Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Molding Planets

One of the interests of the children, as we study outer space, are the planets.
   This week I invited them to use plastercine to make their own planet.
              nov 12 007
We use play dough all the time but not plastercine.  It’s more expensive so I use it occasionally.  Plastercine has a different feel on your fingers than play dough.  And you can use multiple colours and they don’t blend together.
nov 12 011 nov 12 062
The children really enjoyed rolling, poking and shaping their plastercine. They enjoyed making planets together.
nov 12 030   nov 12 009
By providing models of the planets the children added rings and other details.
   nov 12 018 nov 12 021
At StrongStart the parents are there the whole time and they are available to encourage and expand on their child’s interest.  For the children that wanted to talk more about each planet’s features, the parent was there to be that resource or show them where to find the answers, such as from our book shelves.
nov 12 013 nov 12 083
       Part of today’s fun was creating names for our planets.
nov 12 056 nov 12 057 nov 12 058 nov 12 059 nov 12 060
My favourite part was joining this little one at the table as he explored the plastercine.  We shared words and sounds, expressing our pleasure in the activity to each other.