Transportation Theme!

We kicked off our 'school year' the same time all the public schools did so Rose felt included with the neighborhood kids.  Technically, Rose wouldn't be starting kindergarten until Fall 2013 (almost 6) because of where her birthday falls (cut off is September).  But when she decided to start reading this summer, I figured we could do pre-k/kindergarten this year.  If all else fails, I figure I have 3 years for her to complete kindergarten!

Anyway, our first theme was transportation.  No rhyme or reason, just started there.  Here is a basic run down of what we did:

Sorted all of our vehicles (who knew we had so many?) by

 type,

 method of movement,

 size,

and color. 

 Then we had a race for all the cars, down a book ramp, to see which one went the farthest. White won, green lost.

 She made some notes about the race in her Sid the Science Kid journal (we will use this throughout the year for different science experiments).

 She did a color by number train picture while I cooked dinner or lunch one day. All the manipulative were found online.

After discussing the parts of a boat (bow, stern) and the general shape, we made boats out of foil to see if they would float (idea found here).

 Added a paper boat to see the difference.

 Handwriting practice.

 Which way is the vehicle facing? Rose aced this the first time out, I wasn't really sure she even knew the difference.  Even the boat (before the discussion too!) didn't trip her up.

 A number ordering train, followed by odd/even organizing.

Finally...a trip to the Air and Space Museum!

 Supposedly learning about why the airplane's wings are curved.  I think they really just liked pushing the air button ;)

 Fun in the cockpit!

 They loved the fact that they could go through so many of the different planes and shuttles.  

This had to be Rose's favorite display.  It was just a capsule for the balloon that recently circumnavigated the world.  She thought it was cool that a balloon made it all the way around.  This was the first museum that held her interest at different displays for more than 5 seconds.  She even asked questions about different things and wanted to learn more about them.  We will definitely be going back this year, even if it doesn't fit in our theme!

We also briefly touched on outer space, but might take the time to do that in more depth later on.