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Welcome back to Latticed Learning! This year, we're continuing to learn while we play - repeating many of our favorites from the past while adding in all sorts of new activities as well.
This day's post is devoted to our weekly themes - some weeks have more activities than others, but each lesson will be fun for you to explore with your little one!
Read All About It
Out of all the space-themed books I have, only a few were appropriate for a preschooler. Here they are:
The Solar System - This book is so visually appealing, I could look at it for hours. Gv loved it, too - despite the fact that the facts were way above her head.
Planets and the Solar System - This is an ancient book I had in my classroom that had been passed down by another teacher when she retired. No photo or link, but we read it.
The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System - This well-worn book from my classroom was always a huge hit with my students and is already a huge hit with Gv, too - especially since we watched the video that goes with it.
The Solar System - This book is so visually appealing, I could look at it for hours. Gv loved it, too - despite the fact that the facts were way above her head.
Planets and the Solar System - This is an ancient book I had in my classroom that had been passed down by another teacher when she retired. No photo or link, but we read it.
The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System - This well-worn book from my classroom was always a huge hit with my students and is already a huge hit with Gv, too - especially since we watched the video that goes with it.
Sing Some Songs
An Adventure in Space from this album was easily Gv's favorite - the song takes kids along for a space flight, where they can blast off in the rocket and then float around before landing again back on Earth. Gv asked me to "play it again!" every time.
Interplanet Janet from the album set I shared here was another fun favorite (along with its matching video).
We listened to Holst's The Planets pretty much constantly.
We listened to this an awful lot, too.
It was another Magic School Bus-heavy week, mainly the episodes Gets Lost in Space, Out of This World, Sees Stars, and Gains Weight.
We did several things to correspond to our space topic this week:
Interplanet Janet from the album set I shared here was another fun favorite (along with its matching video).
We listened to Holst's The Planets pretty much constantly.
We listened to this an awful lot, too.
Watch Some Videos
Play and Create
We did several things to correspond to our space topic this week:
Gv painted glue all over a sheet of black construction paper,
then sprinkled glitter all over to make the night sky.
She had to add some flair with glitter glue pens, as well!
along with a juice glass (to cut out planets) on some cookie dough, then decorate them for the solar system.
But then we didn't eat up our last dessert fast enough, so I opted to just make this cracker recipe and then cut them into stars.
I poured Gv's morning yogurt (thinned with a little vanilla) into a plastic bag one morning and let her slurp it up through a straw, just like an astronaut:
I printed out these colorful flash cards. Gv had fun just cutting them out and sticking them in one of her plastic photo albums from the dollar store.
We also liked this free printable showing the relative sizes of the planets. She cut it out (I just printed page 5) and taped it to the wall.
This pack has lots of cute activities. We just printed page 17, which Gv was able to do herself.
We actually took turns making the marks, but she still pointed out which ones I needed to mark for her
I'd never had Gv try a maze, so I let her choose one to print from this ("The rocket! The rocket!") and then I used the pen to follow her finger as she went through the maze. (For some reason, this week she kept wanting me to do all the writing and coloring!)
I printed this, colored it (because she wanted to watch me do it), then had Gv tape all the planets to the wall, in order.
These planets really got around during the week - she'd stick one on my back (I kept getting Mars), one on G's, and one on herself so we could be those planets for the evening.
She also stuck them all around the computer monitor, so like I said, they really got around.
Gv stuck little stickers on the white dots on this printable of Earth. (I went to take a photo of it when she'd finished, but it had disappeared! I'm 99.9% sure it's under one of the couches right now, but I'm also 99.9% too lazy to go fish it out, so just imagine an Earth with stickers all over it.)
I printed this constellation sheet, then Gv cut out the squares and used a pen to punch out holes for each of the stars (She really enjoyed that part).
Just stick a folded-up towel under the paper so that the punching will work.
We taped them each over a flashlight to shine the constellations on the hall wall.
We ran out of time during the week, but I'd also had the idea to punch holes out of black construction paper in the shape of a constellation, then hang it in the window for the light to shine through.
I printed page 65 of this pack and Gv used a glitter glue pen to trace the path.
And I felt we'd reached our limit for the week, but I loved all the colorful graphics in this free pack.
Looking for all the great posts associated with this concept in one place? Check out my Latticed Learning page here!
What's your favorite thing that we did this week? I'd love to hear! Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.
Also, if you don't want to miss a single minute of great tips like this and all the fun around here, be sure to sign up for free updates and then look forward to having each post delivered straight to your inbox!
Linked up with: Favorite Things, Over the Moon, Share the Wealth Sunday, Dishing it & Digging it, What's for Dinner?, Family Joy Blog Link-Up, Literacy Musings Monday, Practical Mondays, Homeschool Nook Link Up, Happiness is Homemade, Merry Monday, Motivation Monday, What'd You Do This Weekend, Meet Up Monday, Totally Terrific Tuesday, Together on Tuesdays, Show Me Yours Linky, Tasty Tuesdays, Little Learning Link Up, Two Uses Tuesday, Hip Homeschool Hop, Lou Lou Girls Fabulous Party Tuesday Talk, Wonderful Wednesday, A Little Bird Told Me, Everything Early Childhood, Creative Muster, Party in Your PJs,What to Read,I Am Pinnable, Christian Bloggers Link Up, This Is How We Roll, Creative Ways, Hearts for Home, Creative Exchange, 100 Happy Days, Try It Like It, No Rules Weekend Blog Party, Tune in Thursdays, Booknificent Thursdays, Thursday Favorite Things, I'm Lovin' It, Inspiration Spotlight, Home Matters, Pretty Pintastic Party, Weekend Potluck, Awesome Life Friday, Creative Collection, The Beautifully Creative Inspired , Bloggers Pit Stop, Weekend Traffic Jam, Pin Me Party, From the Archives, Family Fun Friday, Friday Frivolity, Bloggers Spotlight, Make My Saturday Sweet, Weekend Wind-Down Party,Friday Features Linky, Funtastic Friday , Best of the Weekend, Sweet Inspiration Link Party, Small Victories Sunday, You're Invited, Love to Learn Tuesdays
Gv painted glue all over a sheet of black construction paper,
then sprinkled glitter all over to make the night sky.
 |
| She had to add some flair with glitter glue pens, as well! |
along with a juice glass (to cut out planets) on some cookie dough, then decorate them for the solar system.
But then we didn't eat up our last dessert fast enough, so I opted to just make this cracker recipe and then cut them into stars.
I poured Gv's morning yogurt (thinned with a little vanilla) into a plastic bag one morning and let her slurp it up through a straw, just like an astronaut:
I printed out these colorful flash cards. Gv had fun just cutting them out and sticking them in one of her plastic photo albums from the dollar store.
We also liked this free printable showing the relative sizes of the planets. She cut it out (I just printed page 5) and taped it to the wall.
This pack has lots of cute activities. We just printed page 17, which Gv was able to do herself.
 |
| We actually took turns making the marks, but she still pointed out which ones I needed to mark for her |
I'd never had Gv try a maze, so I let her choose one to print from this ("The rocket! The rocket!") and then I used the pen to follow her finger as she went through the maze. (For some reason, this week she kept wanting me to do all the writing and coloring!)
I printed this, colored it (because she wanted to watch me do it), then had Gv tape all the planets to the wall, in order.
These planets really got around during the week - she'd stick one on my back (I kept getting Mars), one on G's, and one on herself so we could be those planets for the evening.
She also stuck them all around the computer monitor, so like I said, they really got around.
Gv stuck little stickers on the white dots on this printable of Earth. (I went to take a photo of it when she'd finished, but it had disappeared! I'm 99.9% sure it's under one of the couches right now, but I'm also 99.9% too lazy to go fish it out, so just imagine an Earth with stickers all over it.)
I printed this constellation sheet, then Gv cut out the squares and used a pen to punch out holes for each of the stars (She really enjoyed that part).
 |
| Just stick a folded-up towel under the paper so that the punching will work. |
We taped them each over a flashlight to shine the constellations on the hall wall.
We ran out of time during the week, but I'd also had the idea to punch holes out of black construction paper in the shape of a constellation, then hang it in the window for the light to shine through.
I printed page 65 of this pack and Gv used a glitter glue pen to trace the path.
And I felt we'd reached our limit for the week, but I loved all the colorful graphics in this free pack.
Looking for all the great posts associated with this concept in one place? Check out my Latticed Learning page here!
What's your favorite thing that we did this week? I'd love to hear! Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.
Also, if you don't want to miss a single minute of great tips like this and all the fun around here, be sure to sign up for free updates and then look forward to having each post delivered straight to your inbox!
Linked up with: Favorite Things, Over the Moon, Share the Wealth Sunday, Dishing it & Digging it, What's for Dinner?, Family Joy Blog Link-Up, Literacy Musings Monday, Practical Mondays, Homeschool Nook Link Up, Happiness is Homemade, Merry Monday, Motivation Monday, What'd You Do This Weekend, Meet Up Monday, Totally Terrific Tuesday, Together on Tuesdays, Show Me Yours Linky, Tasty Tuesdays, Little Learning Link Up, Two Uses Tuesday, Hip Homeschool Hop, Lou Lou Girls Fabulous Party Tuesday Talk, Wonderful Wednesday, A Little Bird Told Me, Everything Early Childhood, Creative Muster, Party in Your PJs,What to Read,I Am Pinnable, Christian Bloggers Link Up, This Is How We Roll, Creative Ways, Hearts for Home, Creative Exchange, 100 Happy Days, Try It Like It, No Rules Weekend Blog Party, Tune in Thursdays, Booknificent Thursdays, Thursday Favorite Things, I'm Lovin' It, Inspiration Spotlight, Home Matters, Pretty Pintastic Party, Weekend Potluck, Awesome Life Friday, Creative Collection, The Beautifully Creative Inspired , Bloggers Pit Stop, Weekend Traffic Jam, Pin Me Party, From the Archives, Family Fun Friday, Friday Frivolity, Bloggers Spotlight, Make My Saturday Sweet, Weekend Wind-Down Party,Friday Features Linky, Funtastic Friday , Best of the Weekend, Sweet Inspiration Link Party, Small Victories Sunday, You're Invited, Love to Learn Tuesdays