Welcome to Week #7 – Planets & Stars
Download and print the activity calendar for Week #7 from the pink button below. Hanging the calendar outline on the refrigerator or in a plastic page protector makes it easy to know what’s on the schedule each day!
Day 1
Asteroid Letters: Roll up a bunch of small balls of aluminum foil or gather small rocks or beads. Add the aluminum foil balls to a bowl or cup. Build letters, words, or names with the pretend asteroid aluminum foil balls. Write letters on small pieces of paper and put them in a pile. Pick a letter and build it on a table or tray out of the pretend asteroids. Consider writing the letter on a paper for younger preschoolers to trace with the pretend asteroids. For more of a challenge, say the letter or word without writing it down and have your preschooler try to build it!
Star Countdown: Print the star page or create your own out of paper. Cut the stars out. Tape them to the floor in number order at first. Have your preschooler walk or jump from star to star starting at the highest number and work down the numbers while practicing counting backwards. Change things up by mixing up the the stars so that they are not in order and try to count down from the highest to lowest number!
Watercolor Planets: Cut different sized circles out of construction paper or cardstock as your planets. Use watercolors to paint the circles like planets. Look online for examples of how the planets look through a telescope. Paint with a paintbrush or use a medicine syringe or dropper to drip the color onto the paper. Let the planets dry. Glue the planets on black paper and add star in the black sky to add fun detail!
Day 2
Moon Dust Writing: Sprinkle the bottom of a plate or tray with a good amount baking flour, salt, or even rice. This is the pretend moon dust for this activity. Give the tray a shake to cover the bottom evenly. Practice letter formation while writing with your finger in the flour. Draw shapes, alphabet letters, and words. This is a great activity to practice writing words for a beginner. Use short CVC words like cat, map, or box to start with. Give the tray a gentle shake to erase the writing and play again!
Planet Patterns: Print the pattern page or create a quick version of your own if needed. Gather colorful pom poms, colorful cereal rings (like Froot Loops), or cut circles out of paper to build patterns out of the pretend planets. If using the planet page, your preschooler can also color the circles in a color pattern. Choose 2 colors to use in the pattern at first. For example, choose yellow and blue pom poms. Place a blue pom pom first, then a yellow pom pom. Then another blue, then yellow, then blue, etc. Keep building the pattern across the page. Use 2 or 3 colors for the patterns!
Name Rockets: Use paper shapes to create your own name rocket! Each letter of your preschooler’s name can be on its own square shape. Starting from the first letter in your preschooler’s name, place that square at the top. Add one square for each additional letter in your preschooler’s name in a line moving down. The name pieces are the body of the rocket. Add a triangle at the top and maybe some skinny triangles on the sides at the bottom. Glue the pieces together or on a piece of construction paper to display your name rocket!
Day 3
Planet Puzzles: Print the planet puzzles or draw puzzles to use. Cut the planets out. And then cut down the middle of the planet to create a puzzle. On each of the puzzle pieces write the same letter. Choose between writing both letters uppercase, both letters lowercase, or mix it up and write uppercase on one and lowercase on the other. Mix all of the pieces of the puzzles up and lay the pieces on the table. Match the pieces back up by finding the correct letters to put the puzzles together.
Connecting the Stars: Place small star stickers all over a piece of black or blue paper. Have your preschooler place the stickers all around the paper and not just clumped next to each other. Using a white or yellow crayon, have your preschooler draw a line from star to star connecting each one on the paper to create a unique constellation. If you do not have star stickers, draw small stars with a yellow or white crayon.
Galaxy Milk: Fill the bottom of a glass pie dish with milk. Drip a few different colors of food coloring in the milk. Dip the end of a Q-tip into liquid dish soap (Dawn works best if you have it available). Stick the Q-tip with dish soap into the milk. Watch the colors begin to swirl together. Stick the Q-tip into another spot in the milk to watch more color swirl together. Keep moving the Q-tip around to create an outer space galaxy in the pie dish!
Day 4
Post-it Planets: Print the planet page or create your own. Fill in each box on the page with one letter of the alphabet. Use planet and outer space themed words/letters in the boxes. On different Post-it sticky notes, write one letter on each. Use matching letters from the planet page as well as additional letters for an added challenge to the activity. Hang the Post-it sticky notes around the room or house. Add the planet page to a clipboard (use a plastic page protector and dry erase marker to write the letters on the planet page to make it reusable) and begin looking for letters around the room. Every time a matching letter is found, stick the Post-it note on the planet page covering the match.
Planet Plate Toss: On the driveway draw circles of different sizes. Inside each circle write a number. Have your preschooler stand with a paper plate. Using the paper plate as a pretend planet, toss the paper plate towards one of the circles on the driveway. Each time the pretend planet lands, have your preschooler name the number in the circle it is closest to or in. Talk about which number is biggest and smallest, which circles to aim for to get the most points, etc. This could also be played with a frisbee as a pretend planet!
Reach for the Stars: On pieces of paper, cut out different colored star shapes or draw a star on each one. Hang the stars around the room just slightly out of your preschooler’s reach. To play this activity, say a color and have your preschooler find that colored star and jump to tap the star on the wall. Keep naming colors for your preschooler to find and “reach for the stars.” Another way to play would be to hang the colored stars from tape or streamers hanging down from the ceiling for your preschooler to jump and hit!
Day 5
Clip the Planet: Print the planet circles page or draw and cut out your own. Cut the planet circles out around the edge. In the middle of the planet circle, write a letter or word. Around the outer edge of the planet circle, write different letters of the alphabet including the letter from the middle or letters in the word from the middle. If using one letter in the middle, write that same letter around the edge of the planet circle multiple times. Using clothespins, have your preschooler identify the letter/word in the middle and then find the matching letters around the edge and clip the matches.
Orbit Walk: Draw a big circle with chalk outside or use tape on the floor to create a big circle inside. This will be the pretend orbit path of the moon around the earth. Give your preschooler a ball to hold as the pretend moon. Have your preschooler stand on the chalk line while giving different movement directions – jumping on 2 feet, tip toe, walk backwards, hop on one foot, etc.
Moon Dough: To make homemade moon dough, mix 1 part conditioner and 2 parts cornstarch together. Add a few drops of food coloring to the mixture and work it all together by squishing it with your hands. The consistency will be like a super soft, squishy play dough that will lose its form when not in use for a time period. Let your preschooler play with it on the table or a tray!
The activities for Week #7 are out of this world!
Hopefully you are loving the Preschool on the Go activities and that you are feeling more confident about setting up learning fun for your preschooler. Don’t forget, if you are ever looking for more in-depth printable options, you can check out these products:
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Grab the printable outline for Week #7 from the pink button!
Hang it on your refrigerator so you can glance up at it to see what is planned each day. Keep the digital copy available to quickly click to access this page at any point for details about the activities.
You can access all of the Preschool on the Go activities from the main page!
Email me at nicole@modernpreschool.com if you need to!