Earth was next in our preschool homeschool solar system study, and this week had a little bit of everything. Ocean and dirt cups, a cloud in a jar, coloring, and a look at what’s actually inside our planet.
I’m still figuring out homeschooling as we go, but I really enjoy finding different ways to bring the same topic into our week. We can read about Earth, make something, eat something, and somehow it all counts as learning. Pretty great.
Our Earth Read-Along and Worksheets
We worked Earth into our morning worksheet time with a read-along and a few activities to go with it.
The read-along covered things like Earth’s position from the Sun, how much of our planet is covered in water, and what gives us day and night. There’s also a matching question sheet to revisit what we learned. At this age, we can talk through the answers together. It doesn’t have to be an independent assignment.
I also put together Earth counting, patterns, and sequencing pages. I like being able to practice those early skills while keeping everything connected to what we’re learning that week.
I’m sharing the sheets individually below so you can grab what works for your kids.
[Earth read-along download]
[Earth counting download]
[Earth patterns download]
[Earth sequencing download]
Ocean and Dirt Cups
Of course, we had to work food into the week.
We made ocean and dirt cups as part of learning about Earth’s land and water. I like activities like this because we’re talking about our topic while the kids have something to actually do with their hands.
There’s scooping, assembling, following directions, and then eating what we made. A pretty solid combination for preschool.
A Cloud in a Jar
We also did a cloud-in-a-jar activity to bring weather into our Earth study.
These are the kinds of activities I’m learning right alongside the kids. I haven’t done all of this before either, which has been a big part of our homeschool experience so far.
We get to try it, watch what happens, and talk about it together. I don’t have to have a whole science lecture prepared for us to learn something.
Looking Inside Earth
We included a look at Earth’s layers, too. We spend so much time talking about what’s on our planet that it’s fun to introduce what’s underneath the surface.
Here’s the layers of Earth diagram for this part of the study.
We also included an Earth coloring sheet. Coloring has been an easy activity to carry through our planet weeks, with each planet giving us something different to talk about.
Another Planet in Our Solar System
Our homemade solar system is coming along, and I love seeing all these individual activities become part of something bigger.
We’re practicing counting, coloring, listening, and following directions, but we’re also making things together and finding out what we enjoy.
I didn’t come into homeschooling knowing how to do all of this. We’re making our way through it one planet at a time, and I’m having a lot of fun with our kids along the way.