Solar System Week: Moonlight Serenade

We landed on the Moon!

Finger paint Moon

Lots of fun stuff happening in Little Mama's house today. First up, the moon.  Little Mama did a great job painting INSIDE the circle today using her own two hands.  We started with white paint and then layered on a little black.  Finger painting still hasn't lost its luster  ...

A great book alert--My Book of Planets.  It's a sparkly picture book about the planets, perfect for toddlers.  The text is simple, short, and includes a brief phrase describing each planet.  

After several read-throughs, we decided to add some visual props to help us out.  A Planets & Stars kit  came in super handy (about $8).  We' would read a page then look for the corresponding glow-in-the-dark cardboard planet.  Little Mama loved this activity, matching up the planets in her hand with the planets in the book.  I caught her examining the differences.        

Later, we lined everything up...

Next up, play-doh planets.    

Here's our attempt at Saturn.  Look at the ring Little Mama!

Apparently, this is Earth

Our Red Mars

Tonight we attempted to camp out under the stars.  

Our fabulous Ikea tent

I thought it would be lots of fun to tape our glow-in-the-dark stars and planets inside the tent.  At first, it started out as a surprise for Little Mama.  I squeezed into the tent and started taping away, but she quickly caught on and crammed in.  

Together we taped away--or at least tried.  The tape didn't stick to the tent fabric for very long so the stars and planets kept falling down.  I'd yell, "Whoa--a shooting star," as the stars kept falling off.  Little Mama thought this was hilarious.  

After our taping fiasco, I brought out the big guns--our nightlight turtle.

The turtle projects stars and a crescent moon--perfect for our indoor tent party.  We turned off the lights and danced the turtle inside the tent.  Look at all the stars Little Mama!  I brought in a flashlight to light our glow-in-the-dark planets.  They looked amazing glowing in the dark!  

All this talk about stars makes me think: sweet dreams Little Mama.  Hope this will put you in the mood...