we returned, we learned that the temperature for bagels is 500 degrees, the baker arrives at 3am, plain is one of the most popular bagels, and they boil, and then bake the bagels. We noticed some simple machines inside the oven as its wheels turned. 

Next week we begin building our space ship for our trip to the moon. 

On Thursday, February 12th @9:30am, parents are invited to watch our Blast Off! 

It will take about 15 minutes. Other than that, it will be a regular day.

Have an earthly weekend,

Therese