Spacing Out

We just finished a unit on Outer Space-- this is probably one of my favorites so far this year. It's pretty easy to keep the attention of 3-year olds when you're talking about spaceships and aliens!

This post will be short and sweet. It's all about the resources, people!

We kicked off the week with our alphabet craft; this week it was the letter X, so we made a xylophone. The kids cut out a construction paper strip, then covered it with foil to add some interesting texture. Then they were responsible for ordering the colored bars from largest to smallest and gluing them in place. Last, they attached the xylophone stick, made from a popsicle stick and a pom-pom. 

We made a spaceship as well. The kids cut out the body of the ship, then they glued on the triangle base pieces and the top. They colored the flames and glued those on as well. They finished the ship by sticking some shiny star stickers on it.

Next we made planet Earth. The kids cut out the circle and glued it to their “space” paper. Before we started, I cut out some continent-like shapes and laminated them so we could reuse them for each child. The last step was for the kids to sponge-paint around the shapes to create the ocean and the continents on the paper.

Last, we made the moon. The kids painted on the easel and glued “craters” to the surface.

Another fun activity I found online was a printable mini-book. The kids used their imaginations and created their own planet, complete with their own drawings. They named it and included details about the planet's happenings. This was a terrific way to work in some emergent literacy. You can find the book here.

Monkey Business

To wrap up the Winter season and get ready for Spring we did a unit on Monkeys and Gorillas. It could also be considered a Zoo unit, but for Art I tried to focus on just monkeys and gorillas. It was a pretty fun week. We made a gorilla (the kids cut out the face, painted the head, then glued the face on top of the head, and used Q-tips to paint the nose and the furrowed brow); a puppet set to go along with the song “5 Little Monkeys” (the kids made an alligator puppet from a paper sack, then glued pre-printed monkey cutouts to popsicle sticks); and we also made a monkey and a jungle, both of which are pictured below.

To go along with the unit, my classroom centers included a zoo puzzle, a banana file folder game to practice counting, and my sensory table had a base of beans & noodles with some small plastic zoo animals and nets thrown in.

One of the best parts of the week was an afternoon language activity we did where the kids got to act out a story we read. They loved it so much we actually ended up doing it again later in the week with a different story. The first story we did was 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. This was a very easy activity, since the story is extremely simple and repetitive. First I read the story to the group, then I chose 5 kids to be monkeys, and the others got to be the doctors. The kids acted out the story as I read it aloud again. They had a blast getting to jump up and down and shake their fingers at each other (in a friendly way). The second story we did was a bit more challenging for the kids, as it was longer and had a lot more detail. We read and acted out Caps for Sale. While we definitely had fun, I would recommend doing this only with a small group of 3-year olds, or saving it for an older age.

Monkeys and Gorillas is a pretty open theme; there are endless opportunities for pretend play, and the art projects were all unique; but hands down, my favorite thing was watching the kids get so into the stories we read. Letting them play around and act like monkeys was fun, but seeing them comprehend and recall the story plot was very satisfying as a teacher. At 3, it's not always easy for kids to recall the details or sequence of a story, especially if it's something that doesn't interest them, so acting it out and letting them be loud and playful was a cool way to encourage their learning.

...Plus, I got to jump around and act like a monkey, too!

Where You Go, I Will Go

We live a somewhat uprooted life. At the moment, we are lucky enough to live at home in Tulsa, close to friends and family. But I have no illusions about Eric's job. Most likely, we will move at least once over the course of our lives together in order to accommodate his lifestyle. Moving across the country is not anything new to me; I just moved back “home” from Chicago, after all. But that was for school, and I always grew up knowing that I would live away from home in order to get a degree. Moving away from home as an adult for a job is a relatively new idea for me. I never imagined that I would live away from my parents and siblings; it was never something I desired.

But as we settle into Eric's job at ExpressJet, it's a reality that I'm not only accepting, but I'm growing more and more comfortable with. You see, living across the country from my family used to seem isolating and scary. But living across the country with Eric seems exciting and full of possibility. And as we have promised each other to spend as much of this life together as possible, moving has become an opportunity for our (upcoming) marriage to flourish.

To remind myself of these things, and to remind myself of what unconditional devotion means, I created and hung this piece of art on our wall, right next to where Eric's suitcase sits when he's home. I designed the text, then downloaded a free banner and printed the whole thing on cardstock. The backing is scrapbook paper, and I got the frame at a garage sale for $2.

Feel free to download the print as a pdf here and print it out from your computer!