Our exploration of space happened in a flash! Winter weather slowed down the culmination of our games investigation, yet the Kindergarten Moon Party was only a few weeks away. So, we started as we often do...by activating our brains and thinking about what we already know about space.
In order to plan in the most meaningful way for our upcoming week of investigations and discoveries, I asked the kids which areas of space they were most curious about.
We started with the moon. We found out new information using books, videos, and more.
Our crater experiment helped us better understand why the moon looks like it has holes.
Many concepts associated with space are fairly abstract for a six year old! Short video clips (such as this one depicting the moon's phases) helped make the concepts a bit more concrete for us all.
Art activities (especially those based off of real photographs) encourage the kids to notice and think about concepts in fresh and critical ways.
Another interest of several kids was the sun. Once again, videos and read alouds helped us learn more. I'm SO proud of how easily the kids can now remember and record what they've learned using pictures and words.
The planets were up next, so everybody got to pick one they wanted to investigate. The Pebble Go app was a great way to collect planet info, and the kids independently recorded the 3 most interesting facts they learned.
They once again used realistic pictures to paint the planets, and together we created...
our solar system. I especially loved seeing how the kids used this reference (which they had proudly created) as they continued to talk and write about space throughout our investigation.
Turning our classroom into space was on the forefront of many kids' minds, so one way to do that was by creating a window filled with stars...
Ahh...the alien interest. It seemed like some fiction writing about space would be a fun and appropriate way for the kids to write, draw, and talk more about their fascination with aliens.
Believe it or not, it was already time to delve into our space projects. Of course, we started with a bit of planning.
And then we got to work. Just another messy and meaningful Friday in Room 12!
Most projects were "complete." However, since we had a few more days until the moon party, I wanted to use the opportunity to push the kids' work to the next level. I borrowed a concept I've heard used in our lower school before called glows and grows. After some careful modeling, I sent the kids off with their projects and a partner to share glows (what they like about each other's projects) and grows (ideas for making them even better). I was amazed by how seriously the kids undertook this task and by how thrilled they were with new ideas from their friends. They recorded their favorite ideas on notecards, and the following day they...
got to work making improvements. It was SO much fun reflecting with each child about how proud they were of their project after making the changes, additions, and more.
Time for some invitations...
And in our final moments of preparation, the kids thought of even more ways to wow their parents by making our classroom look just like outer space.
I hadn't thought through the challenge of creating such large pictures (on butcher paper), but I was once again blown away by each child's creativity and by their enthusiasm for coloring in their WHOLE picture.
Projects were complete, documentation of our learning was posted around the room, art work was hung, and all of our songs and poems had been thoroughly practiced....
All we needed now was our parents. Thank you for coming out to celebrate your child and all of their hard work!
Mission complete.
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