Rockets and stars

Dear Summer School parents, We were a little sad today as it was our helper Miyu’s last day with us in the class. Miyu is only 12 years old and we loved having her with us to play this week. We were a little disappointed to see clouds in the sky this morning and it was a little too cool to play in the pool today which made us a little sad. Luckily it wasn’t raining and so we knew we would be able to go to the park instead. On the table we saw many plastic bottles with caps alongside lots of beads and glitter. Today we were going to make a ‘space’ shaker using these materials. We firstly put some beads and sparkly shapes into the bottle and added lots of colored glitter. Then we added some vegetable dye we used a while ago by pouring it into a funnel. When we added a few drops of oil the glitter and other pieces all moved around and make not only a nice sound but looked very pretty too. After we finished adding all the pieces we closed the cap and put some strong vinyl tape around the top to stop the colored water and materials from coming out. On the second table we did an origami craft activity with Pauline. Today we were going to make a rocket to put with the card tube rockets we made yesterday. The rockets were a little difficult to fold but with the teachers help we did a great job. We used some tape to attach the rocket to the same fishing line we used for the tube rockets yesterday. On the second table we saw the play-dough along with some colored matchsticks and wiggly eyes. When we used many wiggly eyes and the matchsticks it made our models look like the aliens from outer space like in the book we read earlier in the week. On the carpet the dinosaurs with the fake green grass were very popular alongside the ‘duplo’ tucks and building blocks. After packing away the toys and eating our yummy snacks we went to the park and found it funny that just as we left the building the sun came out and it felt suddenly very hot and humid. We had a good time anyway playing soccer, playing on the swings and secretly writing a ‘bye-bye’ card for Miyu. In circle time we looked at a fun book called ‘No Milk, No Moon’ about a cow that refuses to give any milk unless she gets to go to the moon. Eventually she finds a space at the museum which looks just like space and is very happy with walking with a helmet on around the fake moon. We saw in the book there were lots of stars and we decided to make some stars to go with the rockets we made earlier today. To make the stars we firstly cut 2 squares of colored origami paper in half to make 4 triangles. We then turned one upside down and glued it to the second one to make the star. The back of the star was still white however and so we just needed to make one more and glue it back to back with the first one. The teachers then helped us tape our stars with the tube and origami rockets. They look really good and we were happy to take them home today. Next week we start our new theme ‘Jack & the Beanstalk’ and are looking forward to it very much.

Have a wonderful afternoon and a great weekend,

All our love, Darren, Pauline, & Liezel