Astronaut Adventure Day 1

Astronaut Adventure Days occurs on the last two days of my space unit.   My friend Pam and I came up with this idea about 20 years ago and each year my partner teachers and I have added something new to the mix. 

We started the morning with our crew pictures.  There are three shuttles, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavor.  So each shuttle has a group picture.

Then we put on our gear and go to our ships and get ready for Lift Off!

 This year my partner teacher, Lynn, found something on smart exchange that we used.  I tried to find it for you but I was unable.  Sorry:(  All my little ones were all set in their shuttles.  

You can see on the back of the shuttle there is a Mission Schedule.  It tells each shuttle where to go for each center.  There are three centers to go to because there are three shuttles.  

The first center is a Science Exploration Center.  

It has two parts.  The objective of this center is to problem solve and understand what is must be like for the astronauts to work in those 

big gloves. 

The first activity is the Penny Pick Up.  

 I have two rules for this activity.  1.  You may not take off the gloves.  2.  No Yelling and Screaming.  

The children have 30 seconds to pick up as many pennies as possible and put them in their cup.

  It takes about 20 seconds for someone to figure out to slide the pennies into their gloves or pick up the cup and slide the pennies into the cup. 

Floating Pennies is the second part of the center. 
 I put the children in teams and demonstrate how to "share count."  That is where each child takes turns counting.  

The object of this activity is to see how many pennies can you get on your "boat" before it sinks.  

Our record this year was 27 pennies.  It takes two or three tries before my little ones begin to figure out you have to divide the pennies equally.  

At the satellite station a parent reads a page of a book about the uses of satellites and then the children get to work creating satellites.  

Materials for this center:  styrofoam balls, pipe cleaners, toothpicks, straws,  styrofoam noodles

The third station is Making Words.  The final word is rockets.  This word is perfect for my little ones because we have already reviewed the ot and et families.  We are just starting alphabetical order so that is another step we practiced as well.

During snack we discussed the food that the astronauts ate during their missions.  We enjoyed pudding from a bag.

As a whole class we did Dropping Astroids on the Moon.  

This activity is from The Inspired Apple , a purchased unit.  

This is a class book that my partner teacher Lynn thought of and it is super cute.  Yesterday I had my little ones do a spray paint background picture on black paper.  Then they wrote in their journals where they would like to go in space.  

Today they drew a picture of an astronaut and a shuttle.  I typed up the sentences and we put it all together to get this adorable book.

 Now I am exhausted and I am going to bed.   Sue