Space and Our Solar System

Learning about space and our solar system was an awesome theme for this week’s summer camp!  We all enjoyed our new hanging solar system which we got to see glow in the dark!  I love how glow in the dark is so magical for the kids!

The kids really liked studying space books.  There are so many fascinating things in our solar system! 

We learned the number 5 this week so for one of our projects, we worked on those fine motor skills as they punched little holes in their number 5 and cause and effect.  They were all so careful as they followed the line of the 5 all the way around.  

They were so excited to hold their own project up to the window to see the little “stars” shining through!

We used our globe when we learned about the USA and then again this week to expand the children’s understanding of the Earth as a planet in the solar system. 

I love hands-on learning (kinesthetic learning)!  Each child got to have a turn to be something in the solar system as they learned that the planets all go around the sun.  

We even added the moon as it orbits around the Earth.  

As all the children are familiar with airplanes flying through the sky, we talked about how airplanes can take us anywhere on Earth.  Then we talked about how space shuttles blast straight up and out of the atmosphere to enter space.  They were all fascinated as we watched a recording of a real space shuttle launch!

Then they all made their very own space ship/rocket!  This was a great activity to work on name recognition and writing their name and discovering how many letters were in their name.

Many of them enjoyed blasting their rockets up into “space” and around our classroom!

In the 3-day/week class, we learned more about Earth and the children painted and made their own Earth to take home.

We had a terrific week learning all about space!  Summer camps are so much fun!  To reinforce what we’ve learned in the classroom, be sure to take some time with your child to point out the stars, moon, and planets in the night sky.  Summer is the best time for star parties to spur their imagination and love for learning!
As part of our daily routine, we have a few minutes to move and stretch to break up our time learning at the teaching rug.  We often sing movement songs during this time like “If You’re Happy and You Know It!”.  I’m so grateful to be able to teach such precious, happy kids each day!