On Friday, we continued our “How We Go” transportation theme with HOT AIR BALLOONS! We read the book “Up, Up, Up”…Our question of the day was: “Which hot air balloon is your favorite?” {the blue hot air balloon got the most votes!} We do the question of the day to give the children a chance to interact during group…and I use it as a chance for them to recognize their names when I hold up their little person. “H-A-N-N-A-H…..who is H-A-N-N-A-H?” {“me!!!”} “Hannah, Which is your favorite hot air balloon?” This also gives the other children a chance to learn/practice their classmates’ names.
Next we talked about hot the air that is used to make a hot air balloon fly is HOT. Cold air is what makes it sink in the sky. I got a hair dryer and a grocery bag to demonstrate how the hot air blows into the balloon to inflate it, lifting it into the air.
In one of our small groups, the children decorated hot air balloons. They used their fine motor skills to glue tissue paper onto their “balloon.” In another group, we painted butcher paper with combs to make the hot air balloon basket. While we painted with combs, we practiced pre-writing words like “up”, “down”, “across”, “straight lines”, “curvy lines”, etc. This will help the children develop the vocabulary necessary for learning to write. {i.e. “Today we are making a ‘B’…it has a big straight line and two little curves.”}
Ms. Sarah
