G is for Galaxy!

Sweet E has been obsessed with one particular episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse called "Goofy on Mars." So we decided to do a G is for Galaxy theme this week! Click on the links below to take a look back at similar themes, or keep scrolling to see what we did this week:

O is for Outer Space - 2015

G is for Garden - 2015

The Moon - 2014

Earth Day - 2014

The Letter G - 2012

Books

We borrowed four toddler-friendly books from the library this week, and included one from our own collection about rockets. The text is simplistic in each of these, and the pictures are bold and bright. She always loved pointing out the red planet where Goofy went! 😂 

Stickers

I found this sticker sheet at the Dollar Tree, and just set her up with a sheet of black construction paper while I was busy in the kitchen one day.

She enjoyed placing the stickers, and we ended up using her creation in another activity later on!

I cut it down to fit around a small coffee can, and taped it on.

Outer Space Sensory Bin

I provided Sweet E with a bucket of dried black beans and colorful star beads, as well as our coffee can, some scoopers, tongs and a pipe cleaner.

Isn't that pretty? I love when sensory bins are also visually stimulating. (Hello, rainbow spaghetti, I'm looking at you!)

Sweet E began scooping beans and stars into the coffee tin!

She also explored with her hands.

And gave the tongs a try.

She filled the coffee can all the way to the top, and then poured it back into the bucket!

Threading Star Beads

Later, I suggested she try threading the stars onto the pipe cleaner.

She loves doing this, and asked me to make it into a bracelet when she was done.

Letter Recognition

I wrote a large G on a sheet of paper, and for her letter recognition activity we just placed lots of black beans and stars along it! Super simple!

Alphabet Review - Sticky Wall

For this activity, I wrote the letters we have covered so far onto paper stars.

And then I asked her to match them to the ones I had written on black paper, and hung to her wall behind contact paper. She remembered most of their names, and can already identify the G as well!

She completed them all!

Rocket Scavenger Hunt + Color Review

I knew I needed to include Sweet E's rocket in our theme this week. And if someone is flying inside, it has to be Goof! First I cut out some circles from construction paper, and then I hid them around the house.

Sweet E had to take the rocket and fly around looking for all eight planets! First she came upon the brown one. She'd identify the color, and Goofy would come out and explore.

Then she would make a mark beside whichever planet we found!

Off to the next planet! 3...2...1...blast off!

And she continued this way until we found all eight.

Super fun game. 😊

Smashing Moon Rocks

In addition to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, one of Sweet E's favorite things right now is her toy hammer! Most of the time she's pretending to fix toys, and just hammering random things around the house. And sometimes between themes I offer her some Styrofoam and golf tees, as a quick activity. Today I did something I've seen on Pinterest via Pre-K Pages, where you smash hardened cotton balls! First you dip them into a flour and water mixture, tinted gray. Then you bake them in the oven for 45 minutes. So this took a little bit of prep in advance!

Moon rocks!

She was excited for this activity! She tried crushing them with her toy hammer, and sometimes with her hands too.

They'd smoosh down, and crack open very satisfyingly.

They were a bit too hard for her toy hammer, so I let her borrow Daddy's!

Which was very effective!

She completed the whole tray, and asked for more. So I prepared a second tray with the remaining flour/water mixture, but this time kept it in the oven for half the time, to see if they'd be easier to smash. While it was in the oven we played with Frozen toys and clothes, so here is Elsa beginning to work on tray #2!

Easier to crush, for sure!

She switched off between her hammer and Daddy's. Both were just as fun!

Puffy Paint Earth

I didn't want to finish our galaxy week without doing a planet Earth craft! So we took an idea from No Time for Flashcards, and made one with shaving cream paint!

It was so thick and puffy!

And it dried nicely. Super cute!

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G is for Garden!

Garden Books

These are the books we borrowed from the library this week. Our favorites were The Curious Garden, Planting a Rainbow and Bumblebee, Bumblebee, Do You Know Me. We read these often throughout the week, including Wiggle and Waggle which is actually a cute little chapter book!

Letter G Do-a-Dot

We like to begin our week with an introduction to the letter, using these dot pages from Shannon's Tot School. I gave Little M&M the choice of using stampers or magnetic pom poms. He chose a flower stamper today, with dot markers!

Letter G - Maze

Honey Pot loves mazes! She used this page from the Education website to follow both uppercase and lowercase G's.

Parts of a Flower

We learned the parts of a flower with the help of this puzzle from Homeschool Creations. Little M&M learned the names, and completed the picture.

Then I provided Honey Pot with the picture and word pieces.

She assembled the puzzle while naming each of the parts!

Tracing Lines

These printables also come from Homeschool Creations. I gave one each to Little M&M and Honey Pot.

Playdoh Fun

I pulled out our favorite playdoh tools, as well as two flower cookie cutters.

The kids started off by making cutouts...

even including a pipe cleaner stem!

Then they had some free play, making cupcakes, and using their scissors.

Looks delicious!

Garden Patterns

We brought out our trusty supply of paper cutouts, from my old scrapbooking stash. And we worked on color review and patterns. This was for Little M&M while big sister was at morning preschool.

Counting Flowers and Number Recognition

We worked on numbers 1-5 by counting flowers. He is a master at one-to-one correspondence, and is really starting to recognize all of these numbers.

A-Z Review - Flower Petals

I pulled out our fridge phonics and drew a picture of a flower to help Little M&M review the letters he's learned so far.

He would pick up a letter magnet, tell me what it was and then place it onto the matching flower petal.

A great little review!

Flower Color by Number - Hundreds Chart

This was an ambitious worksheet for Honey Pot, but she persevered! It comes from Lil Country Librarian. Great activity to work on recognizing those larger numbers.

Cupcake Liner Garden Craft

This was a fun craft! First the kids put their scissor skills to good use by creating the grass.

They chose their favorite cupcake liners from my baking supplies, and cut around the edges to make petals. Then they glued on some stems and flowers.

We also added circle cutouts and mini cupcake liners to the center of each flower.

Here is Little M&M drawing on some pollen and nectar. (Our many discussions on flowers this week spurred conversations about bees and what they do for flowers. Though I is for Insects week is coming up soon too!)

Here is his finished garden:

And this is Honey Pot's garden. She had the clever idea to use two heart cutouts to create a butterfly, and together we created the idea to use an oval cutout as a bee. She also drew on pollen, raindrops, a bird, a beehive, an ant and a worm. AWESOME.

Planting a Garden - Fine Motor and Color Matching

I found this fun idea from a website called Your Therapy Source. The evening before the activity I cut and glued straws onto a piece of cardboard, then threaded pipe cleaners onto flower cutouts.

Here is Little M&M planting his flowers.

Then Honey Pot gave it a try.

Beautiful!

Counting Seeds

I pulled out some beans from our sensory materials and used them as seeds for the kids to plant into these (cupcake mold) pots. We used these for a fun activity for Earth Day last year, remember?

First Honey Pot worked on some numbers in the teens:

Then Little M&M reviewed his small numbers again:

Once he finished though, he felt compelled to fill the pots up with as many seeds as would fit!

And pouring skills are good to work on too:

Plant Life Cycle - Sequencing

We used these printable flashcards from the Education website, to review the life cycle of a plant. It reinforced what is required for plants to grow as well!

Garden Collage

We took a walk around our yard and collected a few plants for our collage. The kids and I love exploring almost daily to see what new things are blooming. I provided them with a piece of contact paper, sticky side up, and they started created their collage.

They loved doing this!

I taped it to the window, and they really enjoy coming to look at it.

Sorting Flowers vs. Vegetables

This printable also comes from the garden pack over at Homeschool Creations. I like this simple activity because it shows that gardens come in so many varieties, not just flowers. We talked about what kinds of vegetables are grown in gardens. One of the books we borrowed from the library called Up, Down...Around actually also shows this in an interesting way. It describes which vegetables grow above the soil, below the soil, and which grow in looping vines such as pumpkins. That was a fun book!

Planting a Garden

We completed our garden week by doing something crucial to any garden unit: planting one! Honey Pot had received an adorable butterfly garden for Christmas, and we had been waiting for a good time to do it.

First we observed the various seeds that came with our kit. We noted their color and size differences.

Then we prepared our soil and decorated it with gravel, rocks and the butterfly friend (all included).

You can see in this picture that the kids also decorated their dome with gems and stickers. Such a cute and easy first garden for them. And they've been keeping an eye on it!

Within a few days, we already saw our first sprouts!

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