Learning About The Sun: Day 1 (Easy Preschool At Home)
My preschool son has become more and more interested in outer space lately. I knew I wanted to talk about it with him during homeschool, but I was concerned space was too broad a topic for one week of work. Ultimately, I decided to narrow our focus down to the sun, moon, day, and night. On Day 1 we focused on learning about the sun, so we’re sharing our fun with you.
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LEARNING ABOUT THE SUN, MOON, DAY, + NIGHT: WEEK 3 dAY 1
Learning About The Sun: Day 1 Ideas
Letter of the day:
S is for sun. I created a simple free printable ‘S is for Sun’ page on Twisty Noodle. My son used yellow foam sun stickers to decorate the letter S.
Word of the day:
Instead of working on his name, my kiddo wrote ‘sun’ with 4 different writing instruments. (I grabbed that printable page from First And Kinder Blue SKies on Teachers Pay Teachers!)
Book of the day:
Where Is The Sun? By Eric Carle.
Journal prompt of the day:
The sun is important because…
Activities and play we enjoyed:
I printed a simple day and night sorting activity, and cut the pieces out for my son. He glued ‘day’ to one side of a paper, and ‘night’ to the other. Then we talked about each of the pictures, and whether we saw them during the day or at night. He glued each picture on the appropriate side of the paper.
I also printed sun sequencing pages. After the rectangles were cut out, my son and I talked about each image and what time of day it showed. I chose to use the already colored version, rather than having him fill it in, simply because his attention span for fine motor work is short. He used terms like sunrise, sunset, etc. as he sequenced the images correctly, and glued them in the right order.
YOU MAY NEED THESE FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE SUN…
colored pencils / crayons / markers / transparent tape / pens / scissors / pencils / double sided tape / composition notebook / index cards / glue / craft foam or stickers
But PLEASE Remember…
This is what is working for us during the pandemic, for the time being. It may seem overwhelming to your family to attempt anything like this. Or if you’re like me, you may welcome a little structure in your days. It’s important for you to consider the needs, emotional health, and learning styles of your entire family, and make adjustments as needed. The goal is NEVER more stress, more comparisons, or more guilt.
Keeping the above in mind, here’s a little bit more about our process…
- We’re aiming for about an hour of ‘school-ish’ work a day. This might included coloring, painting, writing, drawing, stickers, and more. My 4 year old is used to attending UPK for two and a half hours a day, 5 days a week, so 1 hour seemed like a good starting point at home.
- I build a ton of breaks and flexibility into our days and weeks. I plan 5 days of ‘school’ each week, and we generally accomplish all the activities by stretching them out over 7 total days. Some Wednesdays, we just can’t do school. So we’ll make it up later, if we can. Again, the goal isn’t stress or pressure, so flexibility is key.
- Variety is helpful for my kiddo. His attention span is short, so most of what I plan is quick, and we change styles of learning often. You know what will work best for your own families.
- Our journal is simply a basic notebook. Every day, I provide a prompt, and my child draws a picture on a blank index card. I tape that into the notebook, and write most of the prompt. At least one or two words are written larger, in dots, so my son can trace them.
- I have a pretty well stocked supply of craft and learning materials already, and know that may not be the case for you. Be creative, be flexible, and be open to compromise! We also have a large home library for the kids, which is very helpful right now!
