A year or so ago I purchased a felt board to use at home with my son. We have gotten sporadic use out of it but I am hoping to use it more frequently. In anticipation of this I have cut out some felt pieces from cheap craft felt (I got 5 sheets for $1).
Our first new activity is the ice cream shop. We line up all of the cones that were cut out of tan felt along the middle of the board and then I sing "I scream, you scream, we all scream for _____ ice cream." The blank is filled in with a color that I have a corresponding "ice cream" cutout for.
The few times that we have played this my son has had fun searching for the color ice cream that I want. Sometimes he will make the ice cream one scoop but sometimes I am extra hungry and want a double scoop!
I have included the shapes that I used for your personal use. Please feel free to download and print them out.
Today is Neil Armstrong's birthday so I thought it would be great to share some activities with your kids about the moon. It is hard for young kids today to understand the excitement of the first man to walk on the moon so maybe a history lesson should be where we start.
Important Facts:
In 1966, aboard Gemini 8, Neil Armstrong became the first man to perform the first manned docking of two spacecrafts with pilot David Scott.
Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission on July 20, 1969. On this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent 2.5 hours exploring while Michael Collins remained in orbit in the Command Module. Armstrong is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
His quote as soon as his left boot touched the moon's surface "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" is one of the most famous quotes of all time.
450 million people around the world heard that quote as it was aired live from space.
15 minutes after Armstrong stepped onto the moon's surface, Buzz Aldrin joined him.
While preparing for liftoff from the moon's surface, they discovered that in their bulky spacesuits they had accidentally broken the ignition switch for the ascent engine. They proceeded to use part of a pen to fire the engine. Neil Armstrong still has that pen on display.
The footprints that were left on the moon during that first space walk in 1969 are still on the surface of the moon. This is possible because there is no wind or rain on the surface of the moon so footprints last there forever.
The set up for craters
The craters
For some activities we did a few different things. First we discovered how craters are formed. This idea comes from Universe Today. We put a small layer of flour in the bottom of a cake pan and then covered it with cocoa. We were then supposed to drop marbles on the surface to act as space rocks but since we had no marbles we used out bear sorters/counters. Be forewarned, this is messy when things drop in the flour/cocoa but my son had a lot of fun doing it.
Top view of star ball
Side view of star ball
The next thing we did was make Star Balls. We took card stock and cut out 7 identical circles. We then took 6 of the circles and folded them in half and cut a slit horizontally to the fold that extended about halfway through the semi circle. Take the one remaining circle and fit it into the slits of the other six circles.
A game to play is called "Man in the Moon". All but one child stands in a line on one side of the yard. The one single person is the Man in the Moon. He chants:
"I am the Man in the Moon.
I will catch you soon,
If you are (name a clothing color or the first letter of a name)."
Once the chant is said everyone that fits the description tries to run to the other end of the yard. If they are caught they must then assist the Man in tagging the other players. You continue the game until everyone has been tagged.
For dinner, we made Moon Crater Pizzas. I took English muffins and sliced them in half.
We then talked about how the English muffins look like the craters we made earlier. Once that discussion was over, we spread some pizza sauce on the English muffins and covered that with pepperonis.
I had taken some time earlier to cut some of the pepperoni into halves (for the half moon), the rest were left whole to represent the full moon. Next we sprinkled on the cheese and baked it.
Hope you had fun celebrating Neil Armstrong's birthday with us.
Another Tuesday means another letter. This week we will be learning about the letter H. Feel free to download and print out the document below to do your crafts and writing practice with.
Words that start with the letter H:
Hand, Hat, Heart, House, Happy, Hose, Horse, Halloween, Hive, Hanukkah, Hurricane, Hair, Hugs and How
For our projects this time we used Hand prints and we made a hand print mask to play with. I traced both of my son's hands and cut them out. We then taped the hands together and decorated them with markers. I then cut out two eye holes (one in each palm) for him to look through. The only thing left was to make a handle to hold the mask. I took an 8.5x11 sheet of card stock and starting at a bottom corner, rolled it very small and tight. Once I got the the top corner, I taped it down to hold the roll tight and then taped the roll to the back of the hand print mask. It makes a very sturdy handle.
We also pulled out lots of hats and tried them on and discussed how some people have to wear different hats for their jobs, like firemen, police, construction workers, miners, baseball players, cyclists and football players. We then proceeded to make a newspaper hat which he enjoyed tremendously. All week-end he kept sitting papers on his head! He enjoyed trying on all of our hats in the house. His favorite was the bike helmet, he even tried to eat dinner in it but we have a no hats at the dinner table rule in our house.
For the actual letter H crafts, we made a hat. We colored the H with markers and then turned it sideways and set it upon the head we had made from construction paper. It is quite a colorful hat and I kept thinking of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat".
We also made a multi colored House with our H. Once he colored in the house, we glued on the roof and door that I had cut out previously from construction paper. I was planning on drawing the door on but he colored a lot and was enjoying himself so I just cut them out in order to see what the picture was going to be.
You can print out the letter H and put it in a clear sheet protector/report cover or laminate it and give the child a dry erase marker to practice writing the letter H.
You can write the letter H on a chalkboard and give the kid a small amount of water with a paint brush. They can dip the brush in the water and use it to erase/trace your letter.
Find the letter H. Give a child a marker and an old magazine or newspaper. Ask them to go through a few pages and circle the letter H.
Lacing Cards - Print out the letter H and laminate it. Punch a hole every inch or so and let the child lace yarn or a shoestring.
Paint Bag - Squirt some tempura paint of shaving cream in a zipper style bag. Seal the bag, squeezing out as much air as possible. For safety and cleanliness sake, tape the bag closed also. Now put the bag on the desk and allow the child to trace the H.
All crafts that are easy to save, please hold onto those and put them all in a Alphabet Binder for the child. To make the binders I will put the pictures in sheet protectors and then put them in a 3 ring binder.
We made cookies for the letter H. They were Happy Face Cookies. We just baked sugar cookies and drew happy faces on the tops of them but they were consumed so quickly that I forgot to take a picture.
Well if your child has not started back to school yet, the time is quickly approaching. I did some searching for fun Back to School party ideas. I remember when I was little, my Mom would make a huge deal about the first day of school. She always took our picture and kept a school album for each of us with our back to school pictures along with our report cards. When we got home from school she would always always have a favorite snack ready for us.
Here are some websites to look at to bring some fun to back to school.
Amazing Moms has some great ideas for a party prior to the first day of school. Kind of a way to get the kids excited about the inevitable time that they will return to class. I love the real apple invitations that they suggest.
As usual, Family Fun magazine never fails to come through with fun ideas. I love the thought of the Bus Stop Bagel Bash!
I really want the teacher that wrote the information for Back to School Kinder Themes to be my child's teacher. She has some great ideas about keeping track of all the new students that teachers get each year.
