Mathematics
We read a book titled, "I Want To Be An Astronaut" by Byron Barton. Then we asked the children a question: Do you want to be an astronaut? After thinking about the question, we decided to take a vote. When the voting was done, the children started to count the names that voted yes or no. They counted and found that 5 friends wanted to be astronauts, while the other 4 friends did not. This was a great way to practice using the children's one to one correspondence skill to count objects and for them to figure out which option had more votes by recognizing the numbers/amount.
Science
As we started to learn more about outer space, the 3A educators found out that the children were interested how spaceships could fly out to space. We decided to demonstrate it through a science experiment. We first made sure that all of the materials were present. The materials were a balloon(spaceship drawn), a long string, a straw, and tape. First we put the string through the straw, so that the straw could move freely along the string. Second, we taped one end of the string to a wall and held it from the other end. Third, Clare blew the balloon up and held it tight without tying it up. Then she taped the balloon/spaceship to the straw. Finally, we counted down; 5-4-3-2-1! Blast off! And we let the ballon go! We saw the spaceship blasting off from one end of the string to the other! Through this activity, the children learned to follow steps to complete an experiment!
The Life of Astronauts
The children are still interested in experiencing the life of astronauts! We learned that in space, everything floats around - even the astronauts - because there is no gravity. So when the astronauts go to sleep, they have to go inside of their sleeping bags, zip up, and buckle in their belts to make sure they do not float around the spaceship while they are sleeping. The children got to experience what that felt like. When the educators asked how the children felt inside their sleeping bags with a belt buckled up, they said, "Good"!
