Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Moon

Preparation: Write "I see the moon" pages. Gather moon snacks. Prepare magic rice.

Number - 11: Eleven takes some time. Eleven is one ten and one one. This is why we write two 1's next to each other. I show them eleven little one blocks next to a 10 rod. They see how ten little blocks can fit on top of the rod. We trade them in and are left with the orange rod and a little white cube - 11! At least, this is what I present to them. I know quite a few grasped it too. One child even wrote a representation of it in her book. "I I I I I I I I I I I = 11"

Letter - M: moon, mitten, magnifying glass, monkey, milk, magnet, mountains
sign - moon
I brought back "magic rice" today. I have some mommy helpers and two trays, so I feel a bit more comfortable having a pound of rice being poured and passed around. Oh my! the difference it made! Everyone made an M in the rice. (It's magic because you can erase it away.) There were some extra humps and one W, but they were easily fixed, like magic! When it was time to write an M in their lesson books, they all did so with such confidence. Maybe the rice is magic in more than one way.

Circle Time - Moon: We looked at the globe, identified the name of our planet and named what we can see in the sky during the day and night. We talked about how the moon does not always look the same and the different shapes we see - full circle, half circle and crescent. One little one shared that when he saw a crescent moon, he could also see the rest of the moon that was not lit up. I read The Moon Seems to Change. I'll be honest. This book was slightly boring. It does have a fun experiment in it with an orange and a flashlight. Everyone enjoyed being the earth and spinning around with the "orange" moon, but the text did not hold their attention. However, Happy Birthday, Moon brought laughter, interaction and rapt attention, as always. After reading the stories we did the experiment to see how much light we could see on the moon as we spun around.

Snack - The children usually bring their own small snack, a juice box/water bottle, piece of fruit or granola bar. I always have organic apples for those who forget. Today I served the "phases of the moon" Rice cakes were the full moon. Half moons were orange slices. Bananas were our crescent moons.

Music and Movement - numbered movement: There was an ice, cold wind blowing, so we stayed inside. Numbered movements are actually easier inside. They are contained.
1 jump, 2 steps, 3 slides, 4 leaps, 5 tiptoes, 6 twirls, 7 crawls, 8 gallops, 9 skips, 10 runs, 11 breaths. From what I could see, with 9 little bodies bounding around and around, everyone can gallop and skip! They're all growing up!

Craft - "I see the moon" page: This is sweet and simple. They draw a picture of themselves looking at the moon. I write what phase the moon is in. This year the entire class drew full moons.


Play Time - element blocks: For mountain I brought our little cave/earth blocks. I have the set of large blocks and the giant rainbow arches. This was the first time I've brought them to class. Fun! First they made houses. One child brought a collection of little animals that were there perfect size to live within the blocks. Towards the end I started to create different sculptures with some of the boys. I wish I'd remembered my camera.

Enjoy some moon gazing this week!

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