It wasn’t always easy or flawless (at least on my end), but we made it, parents! Thanks for all your support; this literally wouldn’t have happened without your help. ☺ 1. Celebrate all you have learned. Watch and dance: https://youtu.be/_OwZ21WJ0Bc Happy Kids Storytime Groovy Joe Dance Party Countdown Learn the Bow Wow Disco Dance https://youtu.be/x10T_4F0WyQ Disco Party Bow WoW Learn the Dance 2. Parents make a row of 6’s with a highlighter. Let your child trace and then make a row of 6’s by themselves. Write your name then use a q-tip to dot over your name with paint or food coloring. 3. Parents draw different colors and sizes of circles. Let your child cut out and make a collage. 4. Look for round things at your house and paint and stamp with them- toilet paper tubes, bottle lids, corks, pencil erasers, cup bottoms, etc. You can add this element onto the collage you made. 5. Science fun: Parents provide a shallow pan of baking soda, several colors of diluted food coloring and eye droppers. Let your child drop circles of colored water in the baking soda for fizzy circles. 6. If you have old cd’s laying around, stick a marker in the center to make a top. Use a large piece of paper and show your child how to spin the marker to make circles. Change colors as they want and make spin doodles! 7. Parents draw ice cream cone shapes and write a number on each cone. Let your child cut out the cones. They draw with markers or crayons the number of ice cream scoops each cone gets. 8. Bubbles are circles. Cut off the bottom of a plastic cup and dip in bubble solution for big bubbles. Fly swatters make hundreds of tiny bubbles and the plastic rings off of drink 6pks make good bubbles, too! My favorite bubble recipe: 1 ½ Tablespoon white corn syrup, 1 quart of water and 1 cup of dish soap. 9. Make cookies together – a circle you can eat!
Tuesday 5/19
1. Parents make a row of 7’s with a highlighter. Let your child trace and then make a row of 7’s by themselves. Make a row of 8’s with a highlighter and let them trace and write. 2. Make your own swirl. Take a marker and make a dot and go around and around the outside of the dot, getting bigger each time around. Write the word: swirl. Write your name on the paper. 3. Find and Count: find 7 coins, find 8 blocks, find 7 shoes, find 8 crayons. Don’t forget to put them away after you count. 4. Watch and Dance: https://youtu.be/2CX-jFsVtR4 One From the Left( a finger play) This is a classroom favorite! Some of our movements are little different. 5. Chameleon’s have spiral tails. Read: https://youtu.be/Foghuhc75Ts A Color of His Own-Kids Books Read Aloud https://youtu.be/FrmZeXf7ScU The Mixed- Up Chameleon Illuminated films
Wednesday 5/20
1. Parents make a row of 9’s with a highlighter. Let your child trace over and then make a row of 9’s by themselves. Write your name. 2. Listen and do: https://youtu.be/qkRsbQ30K8Q Jump Up, Turn Around Jim Gill 3. Watch and Dance: https://youtu.be/bVq0qfidupQ Silly Dance Contest – Jim Gill and his band *A classroom favorite! *4. Parents please sit with your child and listen. This is from the Curious George Movie and I dedicate it to the Silver and Gold students and all the things their hands will accomplish. https://youtu.be/mRjDBd6tBBY With My Own Two Hands- Jack Johnson lyrics Thank you to Ms. Rachel who provided a way for me to continue teaching, just in a different way. Thank you to my husband, Clayton, for videotaping and all the bloopers and challenges that entailed. Thank you parents for all your support all year. Thank you boys and girls for being in my class. Have a fun summer! See you later, Ms. Sharon
Week 9
Monday 5/11
We’re in the home stretch now, parents! 1. Write your name. Tell each letter in your name to a parent. Count how many letters in your name. 2. Parents make sets of 5 or 6 letters on individual papers or cards. Lay the first set of letters on the floor with the letters facing up. Call out the letter and have your child run and stand on the correct letter. See if they can make the sound of the letter. 3. Take the letter cards and one by one let your child find things around the house that begin with that letter. A= apron, apple B=book, bag 4. Have a food letter day. Eat foods that begin with a specific letter. Pancakes for breakfast, pepperoni pizza , peaches, pineapple for lunch, popcorn or popsicles for snack, pasta, pink milk(food coloring) for supper. 5. Use sugar cookie dough and let your child form letters and bake. Frost, decorate, name the letter and eat! 6. Read: https://youtu.be/lf6p0DCLqSs Dr. Seuss ABC Playthrough *This is long, but is good language building and beginning sound practice. You can break it up into sections. 7. Read: https://youtu.be/6b9iW6nD77Q LMNO Peas Read Along Little Readers 8. Read: https://youtu.be/jhD2wjP0vI8 Sleepy Little Alphabet by Judy Sierra
Tuesday 5/12
1. Parents make a row of 2’s with a highlighter for your child to trace. Try making a row of 2’s by yourself. Write your name on your paper. 2. Two of something that matches is a pair. You have a pair of eyes, a pair of hands. What else on your body is a pair? Can you find other pairs in your house? 3. The cows jumped over the moon. How high can you jump? Can you jump over a pillow? Two pillows stacked on top of each other? Can you jump over two rolls of toilet paper? 3? How many stacked rolls can you jump over? Be sure and let me know! 4. Watch and dance: https://youtu.be/J4VzAIApkd0 Bunny Hop dance instructions. Dance with your family! 5. Count and move: https://youtu.be/_MVzXKfr6e8 Count to 20 Workout
Wednesday 5/13
1. Parents make a row of 3’s with a highlighter for your child to trace. Try to make a row of 3’s by yourself. Write your name on your paper. 2. The little bird had chores he had to do. He had to clean his room. Make a chore chart with your parent of simple chores you can do. *Chores are a great way to foster responsibility and build independent skills. 3. Watch and move: https://youtu.be/zyjuuySiwe0 Sammy/I’m Glad I’m Me 4. Watch and count: https://youtu.be/exsFIpQVNIw Counting Songs - Learning addition
Thursday 5/14
1. Parents make a row of 4’s with a highlighter for your child to trace. Try and make a row of 4’s by yourself. Write your name on your paper. 2. The monkeys copied the peddler. Play the mirror game with a partner. Sit facing each other and copy their movements. 3. Gather up hats at your house and count how many. Let me know how many hats you have! 4. Parents tell math stories with your hats. You have 5 hats and the wind blows 2 hats away. How many are left? You find 1 hat in a tree. Now how many do you have? 5. Have your child sort the hats. See if your child can come up with the different sets - baseball hats, winter hats, colors, etc. Count how many are in each set. 6. Make a newspaper hat. Paint it, decorate with plastic flowers or jewels or feathers or sequins or all of them ☺. 7. Watch and move: https://youtu.be/Y6M78qFRq24 Follow Me Patty Shakula
Friday 5/15
1. Parents make a row of 5’s with a highlighter for your child to trace. Try and make a row of 5’s by yourself. Write your name on your paper. 2. Parents take a paper plate and draw a spiral snake on the back and let your child cut out and decorate with markers, paints or crayons. Or cut up paper towel tubes and let your child decorate the sections. Hook the sections together with paper clips inserted into holes in each section (top & bottom). No paper clips? Punch holes and use yarn. The first tube will become the snake head. Remind your child to add eyes. Cut out a tongue and glue to the head tube. 3. Watch and move: https://youtu.be/xSsDbneWFJ8 The Elephant by Hap Palmer 4. Read: https://youtu.be/ziGnMmdyjjs Rumble in the Jungle/Online Picture Books
Have a wonderful weekend!
Week 8
Looking for Ms. Sharon's videos? Click the button below to find all of her videos for the week
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Here we go parents! 1. Write the word: Saturn. 2. Have your child color a paper plate or cardboard circle with markers. Make sure they are water based, not permanent markers. After “Saturn” is colored, give your child an ice cube to paint over the markers. Saturn’s rings are made of ice. When dry, add pipe cleaner rings. 3. Touch Saturn’s rings. Put ice cube in a plastic tub for sensory play. 4. It would be hard to get a spaceship through Saturn’s rings. Set up an obstacle course. Have your child hop over pillows, crawl under kitchen chairs, roll across the floor, step through yarn or crepe paper streamers taped low across a hallway, go in and out of small traffic cones or cans, hop in and out of hula hoops, jump and try to bit a balloon hanging up high. Watch: https://youtu.be/UyFYgeE32f0 Sleeping in Space Canadian Space Academy https://youtu.be/3bCoGC532p8 Chris Hadfield Brushes His Teeth in Space https://youtu.be/o8TssbmY-GM Wringing Out Water on ISS https://youtu.be/uIjNfZbUYu8 Karen Nyberg Shows You How to Wash Your Hair in Space *If your child is enjoying these space life videos, there are many more to choose from. Read: https://youtu.be/9wV8yw7iV8w If I Were an Astronaut Story Time From Space
Tuesday 5/5
1. Write the word and draw: planets Write your name. 2. Parents draw two circles and let your child cut them out. Make shaving cream or whipped cream paint. Color one paint cup blue-green with food coloring and child paints Uranus. Color the other paint cup light blue and child paints Neptune. * Mix equal parts shaving cream with white glue to make puffy paints. Add food coloring to make different colors. 3. Eat like an astronaut. Make pudding with your child and place in a ziplock bag. Clip one bottom corner so child can squeeze pudding into mouth. No pudding? Put applesauce or yogurt in the bag. Watch: https://youtu.be/KjRwlVhqlOU Astronauts Had a Pizza Party in Space https://youtu.be/tGoOa-pMpDM Dessert in Space https://youtu.be/Z2szk-NuKWg Peanut Butter and Jelly in Space
Wednesday 5/6
1. Write the word: Pluto Write your name. 2. Parents draw a small circle and let your child cut it out. Child can color or paint Pluto black. 3. Use boxes, paper towel tubes, toilet paper tubes, googly eyes, tape…. whatever you have laying around. Make a robot. What can your robot do? What is your robot’s name? Dance: https://youtu.be/-mZHBSxfamk Dancing Robots Song Learning Station This is a favorite!! I hope you dance together! Read: https://youtu.be/r5yZ8K7pb0Y Rosie Revere, Engineer Story Time From Space
Thursday 5/7
1. Write and draw the word: alien 2. What’s your alien’s name? What planet does he come from? What does he eat? How many eyes does he have? 3. Use a paper plate and bowl to make a flying saucer. Chinet holds up better to play, but any will work. Glue a wipe lid or any flip top lid to the top. Add a pom pom alien. Decorate your flying saucer. 4. Feed the Alien. Parents use a clear 2 liter empty bottle and cut the top off. Let your child decorate with an alien face. Permanent markers work best for this and won’t rub off. We have talked about permanent markers at school and how they won’t come out of clothes. Your child can then use kitchen tongs or tweezers to feed the alien. He likes to eat pom poms, popped popcorn, cotton balls – anything that can be picked up with tweezers. This is good fine motor work for fingers. Read: https://youtu.be/F2prtmPEjOc The Solar System Song (with lyrics) https://youtu.be/Xv9RphEP3yI Ten Little Alien Kids Ten Little Kids Songs https://youtu.be/2E3p_51tJx0 Five Little Men in a Flying Saucer Songs You Need to Sing in the Classroom https://youtu.be/hycPZ2jtmhQ Aliens Love Underpants with words, EFX and music
***Parents could you gather up a few things now for us to use tomorrow? Thanks! We need some colored paper- one needs to be green, scissors, glue bottle or glue stick, cupcake papers, markers or crayons and doo dads (beads or small buttons or pom poms, jewels or small stickers) . If you only have white paper, that will be fine.***
Thanks for team teaching with me parents! I appreciate all the support you have given all year☺ 1 .Parents use a highlighter and make a row of capital Z’s. Child traces over. Now do a row of lower case z’s. 2. Write your first and last name. 3. Can you make the letter Z with… popsicle sticks, sticks from outside, Legos, crayons, matchbox cars, pennies, birthday candles, rocks, playdough ? Send me a picture of your cool Z’s ☺. 4. Parents make a letter Z search for your child. Write random letters on a piece of paper. Child can circle all the z’s or use a dot marker or magic marker to dot the z’s. 5. Parents make a large Z on cardboard. Child can glue ziti pasta to make the Z. No ziti? Use cut up ribbon, paper strips or yarn and let your child glue zig zag zebra stripes on the Z. 6. Tape zig zag lines on the floor or draw with chalk on the driveway. Have your child walk on the line heel to toe without falling off. Can they tip toe on the lines? Look over their shoulder and walk backwards on the lines? Hop? Skip on the lines? 7. Read: Z is for Moose AHEV Library https://youtu.be/yCdb2KVzhak
Tuesday 4/28
*We will be making all the planets if you want to hang them from the ceiling or display on your child’s bedroom wall.
1. Write the word: crater Write your name. 2. Do your own crater experiment at home – outside ☺ 3. Parents draw a large circle on paper. Child cuts out the “Mercury” circle. Have your child roll a die to see how many crater circles to draw on Mercury. If you can’t find any dice, make number cards to turn over or use number cards from a deck of cards. Continue until your Mercury is full of craters. 4. Toss a bean bag, ball or double bagged rice bag back and forth. If you drop it, you’ve made a crater! 5. Read: Me and My Place in Space Story Time with Shelby https://youtu.be/d6othEERKKU
Wednesday 4/29
1. Parents draw a large circle. Let your child cut it out and color it yellow. Write on the circle : Venus 2. Write and draw the word: rocket 3. Make a cup rocket launcher. Draw or print a rocket shape and let your child cut it out and tape it to the top cup. Do a countdown and launch away! 4. Make moonsand for sensory play. Mix 4 cups of flour with 1 cup of baby oil. Add glitter for stars. (I’ve never tried using vegetable oil) Add marbles or rocks for planets. Moonsand will keep in a ziplock bag for several weeks. If it seems to dry out, add more baby oil. 5. Make a paper towel rocket. Cover paper towel tube with foil. Cut slits in top and bottom. Draw triangle fins and top for your child to cut out and color. Slide triangles in the top and bottom slits. Decorate with stickers. Lift off!
1. Write the word: Mars Write your name 2. Parents draw a Mars circle. Child cuts it out and colors it red in the middle with white at top and bottom of circle for ice. 3. Make a space shuttle. Parents cut out a bottom shape from poster board or cardboard. Cut an oval out of middles of a toilet paper tube. Glue toilet paper tube to space shuttle bottom. When dry, let child paint. You can print an astronaut figure to put in the oval to fly.
1. Write the word: Jupiter Write your name. 2. Put a paper plate in the bottom of a salad spinner. Squirt several colors of paint onto the paper plate. Use red for Jupiter’s Red Eye. Put salad spinner top on. *Place salad spinner on top of newspaper or on a foil covered cookie sheet in case paint drips out. Let child turn the handle and spin. Change directions and spin the other way. Jupiter spins! Older children enjoy this process, too. 3. Make a space board game on cardboard. Earth is home base. Make the moon or a planet the winning base. Add special spots - hit by an asteroid go back to home, ride a shooting star and move ahead 2 spaces, Mars Rover stuck in crater lose a turn, etc. Child rolls die and tells you the number of dots. Don’t do this part for them! Let them count and move. ☺
Hello fellow teachers! You know you have always been your child’s first teacher. You can do this! 1.Parents use a highlighter to make a row of capital Y’s to trace. Then have child write their own Y’s. Do the same with lower case y. 2. Trace the letters Yy in a sand, salt, rice or dirt tub. Shake and make more. Practice other letters, too. 3. You can put food coloring in your pot when cooking spaghetti to make colorful spaghetti. Use several pots for several colors. It’s fun to play with. You can make letter cards and let the kids make the letters with the spaghetti. Add tongs or tweezers for fine motor work. It gets sticky, but you can rinse it off, put it in the fridge for another day of play. It keeps about a week if you refrigerate it. Save a little to eat before play ☺ 4. Write your name. Can you write your name with spaghetti? Watch : Fair 2009 Yodeling & Whistling https://youtu.be/CuZx_hNdbI8 *Sorry for the yodeling you will probably hear at your house. Join in the fun! Read: More Spaghetti, Please Lee RebelTech https://youtu.be/PRrA2pvqEu8 Watch the story acted out by kids: The Roper Boys in a gastronomical adventure. https://youtu.be/ixgqDdh0VNY
Tuesday 4/21
1. Write and draw the word: star 2. Parents draw a large star and let child cut out. Paint or color . Red= cooler star, yellow= medium hot, blue= hottest star. 3.Paint a starry sky. Paint paper or cardboard black. Sprinkle with salt or sugar while the paint is still wet. 4. Parents cut out a set of star shapes in different colors – at least 10. Do math stories. You have 6 stars, but one fell away. How many are left? Let your child manipulate the stars to figure out the answer. 3 stars in one pile + 2 stars in this pile. How many stars all together? Make patterns with the stars. Red star, blue, yellow, red. What comes next? Put capital letters on some stars and lower case letters on others. Mix up and match the stars. Practice letter recognition by placing the letter stars face up. Tell your child to place a finger on the letter _. Read : There Was a Bold Lady Who Wanted a Star Jacqueline Durant-Harthorne https://youtu.be/0mPT5PKt2bo 5. Write your name. Practice your last name, too.
Wednesday 4/22
Happy Earth Day! 1. Write and draw the word: Earth 2.Write your name. 3. Parents help your child make a moon chart. You can use the calendar or make your own daily grid. Draw the moon each night. See how it changes. 4. Karo syrup makes a beautiful shiny paint when it dries. Use food coloring to color blue and green syrup. Paint a cardboard circle to look like the Earth. Remember most of the Earth is blue water. *It takes several days to dry. You can also use condensed milk if you don’t have Karo syrup. 5. Pick up trash outside to take care of our Earth. Plant flowers or trees. Toilet paper tubes make great starter pots for seeds. Just fold the bottom in and fill with dirt. They can be planted directly into the ground when the plant is bigger and the paper will break down. Good recycling! Read: Mooncakes Story Time for All Kids https://youtu.be/3L64rUL3zfw
Thursday 4/23
1.Write and draw the word: moon 2. Write your first and last name. 3. Watch Zoom Zoom Zoom We’re Going to the Moon Kiboomers- Kids Music Channel https://youtu.be//DEHBrmZxAf8 4. Use a flashlight for the sun. Have someone hold a ball (Earth) close to the “sun”. Put a sticker or dot on the ball to show where we live. Have the person walk in a circle around the flashlight sun. Show that when the sticker on the ball faces the sun we have daytime. When the sticker faces away from the sun in its path (orbit), we have night. This time as the Earth travels around the sun, spin in a circle as you travel in your orbit. Now have a third person hold a smaller ball (rolled up piece of foil maybe). The moon travels around the Earth as the Earth travels around the Sun. There’s a lot of movement up in space! 5. Make a moonscape. Cut a circle from cardboard. Let your child glue lids ( I like milk lids for this), beans and rice to the cardboard. If you glue the lid with the hole up, it will be a crater. Cover the entire circle with foil. Gently rub the foil around the lids and beans. 6. Eat the moon! Use a rice cake or bread circle and spread with cream cheese, peanut butter or whatever your child will eat. Use cheerios for craters.
Friday 4/24
1. Write the word: space 2. Write your first and last name. 3. Make a space pack. Use an empty 2 liter soda bottle or large juice bottle. Let your child fill it with all kinds of things like pipe cleaners, squeezed up foil rods, pom poms, packing peanuts, whatever you have. Have fun with it though! Channel your Star Trek and add dilythium crystals and radium fuel rods! In the classroom, I use old little girls tights or panty hose to make the shoulder straps. I fold each leg around to make an arm hole and use duct tape to tape it to the bottle. They are stretchy and go on easy. If you don’t have tights or panty hose, you could probably cut up a pair of old footless tights into long pieces. Before I figured out the tights, I used folded up newspaper. Not as easy to get on, but it will work. If you have a box to turn into a rocket ship, even better! Listen and dance: Cow Planet Dog Train https://youtu.be/e4iXrrbO_YY This has been a class favorite every year! They ask to do it over and over. We have no special moves; each time it’s just improve as the music moves us! The Dog Train songs are pretty funny if you want to check out more. Parents Only Extra Song- Nap Song ☺ Teacher’s favorite https://youtu.be/qLJsWPIKbFo Have a great weekend!
Week 5
Monday 4/13
Sending love and good thoughts your way, parents! 1. Parents draw a row of X’s with a highlighter. Let your child trace; then write a row of their own. 2 .Trace the letter X in sand, salt, rice or dirt tub or box. Shake and make more X’s. 3. X Marks the Spot- Parents make a treasure map for your child to follow. Draw long dashes for giant steps, dots for baby steps, make zigzag steps, twirly steps, hops can be little hills. Hop3 times, take 6 zigzag steps, 4 giant steps, etc. Don’t forget to put an X on the map to mark the treasure. I use a jewelry box shaped like a treasure chest at school, but any container with treasure inside would work. 4. Parents draw a simple treasure chest (rectangle with a dome top) for your child to cut out. Take dictation from your child. What’s inside your treasure chest? Where would you hide it? Make a map to hide your treasure chest. 5. Tape letter cards to a wall – only 5 at a time. Call out a letter and have your child shoot it with a nerf gun or rolled up sock ball. Good visual perception and letter recognition. 6. X is for X-ray. Trace your child’s arm – on dark paper if you have it. Let your child glue cut up Q-tips to make bones. 7. X Marks the Spot Dancing- Play music and child dances. Stop the music and the child raises arms and spreads legs to make an X. 8. Read How I Became a Pirate read by Paul Cuthbert https://youtu.be/y4m_BW5yddU
Tuesday 4/14
1.Write and draw the word: bug Write your name. 2.Bug glasses- use 2 sections of an egg carton, pipe cleaners to hook over ears and make antennas. Cut eye holes in the egg sections and decorate. Go find some bugs! 3.Paint ret and black spotted ladybug and yellow and black striped bee rocks. Teach your child how to play tic tac toe. No rocks ? – play using acorns, buttons, coins . 4. Print or make creepy crawling cards using thumbprints- bees, ladybugs, spiders, snakes. Practice patterns. Bee, snake ,bee, ___. Make patterns longer. Lids from the fruit pouches are good for this also. 5. Watch In The Tall, Tall Grass Children’s Library Hour https://youtu.be/DfEMvaAPNdM
Wednesday 4/15
1. Write and draw the word: Bee Write your name. 2. Take apart 10 plastic Easter eggs and place down on paper. Number each half with a number 1-20. Hide a bee picture or painted rock under an egg half. Child calls out the number he thinks the bee is hiding under. Good for number recognition and making predictions. 3. Blow up a yellow “bee” balloon. Child tries to hit the balloon and keep it from hitting the floor. Any color balloon will work, just call it a different bug ☺. 4. Parents draw a fat oval for a bee. Child colors or paints it yellow and black. Draw 2 oval wings for child to cut out for wings. Glue or staple empty toilet paper tubes together to make a bee hive for your bee. 5. Taste some honey if you have it. 6. Make a movement cube. Cover a Kleenex box with white paper or make a 6 sided cube with paper. Write one movement on each side. Child rolls and moves. 1.Wiggle like a worm 2.Move like a slow snail 3. Flap like a butterfly 4. Buzz like a bee 5. Crawl like a caterpillar 6. March like an ant. 7. Watch The Honey Bee and the Robber Read Aloud and Art https://youtu.be/yLTCSwNQ4r8
Thursday 4/16
1. Write and draw the word: ants Write your name. 2. Dancing Ants Science Activity- drop raisins in glass of club soda or Sprite or 7-Up. Do they float or sink? Keep watching. Now what is happening? The carbonated bubbles attach to the raisin and raise it to the top. When the bubble breaks, the raisin falls back down. 3. Tear an anthill shape from brown paper or brown grocery bag. And fingerprint ants or draw ants. Remember ants can be red, black or brown. 4. Make Ants on a Log snack. Spread peanut butter or substitute or cream cheese on pretzel log or celery piece. Add raisin “ants”. 5. Place plastic eggs in water tub or sink for sensory play. 6. Turn yesterday’s movement cube into a number recognition cube. Cover Kleenex box with paper and number each side 1-6. Make each child a number sheet with numbers underneath each other in a column. Child rolls cube, tells you what the number is and marks it on his number sheet. Variation: Roll the number cube, tell what the number is and count out that many items. Could use matchbox cars, lids, etc. 7. Watch The Ants Go Marching One by One Turtle Interactive https://youtu.be/Pjw2A3QU8Qg
Friday 4/17
1. Oatmeal Sensory tub- fill a small tub or box with dry oatmeal. Add measuring cups and funnels. Oatmeal feels soft on hands. 2.Stacking Plastic Eggs- Take plastic eggs apart to stack. How tall can you make your egg tower? How many eggs did it take to get that tall? 3. Play the Mashed Potato Game with your family. Make a series of question cards. Each person gets a turn getting asked a question, but the answer is always mashed potatoes. What do you want for your birthday? What’s your favorite ice cream? What do you use to wash your hair? What’s your name? What is in your pockets? What do you wash your face with? What’s your mom’s name? What do you brush your teeth with? 4. Draw with chalk outside. Give child a paintbrush ( for painting houses; they will ruin it) and a bucket of water and let them paint over the chalk when finished drawing. Let them paint the house with water. 5. Fill balloons with rice or beans or cornstarch to make squishy balls. Tie off the end and let child squeeze. Make all three for different textures. 6. Spray shaving cream on table top or baking sheet and let your child dive in with their hands. Very calming. 7. Make calming jar filled with corn syrup or glitter glue or clear glue or clear dish soap. Add glitter, sequins, small toys or letters. 8. Take small piece of paper or cardboard and make dot mazes. Lines can go round and round or up and down – any design. Child uses small rocks to place on the dots and make the design. I use these in the classroom and it is very relaxing. I like doing them, too! 9. Eye Spy Jars- fill a plastic bottle with rice and small toys and objects. Child spins and shakes jar to discover objects. 10. Thread pipe cleaners through a colander. Then take them out. Good fine motor, too. 11. A sink or bathtub full of soapy bubbles can work wonders and bring a smile. 12. Playdough and cookie cutters. Let them use children scissors to cut the playdough and strengthen hand muscles. 13. * Make a Mud Kitchen in your backyard. Going outside and actually touching nature is very calming; it’s called “grounding”. You don’t need an actual kitchen. Take old kitchen items to an area you don’t mind them digging up. Provide trowels, plastic sand shovels. If you have sand, add some to your area. Put a separate tub of water and say nothing. I will never forget the look on a little girl’s face when she added water to her dirt and with wonderment said, “I made mud!!!”. I have noticed a significant decompression with the kids when we use the Mud Kitchen at school. They ask to play there. We take cars and dinosaurs out there. I firmly believe every child needs to make mud pies. Children are washable ☺.
This week is Spring Break! Please join Ms. Toy as she reads "Good Night Yoga" and shows you how to do some yoga moves of your own.
Week 3
Monday 3/30
Please watch the videos first. ☺ 1. Write your name. 2. Write the word: Spring 3. Staple 2 toilet paper tubes together. Cover with paper and add yarn to go around the neck. Decorate with stickers and markers. You made binoculars! Go outside and look for signs of spring. 4. Make a checklist of spring things you might see in your yard. The kids love checking off lists! You can use pictures or read it to them. 1.green grass________ 7. flowers________ 2. tree buds__________ 8. birds___________ 3. worms_____________ 9. bird nest______ 4. bees______ 10. squirrels nest______ 5. rainbow______ 11. baby plants________ 6. dirt____________ 12. Leaves on tree___ 5. Make a worm jar. Fill a clear jar with dirt. Punch holes in the lid. Let the kids dig up worm to put in the jar. Cover outside of jar with dark paper. After a week or so, slide paper off and look for worm trails. Worm trails help garden plants get oxygen and water to the roots. 6. Start some seeds inside. Marigolds come up quickly. Wrap a dry lima bean (white) in a wet paper towel and place in a ziplock bag. Place in a sunny window. It will sprout roots quickly and you can plant. This youtube video shows you how to grow new veggies from old veggies. https://youtu.be/rk27954pr24 Read Jack and the Magic Beanstalk https://youtu.be/3pfNOs01741 *After reading the story I have often let the class plant some magic beans in a dixie cup- those speckled jelly beans and Easter grass. We guess what will grow in each cup. After we come back from spring break, we find that a lollipop has grown!
Tuesday 3/31
Watch the video first please. 1. Parents use a highlighter and make a row of capital and a row of lower case W’s. Let your child trace with a pencil. Make sure they pinch the pencil. 2. Trace a W in a small tray or box filled with sand, salt, corn meal, flour, rice or dirt. Shake the tray and make more W’s. 3. Write and draw the word: worm 4. Write your name. 5. Read Super Worm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0keNDquvZEE
Parents, if your child has a particular letter they are having trouble writing or recognizing, make your own silly story page. Let them cut out pictures from magazines or pictures you print off that begin with that letter. Glue them on paper. Say each picture: ___ letter is for the pictures ____, ________ and ______. Let them tell you a silly story using the pictures on the page. You could make the entire alphabet!
Wednesday 4/1
Watch the video first please. 1. Read When Spring Comes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_kNU3XpMew 2. If you have play dough, let your child make a Ww. 3. Parents write a big W on a piece of cardboard. Have your child trace with their finger. Remember to start at the top. Then glue items on the W – maybe white popped popcorn or white mini marshmallows cut in half(they stick without glue). 4. Write the word: wind 5. Write your name. 6. Parents draw a large diamond on paper (wrapping paper, newspaper). It’s going to be a kite. Let your child cut it out. What shape is it? A diamond! Color, paint, use stickers, ribbons to decorate. Don’t forget a tail. You can tape sticks to the inside in a t pattern. Add some string or yarn and let them run!
Thursday 4/2
Watch the video first please. 1. Read Baby Birds First Nest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7MiIiihuEo 2. Gather natural items- pine needles, sticks, leaves, dried grass and mix with a little glue and form a nest. Or use long pieces of yarn dipped in glue. Turn a small bowl or cup upside down and cover with foil or plastic wrap. Drag yarn pieces through glue and wrap around the covered bowl or cup. When dry, peel the foil/saran wrap off the nest. 3. Parents draw an oval nest shape. Use brown paper or grocery bag or let the child color or paint white paper brown. Let your child cut out the nest and glue it to another paper. Their handprint becomes a bird. The thumb is up as the head and the other fingers are to the side as the feathers. You can draw their hand or paint their hand to make a handprint on top of the nest. 4. Cut out several nest shapes and write numbers on them. Turn them facedown. Your child turns one over at a time and tells you the number. That is how many eggs go in that particular nest. Eggs can be jelly beans, small rocks, dot markers, or fingerprints. Number 3 = 3 fingerprints in the nest Good number recognition and one to one counting correspondence. 5. Write and draw the word: nest. 6. Write your name. In case you are running out of paint at your house, here is a paint recipe. ☺ Simple Cornstarch Paint 1 Cup of water 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch Several drops of food coloring Mix water, cornstarch and food coloring in saucepan. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes, stirring until thick. Remove from heat and cool. Store paint in airtight container when not in use.
Friday 4/3
Please watch the video first. 1. Draw and decorate a birthday cake for Jocelyn. Put 5 candles on it. 2. Parents draw a big egg shape for your child to cut out. After it is cut, have the child cut it in half. Glue the bottom half onto paper. If you have a paper brad, attach it to the paper so the egg top opens and closes. If no brad, just glue the top onto the paper so it looks open. Have your child draw what would hatch from their egg. Take dictation- what does it eat, where will it live, what is its name? 3. Make your own shaker eggs. Fill plastic Easter eggs with some beans or rice. Tape around the seam. Use your shaker egg to sing Laurie Berkner’s I Know a Chicken https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E7l0JPgclE This is always a favorite song! I hope you do it! ☺ 4. It’s Friday! Don’t forget to circle up and Chicken Dance! https://youtu.be/4xmV5uHWNag 5. Use plastic eggs for letter recognition- but only 5 at a time! Capital letter on one half; lower case letter on the other half. Take eggs apart and have them match correct letters together. Can also use for number recognition. Use a permanent marker to make dots on one half and the number on the other half. 6. Fill plastic eggs with movement ideas. Child picks an egg and does what it says. Hop on one foot, walk like a penguin, jump like a frog, etc. 7. Write and draw the word: egg Write your name. Have a wonderful Easter time. Stay well. More Home Distance Learning coming on April 14.
Week 2
Hi Parents! See, you are super heroes! ☺ Here’s my favorite play dough recipe. It keeps a long time in a ziplock bag- no refrigeration needed. You can jazz it up with glitter or scents. Great for creativity and strengthening hand muscles needed for pencil work. I put plastic knives, pizza cutters, forks and cookie cutters with it. 1 cup all purpose flour ½ cup salt 2 teaspoons cream of tarter 1 cup of water 1 Tblspoon oil 1 teaspoon oil Combine flour, salt & cream of tarter. Add liquids and stir til smooth. Cook over medium heat ,stirring constantly until a ball forms. Remove from heat and kneed. Store in ziplock.
Monday 3/23
Please watch the video first. 1. Write your name. Write the word: stick 2. Can you use your sticks to make the things in the book? Make a flag – cut out the flag, decorate it and tape it to your stick. Make a T. Make 4 legs, body and 1 sword. Draw a head for the body. Use your 6 sticks to make a clubhouse. Decorate it. Make a door and windows. Is your clubhouse in a tree? How do you get to your clubhouse? 3. Watch: Six Sticks for Three Snare Drums and Band on youtube. https://youtu.be/Kt5KXnGf2g
Find a coffee can or plastic container and make a drum. Make some music with your drum.
Tuesday 3/24
We are still using our sticks from yesterday. Watch: Not a Stick by Diane Alber on youtube. https://youtu.be/k2qvwumtECw 1. Parents, draw a star shape. Kids, cut out the star. Decorate (ribbons, yarn, crepe paper streamers) and glue or tape the star to the top of a stick. It’s a magic wand! What would you wish for? 2. Color a stick with markers or crayons. It you have pom poms or beads or buttons, glue them down your stick._oooooo___. It’s a caterpillar! Color a coffee filter or paper towel with markers. Spray or drop water on and watch the colors spread. When dry, add these wings and turn your caterpillar into a butterfly. 3. Lay your sticks out to make a road or a train track. Can you find something in your house to make a ramp? 4. Gather 20 popsicle sticks or sticks from outside. Make number cards 0-20 and turn face down. You child can turn over a card, tell you the number and count out that many sticks. If they don’t recognize all the numbers, it’s ok. Tell them and help them count. 5. Add sticks to the play dough play and see what happens. 6. Write your name.
Wednesday 3/36
Two videos today ☺ 1. Write your name. 2. Write and draw the word you feel – happy, sad, scared, bored, tired 3. Show your family how to take care of big feelings inside by blowing out the candles on a cake. Remember to blow 3 big blows. Blowing can help “blow “ away bad feelings. Sometimes you can hug a teddy bear as tightly as you can to squeeze out big feelings. Sometimes we feel like hitting. It’s ok to hit a pillow. Pillows, not people! Talk about what could help your feelings change. 4. For guaranteed giggles – Roll up socks and have an indoor snowball fight. Play Paper, Rock, Scissors Hide a special treat and let your child find it. Have the kids hide their eyes and count to 10 while you hide the treat. *Parents, this is a stressful time for you. It’s okay to feel your feelings, too. Go to the closet and scream into a pillow or hit the pillow to get rid of some stress if you need to. I have “adult play dough” someone gave me. It’s got lavender in it and it is soothing to squish and mold ☺ You aren’t alone. Feel free to email me if you need to. I don’t know all the answers, but I will listen and that can help ☺
Thursday 3/26
Happy Birthday Charlotte!!
1. Write your name. Draw a birthday cake for Charlotte. 2. Watch: Silly Dance Contest by Jim Gill and his band on youtube. This is a favorite in the classroom. https://youtu.beVqOqfidupQ 3. Find some junk – toilet paper tubes, pipe cleaners, buttons, beads, foil, packing peanuts, marshmallows, toothpicks, etc. Make a silly sculpture.
Friday 3/27
Dance today! Parents, there is a huge connection between brain development and learning with big body movements. I’ve included our favorite bean bag dance.
Watch the video first. 1. Write your name. Write: move 2. Use bean bags or double bagged ziplock bags of rice or beans. Have kids toss and catch to themselves. Throw bags back and forth with a partner. 3. Watch and do : Bean Bag Dance on youtube. https://youtu.be/4Rri2xpvhxo 4. Twister is a great movement game. 5. Make movement cards. Move like a kangaroo, a bear, etc. 6. Another fun movement game we play- The Children Are Sleeping. The children are sleeping. The children are sleeping. And when they woke up they were…. Cats, dogs, lions. * If it gets crazy and loud, have them be butterflies, snails, sloths, etc. ☺
Have a good weekend!
Week 1
Wednesday 3/18
Hi Parents! We use the calendar every day to practice skills like counting, predicting, patterning. You can use your calendar at home in the same way. Draw or use stickers in a series of 3-4 pics to establish a pattern- ex. flower, sun, tree, bird. Cover up current and upcoming numbers. Yesterday was number 17, today is ? Clap or hop as you count together. The more senses you involve, the better the learning. What picture will be next on our pattern? Say the pattern together. Unmask the current day on the calendar to see if you were right. ☺ The kids can also teach you the days of the week song. Every day have them write their name. Use a highlighter and trace out your last name and let them trace over and learn their last name. I have put together a few ideas to use each day to keep skills sharp , provide some fun and keep them a little busy. Watch the video each day first and then the activities as you can or want to.
Wed. March 18, 2020 1. Have someone trace your foot. Cut out your footprint. 2. Write your name on your footprint. Then write: foot. 3. Decorate your footprint any way you like- crayons, stickers, paint, chalk. 4. Now, you trace one foot of everyone in your family. 5. Sort the foot tracings from smallest to largest. *Save your footprint for tomorrow!
Thursday 3/19
More fun things today to do with your footprint! 1. Take your footprint and measure. How many of your footprints to be as long as your bed? As tall as your refrigerator? Measure your family. How many footprints to be as tall as mom or dad? 2. Feet are important. We need feet to stand and walk. What things can you do with your feet? Hop, jump, skip, run, tap, stand on one foot, switch and stand on the other foot. Your feet can even paint! Parents, tape large paper to the wall. Kids, lay on your back and hold the paintbrush with your toes and paint. No paint? Use crayon or markers. 3. Put a tapeline on the floor and have your child walk on the line – heel to toe. Can they go backwards ? 4. Place pillows on the floor and jump from pillow to pillow. The floor is “hot lava.” ☺ 5. Write your name. Write the word: jump Extra story "Who Has These Feet" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUjGvCi1mA4
Friday 3/20
1. After you dance, your feet need to go outside for some fresh air. Put on your fast shoes. Take your feet to the backyard and RUN! 2. Place several colors of paint pie tins (that you can throw away). Turn on some music. Let your child step in paint and dance on a large sheet of paper , cardboard or old sheet. Change colors and keep on dancing. Yes, I do this activity in the classroom. ☺ 3. Write your name. Write the word: dance Have a good weekend! Ms. Sharon
