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DAY AND NIGHT THEME

CRAFTS:

Clocks
A clock can be made with a circle of cardboard or a paper plate, a paper fastener and something for the hands for example leaves. Put the hands of the made clock on a selected time and place it next to a real clock. Then watch the clocks from time to time till they read the same time. (Helps develop the concept of time passing).

Night time Pictures
1. use an old window shade of a dark color. Have them children use white crayons or chalk to draw the sky at night. Or let the children use bobbi-pins to punch constellation holes in the shade. When you hold the shade up to a window the light will shine through to make starlight.
2. Splatter white paint on black or blue paper or use a spray bottle to create a starry night picture. Children can add moon or constellation with a paint brush or crayons.
3. Do night/day pictures by placing a dark sheet of paper next to a light piece of paper. Have the children glue on appropriate clothing items on each page.
4. Use cotton balls with black paint.

Sun
Cut a big circle from yellow construction paper. Glue onto blue construction paper. Draw a happy face on cirlce and draw rays around sun. Tear yellow foam egg cartons into small pieces and glue along rays you have drawn.

Scratch Art
Color a piece of paper with yellow crayon. Mix a small amount of liquid soap into black paint (soap helps paint stick to waxy crayon). Paint over the yellow crayon. Let dry. When dry scratch off paint to make stars and moons.
 
 

GAMES & ACTIVITIES:

Be a Sundial
Go outside to the playground.  Use a compass to defined north.  Asked the kids which direction the sun is in?  Where does your shadow point if the sun is in the East?  West?  Can we guess what time of day it is by looking at their shadows?  Draw a circle on the playground in dirt if possible.  Poke a stick in the ground in the middle of the circle at any angle.  If no dirt is to be found, draw a circle with a stone or chalk.  Use clay in which to pull the stick.  Check the shadow at different times of the day or meeting time and record the information.

Dusk or Dawn Walk
Meet together at a time when the kids are not usually together, such as dusk or early in the morning.  I observe the sky.  What colors do you see?  Listen for the sounds?  Do you hear birds singing, insects chirping or animals calling?
Early in the morning: can animals trapped be found?  Is there due on leaves, blades of grass, or flower petals?  Or flowers open or blooms closed?
Dusk: look for birds against the sky.  Are some of the flowers blossoms closing?  Catch fireflies in clear containers with air holes.  Have the kids liked their weight you're in the walk with the fireflies.  Free the fireflies when activity is concluded.

Flashlight Tag
Equipment:  Two flashlights (one covered with red cellophane, one with blue cellophane)
What to Do:  Sit the group in a circle and shut out the lights.  Select a child to go first, and give her the red flashlight.  With the blue flashlight, make crazy designs and fast motions.  The object is for the child to try and "catch" the blue light with her red light.  Once she has succeeded, pass the flashlight around the circle and give each child a chance to test visual tracking skills.

Flashback
For this activity you will need: a dark field, bright or fluorescent clothing, a flashlight and something reflective.
Begin to show your group the truth about the visibility of fluorescence by wearing bright, or fluorescent clothes in an unlit park, or other safe location. One person at a time should act as the "tester" and have a flashlight held up to one eye and pointing straight in front of him. This imitates what a driver sees from behind his headlights.  One brightly coloured Beaver should then walk away from the tester until she can no longer be seen. She should then look down at themselves and see that she is still lit up by the flashlight. This would be the point where you think that a car sees you, but in fact you are still invisible to the motorist. The Beaver should then back away from the tester until she is no longer lit up by the flashlight. At this point she can expose a reflective strip, sticker, or flashback product (stop signs and stickers), which will make her visible again to the tester, or motorist. She can then continue to back up until the tester can no longer see any reflection (up to 100 m/325' or more!). This is a good first introduction to fluorescent vs. reflective material.

Guess the Shadow
Go out and look at shadows.  How do kids notice when the sun is behind them, they have a shadow in front of them.  See how many shadows they can see around the meeting area.  Let them play a game at shadows.  Tell them to sit down around corner of a building.  The object such as a branch, rock, box, or hold of lower, leave or pine cones so the kids can see the shadow.  Have them guess what it is.  You could also have them close her eyes and pick a child to go around the corner, then have the kids open their eyes and guess the child by the shadow.  Note good idea to have two or three children out to make a shadow so there is a choice of children for the shadow.

Heat of the Sun
Discuss how the sun burns us. This can be a good time to introduce the use of sunblock and sunglasses to protect our eyes and skin. The children can stand in the sun and then in the shade to feel the difference in temperature. A teacher can demonstrate how the sun can burn by using a magnifying glass to burn a hole in a piece of paper.

Observing the Daytime Sky 
Go outside on a clear, on cloudy day.  Turn away from the sun and look into the sky.  I observe close objects such as airplanes, kites, wires, birds or an occasional cloud.  Have a cardboard to available for each child, which they can put on one hi to help darken the close light and make the sky more visible.  Look into the faraway sky for the moon in the morning or evening stars showing the reflected light of the sun.  The stars are really planets, usually Jupiter and Venus, which can be located above the horizon in morning or early evening.  Ask: do you know that the moon shines in the daytime to?  This activity could be done by groups or on a weekend outing.

Rays of Sunshine 
Kit is a sunny day to walk in sunlit areas.  Look for animals and birds in the sunshine.  Do you see more animals in the sun or in the shade?  Why to animals look directly into the sun?  Why not?  Should people?  Find rays of sunshine through the clouds, limit of trees, or around buildings.  Look sideways at a right angle to the sun through this concentrated sunlight.  Why would a animal be in the sun?  Can best particles be seen?  Find rays on water.  Observe running water sparkling.  Find rays on rock.  Observe minerals sparkling.  Find rays on plants and animals.  Our colors brighter?  Later?  Compare plants including grass growing in the side with the same species in the more shaded areas.  Which plants are fuller, have more leaves?  Does sunlight how plants grow?

Shadows
Call attention to the children's shadows and the shadows of other objects. Measure the children's shadows in the morning, at noon, and before they leave in the afternoon, all at the same spot. Pound a long stick in the ground in an open spot. Measure the length of its shadow at different times of the day. Discuss why this happens with the children.
Indoors, have the children look for their shadows. Use a flashlight as the sun and a stand up doll as a person. Let each child discover how to make long and short shadows on all sides of the doll. How do you make the shadow disappear? Use a bright light on a movie screen, sheet or a light colored wall and let the children make shadow pictures.

Star Party
Get-together with the children and the parents for an early evening Star party.  Octane at telescope to see the moon and start more clearly.  Choose an evening when the sky will be clear and the moon is full.  I observe the near nighttime environment.  What can be seen by a moonlight?  Animals?  Birds?  What sounds can be heard?  Compare to daytime.  How does color change at night?  Then look at the sky.  Our airplanes to be seen?  Look farther into the sky.  Find the moon.  Use the telescope to find moon craters, flat areas and mountains.  I observe stars, such as faraway suns making their own money.  Look for shooting stars and meteor showers.  Find the Big Dipper, little Tipper, and Norstar on the handle of the little dipper.  See stars twinkling.  Find colors.  What animals and objects defining groups of stars?

Warm Sun and Cool Shade
Take the children outside on a nice sunny spot.  Have them stand there quietly and let the sun warmed their skins.  Make sure they're wearing sunscreen and sunglasses to protect them.  Ask them how they feel.  Have them move into the shade.  After a few minutes, ask them if the shade feels any different than sitting in the sun.  Let the children feel various objects that are in the sun, such as the ground, bark on a tree, leaves, sidewalk, window, metals such as around a door.  Which of these objects feel cooler?  Why?
 
 

SONGS:

Day-time, Night-time
Have the kids describe what happens on the earth during the day, and then at night. What do they like to do during the day and at night? Urge them to use all their senses when describing.

STORIES:

How the Sun Was Made
This Australian aboriginal legend tells about how the sun was made and why the kookaburra sings at dawn.

Once upon a time, before there was a Sun, it was very, very dark and very, very cold on the Earth.  In the faraway country of Australia there lived two friends, Dinewan the emu and Brolga, her human companion.  One day, these two had a quarrel. 

Dinewan could fly, and that made Brolga jealous.  Brolga became so jealous, in fact, that he tricked Dinewan into cutting off her powerful wings.  Now Dinewan had to spend her life walking along the ground. 

She was a happy emu and she liked walking along the ground, so she still had fun living in the forest.  Seeing his friend's happiness, Brolga was jealous again.  This time, he tried to break all of Dinewan's eggs.  In a fit of anger, he grabbed an egg and threw it into the sky.

The egg hit a pile of wood that a sky-spirit had gathered to make a fire.  The egg broke and the wood burst into flames.  Far below, the world lit up, and it looked so bright and beautiful that the spirit decided to light a fire like that every day. 

So each night, the sky-spirits collected a huge pile of wood to make a fire to light the world.  They told the kookaburras to wake the people asleep on Earth just before the fire was lit so that they could see the Sun rise.  And that's why the Sun rises everyday, and the kookaburra makes his loudest noise at dawn.
 

FOOD SUGGESTIONS:

Have any good food ideas? Let us know!
 

TIPS/NOTES: