Learning Activities

April 8-14

Belonging and Contributing:

-Organize and tidy the ‘shoe area’ in your mudroom or shoe closet at home. Pair shoes up with their mates. Put shoes that are alike in some way together (e.g., athletic shoes, boots, shoes that belong to a particular family member). When you are done, go and give your parents a big hug and tell them that you love them.

-Discuss with a parent some plans for a small garden in your backyard for this summer. Consider what you might want to plant...flowers or perhaps lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes or maybe even watermelon (if you have lots of space). Write out a shopping list of things that you will need (e.g., peat pots, soil, seeds, etc…). Draw a picture of what you want your garden to look like. Post it in a place where your family will see it. You may want to name your garden. If so, choose a name that means something to you. 

Self-Regulation and Well-Being:

-Talk with a parent about things that you can do when someone is bothering/annoying you (e.g., ask politely for them to stop, ignore, walk away, etc…). 

-Do 5-10 minutes of light aerobic activity each day on your patio, deck or in your family room if space permits. Encourage other family members to join you. Come on, Mom and Dad. You’ll enjoy it, too. 

-With an adult assisting you, make a fruit platter with three different kinds of fruit on it for the family to enjoy as a snack. Talk about why fruit makes a good, healthy snack. 

Demonstrates Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours:

-Consider developing a PenPal relationship with a classmate or friend who lives in your neighbourhood. Write a short letter to your friend. Perhaps include a picture, too. Put it into an envelope and address it with his/her name. While out on a walk with a family member, place the envelope into their mailbox. Be sure to include your address on the ‘return address’ so that your NEW PenPal can write back and deliver you a letter in a similar kind of way. Letters can be as long or short as you wish. Pictures you’ve drawn are nice, too.

-Create your own APRIL calendar. Decorate it with drawings which make you think of spring such as flowers, ladybugs, clouds and rainbows. Write numbers 1-30 on your calendar, one for each day of the month. Record the weather that we experience each day (e.g., rain, sunny, cloudy, etc…). At the end of the month, count up and see how many days of each type of weather we had. Which type of weather did we have the most of? Least of? Show those numbers in two different ways (e.g., tallies, ten frame, numeral, etc…). Sing the ‘Days of the Week’ song. Have conversations about what you did ‘yesterday’ and what you might do ‘tomorrow.’

Problem Solving and Innovation:

-Here is a problem for you to solve:  Pretend that you are visiting a farm and you have just walked into the barn. Standing in front of you is an animal with four legs and a tail. What animal could it be?  Draw a picture of your animal. Write a sentence about your animal. I would LOVE to collect some of your ‘Problem Solving Pictures’ and post them on our Blog. Remember, however, not to send a picture of yourself, only your drawing and writing. 

-Can you create something using a small collection of nuts, bolts, screws, nails, etc…? Ask a parent nicely if they might find you a jar full of assorted ‘building fasteners.’ You can make your creation either two- or three-dimensional. Take a picture of what you have make and post it on REMIND. Tell us something about your creation. What will you come up with?

More Learning From Home

GI works on mass and capacity concepts

HH-D added a 'springtime touch' to letter and number writing.

PM agrees that learning letters and their sounds is a lot of fun on the computer. 

Power Words

Power Words are 'high frequency' sight words that are taught to students beginning in Kindergarten. We use these words each day in our conversations with each other and in our reading and writing. As students work with these words and begin to commit them to memory, the easier it will be for them to progress in their reading and writing skills.

How to introduce a Power Word:
Print off and post the entire list of Power Words in a prominent location in your home near the area where your child is doing his/her school work. The list can be found on this blog in the 'Downloads' section to the right of this post. Each day a Power Word is introduced to the students, beginning at the top of the list with the word 'a.' To date, we have already introduced a, and, away, big, blue, can, come & down. Our next introduction will be the word 'find.' Here is how we do it in the classroom...

-Write the word onto a piece of paper, a whiteboard or a card. Show it to your child. Talk about how many letters are in the word. What are their names? Are they sky, grass or dirt letters (More on that in a moment)?
-Have your child look at the word and say it with you several times.
-As the parent, orally use the word in a few sentences. (e.g., The Easter Bunny hopes that we find all of the eggs he will leave for us.)
-Together, spell the word out...f--i--n--d.
-Ask your child to 'cheer' the word using sky/grass/dirt arm gestures (s/he will understand what you mean by that and can teach you to do it with him/her. Sky letters are letters like 'f 'and 'd'--hands high above your head, grass letters are letters like 'i' and 'n'--hands on your waist, dirt letters are letters like 'g' and 'y' and 'p'--hands touching the ground).
-Ask your child to 'write the word' in the sky or on the floor or in the palm of their hand using their finger.
-You may ask your child to think of a sentence using the word and share it with you, too.
-Then, tell your child to read through the list 3-5 times with you in order up to and including the word that you have just introduced. Remind them that they need to look directly at the word they are reading and say the word which you are touching under. This is very important in committing the words to memory. 

Try to introduce a new word every other day. Be sure and read through the word list in order each day repeatedly 3-5 times in one sitting. As you sense that your child is beginning to commit these words to his/her memory, you may want to put them on flashcards and present them to him/her out of order. I would only recommend this for SK's who are confident and demonstrating ease with their word learning. 

As you read stories to your child OR your child reads stories to you, point out Power Words that you run across. Praise them for recognizing these words. Encourage them to also use these words in their writing. Expecting too much too soon can lead to your child feeling overwhelmed and defeated by the process. **JK parents may want to scale all of this back a bit and just introduce the words and read through them 3 times each day.**

Have fun with this activity. Make it a small part of your daily learning routine. You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly your child will catch on and learn these important Power Words (sight words).  

Learning From Home 

is Lots of Fun!

Here are just a few examples of the amazing things that some of our K-1 families are doing this week.

MD and his mother have been learning about animal homes and the ways in which animals get food. While on a neighbourhood walk, they saw a squirrel's nest, a bird's nest and a wasp nest. After returning home, M took the ingredients found in the picture on the left and made bird feeders. The picture on the right shows the feeder hanging from a tree in M's backyard.

MM has been hard at work labelling different objects in her home.

While on an afternoon walk with a parent, PM explored texture and quantity outside.

Following the 'fun in the rain' activity on Monday, 

L and L drew and coloured a picture of what they experienced in their yard.

Thank you for sharing!

Learning From Home

in K-1

April 1- April 7, 2020

Here is a collection of fun and engaging activities you can use to keep your child engaged and actively learning while self-isolating in your home this week.

Belonging and Contributing:

• Helping around the house:  set the table for a meal; help put away dishes after they’ve been washed and dried; make up your bed
• Pet care:  feed, groom or clean up after a family pet
• Help prepare a family treat:  assist a parent with making cookies; prepare ‘ants on a log’ (cream cheese or peanut butter spread on celery sticks with raisins on top) for an afternoon snack for the family
• Working with a parent, dye and decorate Easter eggs

Self-Regulation and Well-Being:

• Talk about your feelings. Draw a picture of yourself showing how you are feeling (e.g., sad, happy, excited, bored…). Talk about what has made you feel that way
• Review good hand-washing practices. Watch a YouTube video on proper hand-washing (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07YNCFlS0iI)
• Dance for 5-10 minutes to your favourite song

Demonstrates Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours

• Make a book about hand-washing. Have a parent staple some pages of paper together. Trace around your hand on each page. Write a few words which identify the steps in proper hand-washing (e.g., wet hands, use soap, rub hands, between fingers…) Encourage your child to sound out the words that s/he needs on each page. Add details and colour each picture
• Read a book at your reading level. Parents can access a 14 day free trial at www.readinga-z.com on the internet and download books your child might be interested in reading. There are thousands of books on the site levelled from aa-z

• Pick a number between 1-10. Show that number in as many ways as you can (e.g., as a numeral, tallies, five/ten frame, dice, dominos, word, fingers on your hand(s), a number story 1+1=2, picture, number line, etc…
• Go on a number hunt around the house. Have a parent choose a number between 1-10. Look around the house and find as many places as you can where that number appears

Problem-Solving and Innovating

• Put a puzzle together
• Build a tower out of your favourite building material (e.g., Lego, Duplo, foam blocks, etc…) that is taller than you are. Draw a picture of it
• Wondering at the Window: find a window in your home and look out of it for five minutes. What trees and plants do you see? What animals do you see? What are the animals doing? Do you see any insects? If so, what are they and how many of them are there? Talk with an adult about a question you might have. For example:  I wonder what that bird is doing? OR How many ‘signs of spring’ can you see from your window? What are they?

LEARNING FROM HOME

Have you visited the DSBN website (www.DSBN.org) and checked out the wonderful learning material awaiting you there? Log in and click on...

Learn From Home

     then click on...

Elementary K-8 Resources

     then click on...

Early Years (Kindergarten)

There you will find several activities in each of these categories--

   Belonging and Contributing
   Self-Regulation and Well-Being
   Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics      Behaviours
   Problem-Solving and Innovating
   Indigenous Education
   English as a Second Language

Feel free to choose ideas that suit your child's interests and mood. To begin with, try one activity each day. Check back here on Wednesday for MORE engaging ideas and fun learning activities. We hope that your child enjoys him/herself and has a good time. 

A New Way of Learning

Much has happened over the past few weeks and many changes have occurred as a result. We are glad that you have taken the time to visit our classroom blog for ideas and support which will help you keep your child actively engaged in his/her learning over the next several weeks. We in K-1 will be using this blog in combination with the REMIND App to offer you some fun activities which can be implemented at your leisure to stimulate and motivate your child while at home. Use what you wish. By no means do we expect for your child to complete each and every task. You decide 'what tasks' you wish to do and 'when' you want to do them. By all means, have fun with these activities. Talk to your child and discuss what you are noticing/learning. Keep the conversation positive and encouraging. A little praise goes a long way!

Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, you will receive a suggested activity to share with your child. on the REMIND App. As well, each Wednesday there will be posted on this blog a brief list of additional ideas/activities which you can select from if your child is wanting more to do. Keep the conversation going with your child and notice which activities s/he is most interested in doing. You may wish to concentrate on a particular activity for more than one day. That's okay. Above all else, have fun!!!

If you wish to share something which your child has accomplished with a particular activity, take a picture or short video and send it to Mr. Pickett and Miss Pietrobon using the REMIND App. We would love to see what you have been up to and how things are going. If you have concerns or questions, message us through REMIND and one of us will get back to you as soon as possible. 

Even though there is a great deal of uncertainty and concern about the impact which this situation could potentially have on us, try to find the blessings that it also brings with it. For me, I have appreciated the concentrated amounts of time that I am getting to spend with my wife and family members residing in our home. Time is a precious commodity and this 'pause' has helped me gain an even greater appreciation for it and the blessings which it has afforded us over the past few weeks. 

Please take care of yourselves. Eat well. Sleep well. Wash your hands frequently. Read. Play games. Talk about things that bring you joy. Create something beautiful. Share with others and show them kindness. We will get through this and we will all be better for having gone through it on the other side. Finally, know that you are all on our minds and in our thoughts each day.