Pre-KG 2022 / 23 Blog 26
Fly me to the Moon - STEM week at DSKI!
We had another exciting and very busy week at school, focusing on STEM this time which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Quote: The STEM acronym was introduced in 2001 by scientific administrators at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The organization previously used the acronym SMET when referring to the career fields in those disciplines or a curriculum that integrated knowledge and skills from those fields.”
The DSKI faculty had decided that we would take our school to the moon and the Pre-Kindergarten class, together with the rest of Early Years was in charge of making the rocket.
We started by reading a nice book to the children which is called Rocket to the Moon and talks about children making a rocket at home very creatively with household items. Then we looked at pictures and drawings of rockets and found many in our classroom pictionaries
After this the children excitingly made rockets and space ships in all forms and shapes with super size legos, duplo legos, magformers, cylinder blocks, cardboard tubes and they showed great creativity.
Together with K1 and K2, the Pre-Kindergarten children did some rocket experiments and made a rocket with paper cups and rubber bands which was so much fun.
The Pre-Kindergarten children also had a new friend helping with their rocket adventures.
Haruki Lucius joined our class and we would like to extend a heartfelt welcome to him and his parents.
Herzlich willkommen, lieber Haruki und Eltern, Frau Janaina Lilli und Herr Shohei Takata, wir freuen uns sehr euch bei uns zu haben!
During the week the children watched a short video clip in English and German of Peppa Pig (Wutz) going to the science Museum and the children got a real good understanding of what is happening on the moon.
They amazed us with statements like “ Nothing on the moon, so also no animals and rhinoceroses”, “The moon is so far, you need a rocket”, “What is that other round thing (a planet)” and much more.
The Pre-Kindergarten children were also absolutely fascinated by the German song “ Karl, der Astronaut” which shows very nicely and quite detailed the journey of an astronaut in a rocket from Earth to Moon.
Even more insight was gained when the children could see that everything (food) and everyone (Karl) floats in space, that the moon is indeed barren and just full of rocks and craters and that you can see the Earth from the moon. (Ms.Anita, that green and blue one is Earth}.
Having become so knowledgeable, the children wanted to create a moon landscape and did a fantastic job using grey & brown paper and egg carton to depict craters and mountains.
They enjoyed putting their rockets there and the LRV (Lunar Roving Vehicle) which I had bought.
Lastly, the class was getting measured by grade 3 to see if they would be fit to be astronauts and then got their part of the rocket ready, being the front where all the people would travel to space.
In the previous week we had painted our part blue, now we cut a window, put a name (DSKI 1 - Space Explorer), put on space suits and helmets and zoomed off into space.
The Pre-Kindergarten children had a blast with their rocket and later in the day we brought it to the hallway for assembling with the other parts. We also put our moon display there right in front of the poster where Ms.Anita could be seen with astronauts at the Space exhibition in Oarai.
On Friday then the rocket was a very big hit with the whole school during the STEM week exhibition.
The parents also came to admire the rocket and all the crafts and experiments we had done and they had a great time seeing their children experiencing the various games, don space helmets, do additional craft, look at the school on the moon and even take off for a flight simulation.
Thank you all for your time to visit and kindly deepen the subject with your child at home as the interest was great and level of understanding really amazing.
And after all the experiments at home, please enjoy a quiet evening when the children are asleep, listening to this oldie, but goldie from Frank Sinatra.
Frank Sinatra - Fly me to the Moon
Ich wünsche allen ein tolles Wochenende und viel Spass beim weiteren Raketen Basteln !
Herzliche Grüsse,
Anita Ursula Mönch
Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher
Playgroup / EY GFL
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