Dear Parents,
We painted our spaceship white. The children worked in groups of four with paint rollers. They were excited to paint the ship. We also painted our space helmets white, and our oxygen tanks too.
We read A Trip To Mars and Life on Mars. One book was fiction about a little girl who goes to Mars with her kitty while the other was a non-fiction book about real robots going to Mars. We talked about the differences. The class knew a child could not really go to Mars alone, with just her kitty.
When we read I Want To Be An Astronaut, the class noticed that the spaceship in the book was white like ours, and had an American flag on it.
We had a practice Blast Off! to make sure ground control and the astronauts knew what to do during the Blast Off! We had to rearrange a couple of details. One astronaut kept getting out of the ship before we landed; ground control asked him to wait for the other astronauts, or sit to the side. He decided to reboard the spacecraft.
We brainstormed names for our spaceship, and then voted. The choices were Director Spaceship Fire, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Elephant X-Wing, Strawberry House, Sun Romano Sino, and Trumpet of the Sun. We will add the name to our ship next week.
In the classroom we have been working in large groups to assemble our outer space puzzle, an animal puzzle, and to connect our train set. We have been playing with our Earth animals on the carpet, while at the table using magnet boards to create words with letters.
We have finally been spending more time outside as the kitchen construction is drawing to an end, and the sun is shining. One day in the yard almost the entire class spontaneously started a game of Duck, Duck, Goose. It was so much fun to witness the cooperation, turn taking, and listening skills exhibited in this display of fun.
Reminder: parents are invited to our Blast Off! Thursday February 15 @9:30am.
Your children are piles of joy!
Therese