"Weather All Around Us"- Sunshine

The start of our October Mother Goose Time curriculum was out on the field. The kids and I traveled to Illinois this week. Usually my mother in law takes care of my sister in law's kids but she was out of town this week. So we packed up and the kids got to spend some time with their cousins, Noelle and Grace. While we were there we also were visited by many family members that live in town. Here are a few pictures of the kids' visit with Grandpa and Grandma B. 

 Here Mason and Grandpa B were playing a very funny game. Grandpa B was pointing to different places Mason should put the numbers on the puzzle and Mason would show him the correct place to put it.

The exciting thing about being able to include Noelle in the Mother Goose Time fun is that she is going to start doing Mother Goose Time with my mother in law. So she got to have a glimpse of what she gets to look forward to. 

We started Day 1 talking about sunshine. It was a perfect day to talk about sunshine because it was very sunny out. We looked outside and talked about what it looks like when it is sunny. The kids said it is bright and the sky is blue. Then we sang "Sun, You Shine" to the tune of "Row Your Boat". It goes like this:

Sun, sun, sun, you shine

On me every day.

Thank you, thank you,

Thank you, thank you

Is what I want to say.

Whenever we put in new lyrics to familiar songs the kids always look at me very funny at first. Once they hear it a few times though they join in as best they can. 

The first activity we did was called Shining on Name. I started by asking the kids "How do you think the sun helps us see?" They said it is bright and sometimes it is not as bright when there are clouds. Then I asked them what else is bright. At first they were not too sure and then I took out a flashlight and they both yelled "A flashlight!" They then had some fun with their flashlights for a little while before we moved on. 

I set out their name tags on the table and let them choose which one they each wanted. I helped them each write their name on their name tag. For Hailey and Noelle I was mostly saying the letters of their name out loud to help them learn how to spell their name. With Mason I try to get him to attempt to write as many letters as possible in his name. 

Then I hid their name tags while they counted and they played flashlight hide and seek by finding their hidden name tags. They thought this was a fun game. I think they would like anything if they got to use the flashlights. 

The next activity we did was called What is Different? I asked them "Why don't we have sunshine every day?" We talked about how sometimes it is cloudy or rainy and it is hard to see the sun on those days. I set out the Theme Poster and Looking Glasses on the table. We talked about some of the things we saw on the poster. Mason pointed out that there are four different pictures on the poster. I asked him which one looked like what it looks like outside today. He kind of had a hard time because it feels like we are in between seasons right now. We determined that we are in fall because some of the leaves are starting to fall off our trees. 

Then each of the kids grabbed a Looking Glass and we searched for the matching picture. We also tried to identify which season each of the pictures were in. When we were done finding the matches we talked about if we thought it would be hot or cold in each part of the poster. We decided we were not ready for it to be cold yet. 

 Usually we do most of our Mother Goose Time in the morning but our schedule was a little crazy being out of town so our last activity I set up during the kids nap time. It was kind of a nice thing to do while they were eating their afternoon snack. Our last sunshine activity was called Night and Day. 

I asked the kids "Why can't we see the sun at night?" Mason said it is sleeping. We talked about how the sun is always shining but just on different parts of the Earth at different times of the day. We then determined that it was day right now and the sun was shining on us. We then looked at our world map and decided the water was blue on the map. The kids then colored their plates blue to represent the water. Then we decided the land is green. The kids ripped up green construction paper and glued it to the plate to show the land. 

 Then they used the stickers of birds, mountains, etc provided by Mother Goose Time and stuck them to different places on their Earth. Then I asked them if they lived on land or water. Mason said he lived in the water. Noelle decided she lived in the water too. I drew a little stick figure to represent each of them in the water. Then we attached our black semi circle with a brad. I showed them that when they are covered with the semi circle it is night. And when they can see them on the Earth it is day. They had fun spinning their black paper from night to day. 

It was a fun first day of "Weather All Around Us".  The kids loved playing with the flashlights and finding matches on the Theme Poster. My favorite part was the Night and Day project. I think it really helped them to understand where the sun goes when it is night out. I am looking forward to what the rest of this preschool curriculum holds.