Know I know My ABC’s ~ Mm is for Moon

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Summary: Goodnight Moon is a short poem of goodnight wishes from a young rabbit preparing for--or attempting to postpone--his own slumber. He says goodnight to every object in sight and within earshot, including the "quiet old lady whispering hush.
Letter Activities:

We practiced sorting objects. Those that had a “m” sound went on the black mat, all the others went on the white mat. When I first introduce a letter sound to my tot, I hold up the object and say the name, emphasizing the beginning sound. Then we decide together if it makes the “m” sound or not. After playing this game/reviewing the pictures and letter sounds over several days, then my child can sort some of the objects on her own.
Theme Activities:

Did your child notice that the moon “moves” during the book? If not, when reading point out the position of the moon in the window. Talk about how the moon in the book is a full white circle. We call that a full moon. This is a great opportunity to introduce your child to look at the moon each night and see if it looks the same as it did in the book.

Here’s a yummy phases of the moon craft using cookies and frosting.

I pulled out a picture of the moon from NASA. We talked about craters and the fact that the moon has bumps and isn’t just a big, white, smooth object in the sky.
Book Extensions:

Of course we had to eat mush. Well, ours was actually oatmeal, but we pretended it was mush.

Observe the clock-hands in the book. Did you notice they move?  (Took little bunny quite a long time to go to bed—lol!) I picked up this clock at the Target Dollar Spot. Of course I’m not expecting my tot to tell time. We used the clock to practice counting our numbers. I used sticky-tack and stuck both hands together. Then we used the hands like a spinner. My daughter had to tell me the number that the hand was pointing to.

I thought this clipping mittens activity  from Delightful Learning was a great idea. You need to check out Michelle’s post on all the other Goodnight Moon activities they did. For a small toddler’s book there are so many directions you can go with it!

 
Letter M handwriting practice and poem sheet

Other Mm Resources:
Letter Mm Post from Totally Tots
Goodnight Moon Printables from Homeschool Share
Other ABC Resources
ABC Printables from Homeschool Creations
Letter of the Week Curriculum from COAH
ABC Flashcards and More from 1+1+1=1
ABC Letter Crafts
Songs for Saplings ABC Verses

Once Upon A Book: I Want to Be an Astronaut

I Want to Be an Astronaut by Byron Barton

Book Summary: Blast-off! Up into the sky goes the space shuttle. Into orbit, the astronauts get a taste of ready-to-eat food, experience zero gravity, go for space walks, and even fix a satellite. It's fun to fly aboard the shuttle...and then come back to earth.

 

Bible Verse

Psalm 148:3--Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars.

 

For our space adventure, we started with the Astronaut Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations as the basis for our activities. Jonah loved the pre-writing skills practice. Once a struggle to get him to hold a marker and follow the lines, he did this activity over and over now that he's feeling confident with it.

 

Jonah also really enjoyed the shadow matching activity in the Astronaut Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations.

 

Math

I had some star cutouts left over from my teaching days that I numbered 1-10. Jonah used the 1-10 number line (from the Dollar Tree) to help him place the numbers in order. We also used these to count objects.

 

Countdown Practice

We practiced counting forward and backward. For the countdown from 10, we placed our hands together above our heads and pretended do be in a rocketship. We bent our knees as we counted down until we were in a squatting position. When we reached zero, we yelled "Blast off!" and shot our "rocket bodies" into the air.

Art

We made a simple shape rocket.

 

Music

We changed the words to "10 Little Indians" to "10 Little Stars"

 

1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Stars,

4 Little, 5 Little, 6 Little Stars,

7, Little, 8 Little, 9 Little Stars,

10 Little Stars in the Sky!

Review & Assessment

 

For a quick review we played a game of "Splat" on our magnetic erase board. To play "Splat", I gave Jonah a magnet to "Splat" the letters I asked him to find. Since we were reviewing A for Astronaut, I wrote several A's on the board and filled in the spaces with other letters. He then had to find all the A's and "Splat" them. Later, I changed the game depending on certain skills I wanted to review and assess--ABC order, letter sounds (I only wrote a few letters at a time), and even numbers. This game is so versatile!

 

 

A special shout-out to The Home Teacher for reminding me of this game I used to play in my kindergarten classroom!

 

Snack

Since astronauts eat their food in ready-made-packs, we had a Go-Gurt for snack and talked about our book.

Other Resources We Used

• A is for Astronaut  writing page from Spell Outloud
• Man on the Moon Unit from Musings of Me

 

 

 

Once Upon A Book: Curious George and the Rocket

 

Curious George and the Rocket

by H.A. Rey

Summary:  Off on yet another adventure, this curious little monkey finds himself up in space . . . and receives a medal for it!

Bible Verse

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;  to search out a matter is the glory of kings. (Proverbs 25:2)

Sometimes I don’t think that Curious George is a good little monkey, though his books say that he is.  I admit that I enjoy Curious George, but when we watch or read about this little monkey, the kids and I always discuss what George should have done.  God enables us to be curious to seek Him out. Encourage your child’s curiosity but also teach them how to use it properly by asking you questions, going to the library with a trusted adult, and “safely” experimenting.  George often ends up being rewarded for his foolishness . . . however, it is always important to honor and obey your parents.

Crafts

Constellation Crayon Resist

Supplies:

• white paper
• white crayon
• black paint (I thinned the paint out with a little bit of water.)
• paint brush
• two paper plates
• stapler, glue, or tape

Directions:

• draw dots or stars on a white sheet of paper using a white crayon

 

• On a protected surface, have your Tot cover the white paper with the black paint.

• While the paint is drying, cut a hole in ONE paper plate – pretending it is the rocket window Curious George looked out of.

 

• Place the painted paper between the two paper plates, making sure the black side of the paper faces the window.  You will need to cut off the extra black paper so that it fits just inside the paper plates.  Staple shut.

• Ask your Tot what he/she sees out of his rocket window and mention that this was probably similar to Curious George’s view.  You can even use this printable or pictures from this Tot Book so that Curious George can peak out of the window of the space shuttle. 

Constellation Can

 

Supplies:

• clean and empty aluminum can
• nail
• hammer
• flashlight
• dark room

Directions:

• Beforehand, carefully poke holes into the bottom of an aluminum can, in the shape of a constellation (if possible).  I made a heart.

• Pointing the can towards the ceiling, allow your child to shine a flashlight through the open portion of the can when standing in a dark room.
• Light should poke through the holes and create a constellation on the walls or ceiling.

Constellation Drop

(Your Tot could even sort the stars, if you use ones like the above.)

Supplies:

• small pebbles, buttons, beads, M&M’s, or other small object
• stickers (preferably stars)
• white crayon
• black paper

Directions:

• Allow your child to drop a small amount of beads one-by-one onto a black sheet of paper.

• After each bead is dropped, replace it with a star sticker.

 

• Once finished, connect the stars to form a constellation!

 

See how Maureen completed this activity! 

Numbers:  Counting Backwards

Supplies:

• monkey or rocket

Directions:

• Tell your child that you are going to send your monkey or rocket to the moon.
• Just as the book counts, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . . “ so will you!
• Instruct your child that when you say, “Blast Off!” that they are to send their monkey to the moon.

A special shout out of thanks goes to Maureen from Spell Out Loud who helped me with this post due to the “Star Toddler” being under the weather for most of this month!  And a special thanks to the big brothers for filling in.  (They were pretty delighted that they could help you and your Tot!  Please write them a note if you have a chance!)

Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage!

Mommy Made Printables ~ Outer Space

We are excited to share some Outer Space printables for you to use with your tots as you explore together!

Astronaut Preschool Pack {from Homeschool Creations}

 Solar System Preschool {& beyond} Pack{from 1+1+1=1}

A is for Astronaut{from Spell Outloud}

The Planets Song {from Spell Outloud}

Outer Space Printables {from Printables Share}

 

Man on the Moon {from Musings of Me}

 

Do you have any Outer Space printables YOU have created {and share}? If so, leave a link to your blog post in the comments below!

Once Upon a Book ~ Space Boy

Space Boy by Leo Landry

Summary: This is a cute little story about a boy who can’t go to sleep because of the noise in his house. So he gets in his rocket and takes off for the moon to get away from the sounds of the barking dog, the crying baby, etc. Nicholas enjoys being on the moon…until he realizes that he misses home.

Bible Verse

Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars. Psalm 148:3

Math

The boys used links and the number cards from the super cute Man on the Moon Space Unit from Musings of Me. I punched one hole in each of the cards and the boys attached the appropriate number of links to each card.

Language

We practiced our ABC’s with the Space Jumble from the Space Unit from Musings of Me. I used some magnetic letters and a cookie sheet and the boys matched up the letters by placing the magnetic letter over the corresponding letter on the Space Jumble page.

Matching

We did a little matching using the Space Shape Shadow cards from the Astronaut Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations.

Colors

The boys LOVED playing the Astronauts to Earth game. We used our Education Cube along with the “Spaceship Colors” insert cards. Roll the cube, mark off the appropriate color cloud and help each astronaut get back to Earth!

Pattern Blocks & Cuisinaire Rods

Blocks of any sort are always a hit with my boys. They enjoyed using the pattern blocks (along with the pattern cards) and Cuisenaire rods (along with the Cuisenaire Rod Alphabet book) to duplicate the rocket patterns.

Magnetic Page

They used our homemade puff balls magnets on the A is for Astronaut Magnetic Page from Making Learning Fun.

Motor Skills

What little boys (or men…for that matter) don’t love to use tools? Mine certainly do, which is why they LOVED using their Design & Drill set. They duplicated the spaceship pattern included in the Design & Drill Activity Center set.

Games

The boys took turns using our Education Cube along with the Race to Space game from the Space Unit from Musings of Me to move back and forth along the game board trying to be the first into space!

They boys also built their own rocket by playing the Roll a Rocket game, also from the Space Unit from Musings of Me.

Snack

The boys had a blast making their own space rocket to eat! We used a few square crackers and cut some cheese into triangles and voila…an edible spaceship!

Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage!