{"id":1402,"date":"2023-06-14T19:25:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T19:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluebirddayprogram.com\/?page_id=1402"},"modified":"2023-10-05T00:42:40","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T00:42:40","slug":"space","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bluebirddayprogram.com\/space\/","title":{"rendered":"Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

Space<\/span><\/h1><\/div>

Welcome to Blue Bird Day’s Weekly Lesson Plans. This week we’re working on the theme Space! Read below for more themed lesson plans and activities.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Contact Us to Schedule a Free, Private Tour<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Table Time Activity: Rocket Ship Names<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/span><\/span><\/span>
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Materials:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Legos (can be substituted with blocks or unifix cubes).<\/p>\n

Letter stickers (can be substituted with tape and marker).<\/p>\n

Prep:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stick or write the letters of your child’s name onto Legos, one letter per Lego. Make a set for you and a set for your child.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

Skill Check<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Begin with handing your child the letters of their name in order for them to stacking on top of each other. Model saying each letter out loud as you stack them up.<\/p>\n

See if you can encourage your child to stack the Legos as well; a silly way to encourage participation is to have a countdown and then blast your rocket ship up into space!<\/p>\n

If successful so far, start again but this time say the next letter and see if they can identify it from 2 or 3 options.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div>

Growing My Skills<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If they are successful so far try offering them all of the letters in their name at the same time and see if they can put them in order themselves!<\/p>\n

If your child is ready for more of a challenge try adding more letters to the mix and building rocket ship “word families”.\u00a0 These are usually 3 or 4 letter rhyming words, such as words that end in -at, -an, or -ad.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Floortime Play Activity: Blastoff!<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/span><\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/div>

Materials:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Couch, bed, or cushy pile of pillows and blankets to safely crash into.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

Skill Check<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Initiate a game of “Blastoff” with your child, including a 10-second countdown and being thrown up then “crashed” into a safe surface.\u00a0 If your child is usually nervous about activities like this try holding them in your arms as you jump up and down or even try crashing together!<\/p>\n

If your child is laughing and enjoying the activity, see if you can pause or slow down the interaction to encourage them to reinitiate the game. In the beginning, honor any attempts to communicate they want to continue the game and build off of that!<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div>

Growing My Skills<\/strong><\/h3>\n

See if you can encourage your child to talk about “where” you should blast off too – see this week’s movement lesson for a link to Laurie Berkner’s Rocket Ship Run, which is a fun way to introduce this idea!<\/p>\n

If your child is ready to increase the challenge see if they will engage in problem solving with “playful obstructions”. Pretend your rocket ship has run out of gas, or you are too sad to fly the rocket ship today, and see if your child can come up with realistic ways to “fix” the problem and restart the activity!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Relaxation Time Activity: Star Gazing<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/span><\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/div>

Materials:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Soft Blanket.<\/p>\n

Computer with Star Gazing Video (find on YouTube).<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Get comfortable with your blanket and pillow.<\/li>\n
  2. Play the star gazing video and encourage your child to slow their breathing and focus on the images they see.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

    Skill Check<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    The goal of this activity is for your child to take a relaxing break when needed. This activity could be great to do before bedtime or after a period of active play.<\/p>\n<\/div>

    <\/div><\/div>

    Growing My Skills<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Explore the names of different constellations and talk about what else they might see in the sky.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

    Creative Time Activity: Painting in the Night Sky<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
    <\/span><\/span><\/span>
    <\/span><\/div>

    Materials:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Dark Blue Construction Paper.<\/p>\n

    Paintbrush.<\/p>\n

    Paper Plate.<\/p>\n

    Shaving Cream (about 1.5 cups).<\/p>\n

    Elmer’s glue (about .5 cup).<\/p>\n

    Flour (about .5 cup).<\/p>\n

    Yellow Crayon or Star Stickers.<\/p>\n

    Prep:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Draw or stick stars randomly around paper to look like “night sky.”<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

    Skill Check<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Squeezing out the glue and shaving cream promotes hand strengthening and scooping and dumping the flour is a wonderful opportunity for practicing their motor planning and bilateral coordination! Encourage your child to participate in portioning and mixing these 3 ingredients together to create a puffy space paint.<\/p>\n

    Join your child in using the paintbrushes, or even their hands, in decorating their night skies with some beautiful puffy clouds.<\/p>\n

    Try modeling drawing straight lines and circles in the clouds and encourage your child to do the same!<\/p>\n<\/div>

    <\/div><\/div>

    Growing My Skills<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Practice creating more challenging shapes such as squares and plus signs; these are still important precursors to handwriting!<\/p>\n

    See if your child can recognize letters or even simple sight words drawn in the clouds.<\/p>\n

    If your child seems ready to expand even further, practice painting their name in uppercase letters. Rather than the popular “connect the dot” style tracing, instead use a light colored crayon for a more visually supportive solid line to trace.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

    Movement Time Activity: Flying in Space<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
    <\/span><\/a><\/span>
    <\/span><\/div>

    Materials:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Optional Balls\/ Balloons.<\/p>\n

    Click Here for Laurie Berkner’s “Rocket Ship Run” – a great addition to this activity!<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

    Skill Check<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    The goal of this activity is to see if your child can lay on their stomach and hold their head, arms, and legs off the ground. Try modeling the position yourself to show them what you are asking!<\/p>\n

    If you can, orient yourself so you are face to face with each other to increase opportunities to interact with each other during the activity.<\/p>\n

    Next, see if your little astronaut can coordinate both sides of their body and do “astronaut swimming” with you!<\/p>\n<\/div>

    <\/div><\/div>

    Growing My Skills<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    If your child seems ready for more you can up the challenge by rolling ball\/balloon “planets” to your child for them to “blast” away! Try and aim for both sides of their body to get both of their hands active in the activity.<\/p>\n

    Want to add a cognitive challenge to the task? Make them “unlock” the planet by guessing the color\/shape\/number you are thinking of in your head. Practicing “password” games such as this is a fun way to encourage your child to build their categorical thinking – just don’t make them guess too many times that they lose interest!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

    Mealtime Activity: Homemade Astronaut Food<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
    <\/span><\/a><\/span>
    <\/span><\/div>

    Materials:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Blender.<\/p>\n

    Measuring utensils.<\/p>\n

    Fruit\/vegetable smoothie ingredients.<\/p>\n

    Popsicle molds.<\/p>\n

    Paper cups or ziplock bags (disposable or reusable are available in store or on Amazon!)<\/p>\n

    Examples<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

    Skill Check<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    The goal of this activity is to consume dehydrated or prepackaged food like an astronaut – promote fruit and vegetable intake.<\/p>\n<\/div>

    <\/div><\/div>

    Growing My Skills<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Wash hands, prepare fruit and vegetable ingredients for blending, prepare the popsicle molds or plastic bags to hold the smoothie ingredients.<\/p>\n

    Prepare recipe found here<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Example:<\/strong> 2 cups favorite fruit, 2 Tablespoons honey or yogurt. Refrigerate or freeze popsicles for at least 4 hours, then consume! Pack your astronaut bags full of astronaut food and prepare to go into space!<\/p>\n

    TIP:<\/strong> encourage your child to measure and prepare astronaut food ingredients.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

    Language Time Activity: Pete the Cat Out of This World By James Dean<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
    <\/span><\/span><\/span>
    <\/span><\/div>

    Materials:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Pete the Cat Out of this World.<\/p>\n

    Construction Paper.<\/p>\n

    Markers.<\/p>\n

    Scissors.<\/p>\n

    Glue.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

    Carry over last week’s theme to this week, and enjoy reading about Pete the Cat and his adventures at space camp! After, work on receptive language skills of following directions, prepositions, and identification of colors, shapes and sizes by creating your own outer space scene with crafting materials!<\/p>\n

    Skill Check<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    The goal of this activity is to focus on receptive language skills, including following directions, identifying colors, sizes, and shapes, and identifying prepositions. Creating your own outer space scene with the listed crafting materials. Tell your child which size\/color to make the stars or planets, and where to put them on your scene.<\/p>\n<\/div>

    <\/div><\/div>

    Growing My Skills<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Work on multistep directions (2-3 steps depending on your child’s ability!) during this activity (e.g., put sun next to the star, and the planet at the top).<\/p>\n

    Include more than one qualitative concept during your direction to increase task complexity (e.g., Color a big, blue, round planet).<\/p>\n

    Take turns on who is the direction giver to target your child’s expressive language skills.<\/p>\n

    Work on understanding of negation (E.g., Put all the planets that are not red on the picture).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"100-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1402","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nSpace - Weekly Themes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Space activities for preschool and kindergarten aged children with developmental difficulties, used in our therapeutic program.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bluebirddayprogram.com\/space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Space\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Space activities for preschool and kindergarten aged children with developmental difficulties, used in our therapeutic program.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bluebirddayprogram.com\/space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blue Bird Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bluebirddayprogram\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-05T00:42:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bluebirddayprogram.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/tiny-sun-2.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@BBDProgram\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"47 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bluebirddayprogram.com\\\/space\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bluebirddayprogram.com\\\/space\\\/\",\"name\":\"Space - 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