Sun Unit for Kindergarten

Be sure and check out our latest sun study now that J-Bug is in kindergarten!

*JZ is 5 years old*

This week we studied:
Unit 1 of MFW
Unit 8 of You Can Read

Printables pictured are from MFW or YCR unless otherwise mentioned.

Themes:
Sun
Independence Day

Words to Remember:
Jesus is the light of the World

You can read about our curriculum choice and organization HERE.

As you can see, we have fun schooling at home. Above JZ is doing his hundred chart with a laundry net over his head. Below J-Bug is "drinking" from the straw cup we use to count each day of school. JZ puts one in the cup for each day of school we do. When we get to ten we'll put rubber bands around them and work on counting by tens. When we get to 100, we'll have a celebration!

JZ did the letter S page from his Cuisenaire Rods Alphabet Book.

I took the book apart and put it in page protectors in a notebook, so he (and eventually his little brothers!) can use it over and over.

He painted a paper plate sun.

He cut out words beginning with the letter S.

He practiced writing letters in Sensory Paint.

We played Sight Word Bingo using glass gems as markers.

We made raisins. Actually, I should say we are making raisins. They aren't quite done yet. The boys helped me pick and rinse them. Then we left them on a paper towel on a small table in our backyard. The bottom right photo was taken on day five of being in the sun.

JZ cut out strips with the letter S then pasted the letter strips under words that started with S. He gave me a funny look and said, "They all begin with an S!" LOL, it will actually require a little concentration as we add letters each unit.

We read the book Moonbear's Shadow and played with shadows, both with a flashlight in a dark room and outside.

We traced each other's shadows with sidewalk chalk.

We made sun snacks on a couple of different days.

JZ peeled the carrots.

We used half of a peach for the center and carrot sticks for the rays.

Another day we used an orange slice for the center and rolled turkey and banana quarters for the rays.

Both boys made sun badges with our words to remember printed on them. (I did the printing.) We used yellow cardstock and ribbon to make the sun badges. Our bible study this week revolved around how Jesus is our light. He lights our way just like the sun gives the earth light.

These are my goofballs posing with their completed badges.

This exercise was really hard to photograph, especially since we were using an inflatable globe. We went into a dark room and shined the flashlight directly on California to demonstrate how the sun gives us light during the day. Then I showed the boys how the earth revolves and how it is dark at night when the sun is on the other side of the earth. (Since the globe is inflatable it still looks like it is lit while facing away in the photo on the right.)

The boys enjoyed some sensory fun with red and blue frozen stars.

JZ got a bit crabby that the ice melted so quickly.

We made a sundial and used a ruler to track the shadow throughout the day to see how as time passed the shadow was in a different position. We used a small ball of playdough to hold up a pencil. We put the playdough on a cardboard square and used duct tape to secure the cardboard to the table outside to hold it in place and keep the shadow movement consistent.

I didn't have a chance to write up an individual post, so here is a sneak peak: Inspired by this incredible sensory bin from Famiglia and Seoul I made Night and Day bins to go along with our study of the sun.