I am so excited to share some activities for you to do at home with your families this week!
Parents, please know that these activities are intended to provoke wonder, curiosity and excitement (not stress or panic)! Complete the activities in a way that fits into your daily schedule and home routine. If you don't get to everything, please don't worry. Work through things at your child's pace and send me periodic updates along the way!
Please refer to the Weekly Schedule for an overview of our activities for the week. Each schedule will be housed in our Google Drive folder and will be updated every Tuesday morning. The blog is intended to provide resources and photos to accompany the weekly schedule.
TUESDAY
We're learning about the letter Y today! We usually start by coming up with a fun action to help us remember the sound our new letter makes.
Head to Starfall and click on the letter Y:
Here are some fun YouTube videos about the letter Y:
(I usually skip the first 2 minutes of these videos)
Time to print and draw! If you have access to a printer, there are letter printing sheets in the Literacy folder of our Google Drive. But these are really not necessary. Any piece of paper will do. Have your child practice printing both upper and lower case Ys and have them draw 4 things that begin with the letter Y. They should confidently be able to write and sound out words to accompany what they have drawn. If that's too easy, have your child write a silly sentence about what they have drawn. For example, "The yellow yak is yawning while playing with a yo-yo."
WEDNESDAY
Head outside and search for the Y shape in nature! Pay particular attention to the trees. Can you find a perfect Y tree? Are there any leaves or buds on the trees yet? Snap some pictures if you can :)
When you get back home, take out your favourite drawing supplies and get ready to learn my favourite way to draw a tree. I am using white paper and a permanent pen. Start by drawing a big Y on your paper.
Then just keep adding more Ys to your tree! Make sure to include some uppercase and lowercase Ys.
When I have the shape of the tree I like, I make the trunk a little bit thicker and add a few background details.
Now time for the leaves!
I'm going to colour my picture using watercolour paint but you can use whatever art supplies you have on hand! Markers or crayons would work too :)
VOILA! A beautiful Y tree!
I can't wait to see yours!
THURSDAY
Today is dedicated to creating some sensory play in your home!
This activity will look very different depending on what you have around your house, but I am confident that each of you can put together something with what you already have lying around. If your child takes part in the creation of your sensory bin, they will be that much more excited about playing with it.
The world's easiest sensory experience will require a bin or large container of some sort, some water, and something to scoop and pour the water into. Kiddos love transferring liquids from one vessel to another. This is what a science experiment looks like for a kindergartener. They are learning to make a guess or theory about what might happen, test it out, modify their strategy and try it again. Here are some fun water sensory ideas (I would recommend putting a towel or tablecloth underneath for easy clean-up):
Clean the dinos!
If you feel like braving something other than water, chickpeas, pasta, ice, beans, rice, sand or dirt are fun options too. Do you still have snow in your backyard? Bring it inside! Add characters or animals for a fun twist.
Coloured rice
Dyed chickpeas!
I cannot take credit for all of these amazing sensory bins. I've taken many of these images from some of my favourite Instagram accounts. Thank you to @creationspaceyeg (the queen of all things process art), and @happytoddlerplaytime for your photos and ideas.
FRIDAY
I cannot take credit for all of these amazing sensory bins. I've taken many of these images from some of my favourite Instagram accounts. Thank you to @creationspaceyeg (the queen of all things process art), and @happytoddlerplaytime for your photos and ideas.
FRIDAY
I do realize that Friday is a holiday. Feel free to postpone the Passion Project activity for sometime next week. But if you feel inspired to get this started, I would love to hear about it!
One of the biggest challenges of teaching from home is not being able to personalize my instruction to each and every student. At school, I am constantly modifying my instruction and the activities presented based on the students' interests and skills. I am excited about this opportunity for every child to dig deeper into something they are really interested in.
Today's task is to help your child choose the topic they would like to begin investigating and then to have them write a few things they wonder about that topic. I would like them to attempt to write the first couple questions but if they have many more questions, feel free to help record them.
I wonder how many different kinds of fish there are.
I wonder why sharks have sharp teeth.
I wonder what sharks eat.
I wonder how deep the ocean is.
I'd love to know what your topics are! Whenever you have a free moment this week or next, please let me know what your child has decided to investigate.
A few last things:
Within our Google Drive Kindergarten Goodies folder, you will find some literacy and mindfulness resources. I will provide more information about these items as time goes on, but feel free to poke around and explore what's there.
Each morning and afternoon in kindergarten, we began our carpet time together by taking some deep breaths and pulling one of our positive self-talk cards. The special helper would choose the card each day and we would talk about what it means. This was a highlight of our days and the kids were always so excited to find out what the card of the day would be. I have included a colour and black and white version of these cards in the Self Regulation folder. Your kiddos would be so excited to continue this routine at home.
Don't forget to check out the MUSIC activities Ms. Lecocq has offered for us! They can be found in our Google Drive folder as well.
As always, please do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions. I am here for you! If there is something else I can be doing to support your child's learning at home, please let me know.
Keep in touch! Send me updates when you find a free moment. I love seeing what you're up to!
I MISS YOU!!!! Sending big hugs your way!
Miss Roberts :)
P.S. I hear red solo cups make fantastic building blocks! Check out these cool creations and other fun things our friends are doing at home...
