Monday, December 7, 2009

Week 6: Stars


Lily is obsessed with having a star on top of the Christmas Tree...
so I thought, while she's really into stars, why not learn about them.

Advent has been going well.
Lily loves to take the paper down from the Advent Wreath
and see what the day's activity and bible verse is.
We'll keep it up until Christmas!


Stars

Background: Rather than explaining the molecular gas structure of a star, I figured it would be better to talk more general about stars. Hit topics like:

Stars are out in space, where the moon and the sun are.
When can we see stars? At night
Can we count the stars?
The Star in the East was what the Wise Men followed to find Jesus, the Son of God.


Books:


A star so bright : a Christmas tale by Butler, M. Christina

How to catch a star by Jeffers, Oliver

Little Owl and the Star : a Christmas Story by Murphy, Mary


Little Star by Louchard, Antonin

Stars by Tomecek, Steve

Shine by Langley, Karen

Mouse, mole, and the falling star by Benjamin, A. H.

Stars! Stars! Stars! by Barner, Bob

A ladder to the stars by Puttock, Simon


Crafts

  • We only have an angel for the top of our tree, so we are going to make a star tree topper: I'm just going to make it out of cardboard, tin foil and paper.... we'll see

  • We'll use star cookie cutters, blue construction paper with white and yellow paint to make outlines of stars... and Lily can paint the moon too!
  • I'd also like to get a star punch, and tape black construction paper to the window to make our own constellations.
Activities

We have a planetarium in our town, so I think I'll take her to the one of the shows called Meet Sol the Sun. Link to WPB Science Museum

Go star gazing out on the back porch...blankets, hot cocoa..fun


Songs:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Under The Stars
Under the stars, one holy night,
A little Babe was born;
Over his head a star shone bright,
And glistened til the morn.
And wise men came from far away,
And shepherds wandered where He lay,
Upon His lowly bed of hay,
Under the stars one night.

Under the stars, one blessed night,
The Christ-Child came to earth,
And through the darkness broke the light
Of morning at his birth.
And sweet hosannas filled the air,
And guardian angels watched him where
The Virgin Mother knelt in prayer,
Under the stars one night.

Under the stars, this happy night,
We wait for Him once more,
And seem to see the wondrous sight
The shepherds saw of yore.
O, Baby born in Bethlehem,
Come to us as you came to them,
And crown us with love's diadem,
Under the stars tonight.

Snacks:

We'll make pancakes, sandiwches and cut them out like stars with cookie cutters...pretty much we'll make anything into a star that we can :)

I'll also try to find some star fruit. The girls love that fruit anyway. (Click the Picture for more info on Star Fruit)












2 comments:

Unknown said...

What a fun blog you have!! I've been having fun checking it out...thanks for the great ideas :)

O'Brien said...

Mine is not old enough yet for this but I love the idea, I can incorporate some things now and get in the habit!!! I found you through the menu mondays carnival and felt that we are very similar ( I may have comment over at your other site), I also make my chicken salad with curry!!!

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