The Sun

Materials:white sheet of paper, cotton swabs, paint ( bright yellow & orange), picture of
the sun

Prep:Get a picture of the sun

Instead of a picture you can have the children go outside and observe the sun on a nice
day.

Students are able to recognize the sun and that it is in the sky

● Groups of children 3-6. Engage in what is in the sky, sun, moon and stars.
● Explain that they are always in the sky and do not come down
● Show students pictures of the sun, explain the bright swirls it has.
● Tell them they are going to paint their own swirl suns today
● Let them know they can use their hands and fingers or cotton swabs to swirl the
paint.
● Continue until all students have had a turn

Provide the students with red and yellow paint and engage in conversation about what
happens when both colors are mixed together when swirling. Let them explore as they
mix the colors together. You can also engage in how the stars and moon are also in the
sky and do not come down as well and continue in another art activity is the interest in
the students allows. To extend the activity even further you can take the children
outside and have them observe the sun in the sky and what they can see in the sky.

CHildren are always intrigues about the world around them and the environment and
surroundings. Pg.14 Young children construct their knowledge and understanding of
the world in the course of their own understanding.Children learning and understanding
that the sun is in the sky and that it stays up there may be something completely new to
them. Allowing them to actually go outside and see the sun in the sky helps their minds
travel into a new imagination on what else is in the sky and that it too stays up there.
Pg 15 Teachers create a rich learning environment to activate that motivation, and
they use the strategies to promote childrens’ undertaking and mastering of a new
progressively more advanced challenges. Comparing both the picture and the sun in
the sky and how different they look but how they are the same sun may take it further
and be too advanced for them but it also might open up a new conversation for
collaboration with in the group of children.