Author: leen

Week Nine Learning Activities

June 9, 2020 leen No Comments Week Nine Learning Activities

Hello Families,

The end of our Kindergarten year is fast approaching and I am sure many of you have mixed feelings about this as do we. While our final term of learning has been very different than what we imagined it would be, it has given us a chance to learn more about our students and their lives at home. For some students, learning remotely has allowed them to feel more comfortable and confident in expressing and sharing their learning. It has been such a meaningful and special experience for us all. Thank you once again for your support, and putting your child’s learning as a top priority during these unique and unprecedented circumstances!

                                              *** Important Assignment for REPORT CARDS ***

(For Mrs. Nero and Ms. Maratovic’s classes ONLY. Mrs. Lee’s class DOES NOT need to do this as they have already completed this. If your child is attending class, you do not need to do this.  Only the students doing remote learning can do the self-assessment at home.  )

Please interview your child and ask them the following questions. You may need to rephrase the questions and give examples to help your child answer. Please scribe your child’s responses to them and send them to your teacher by no later than this Friday June 12th.

  1. What did you like the best about being in Kindergarten?
  2. What are your hopes for Grade One?
  3. What can you do to calm yourself down when you are upset or frustrated?
  4. What did you learn at home during remote learning?

BEACH FUN!

What do you like doing at the beach? Write about an adventure you are having at the beach. What creatures did you see? What were they doing? Don’t forget to write with your neatest printing and draw a picture with lots of detail and colour!

Click here to get your writing page and creature pictures. Once on the site, click the Download button at the bottom of the page, type in your email address, and the pages will be sent to you.

                       

Collections

A collection of things is a group of similar items that interest you. The items are usually fairly small so they can be played and looked at easily.

Some things you can collect: shells, rocks, coins, stamps, stickers, hockey/baseball/Pokemon cards, kinder surprise toys, McDonald Happy meal toys, mini cars, Shopkins figures, lego, items that are all one colour like all pink or all green things, etc.

Take a picture of your collection and send it to your teacher. Why do you like these items? How do you play with your collection? Can you sort your collection into different groups?

Here is Mrs. Lee’s collection of shells and coral.

I like these items because every time I look at them, it reminds me of the time I was at the beach, and in Hawaii. I like to touch the smooth and prickly shells and bumpy coral. I like to lay them out and look at all the pretty shapes and colours. I have 7 shells and 8 coral (7 + 8 = 15 in total). There are 3 cone shaped, 2 smooth, 1 fan shape and 1 prickly shell. There are 5 coral that are bumpy with holes and 3 coral that are smooth.

Rainbow Fish

Listen to the story “The Rainbow Fish”. It is a classic story (one that has been read and enjoyed for many years). The story talks about the importance of sharing and friendship. After reading the story, make your own rainbow fish! You can use this template (scroll down and click Printable Rainbow Fish template once you are on the site), or draw your own fish. You can use felts or paint to colour it. You can use a pompom or cotton ball and paint to make the round fish scales. Add glitter to some of the scales if you wish. Who will you share your glitter scales with?

 

Watch the video on Mystery Science and find out: “Why fish can’t breathe on land.”

TYING SHOES

Tying shoes is an important skill to have for Grade One. In the story “I Can Tie My Shoes”, find out several different ways to tie shoes. Remember to practice lots over the summer!

GAK (aka: fun slime) Recipe

Have some fun with your child and make GAK! It only requires 4 ingredients so it is simple to make. The recipe asks for Borax which is a cleaning detergent/powder and can be found in the laundry aisle at the store usually in a box.

 

June Music Activities

(Message from the Music teachers)

The theme of June is opera! We will start by watching an opera that you would have seen live at Marlborough. It is called “The Flight of the Hummingbird”. “This piece is based on an Indigenous story from the Quechuan people of South America. The story travelled as far as Haida Gwaii. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did! We will begin by watching the opera, it is about 45 minutes. Then you can choose one of the activities to complete and submit.

If you would like to try another delicious recipe here is one from Dhanush. It is an Apricot Upside Down Cake. We hear it is absolutely wonderful. Click here to go to the Recipes tab. 

Have a great week and keep sending your child’s learning to your teacher!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Lee, Ms. Maratovic and Mrs. Nero

 

Week Six Learning Activities

May 19, 2020 leen No Comments Week Six Learning Activities

Hello Families! We are on Week Six of remote learning and it has been such a positive learning experience for us all! Thank you for continuing to support your child at home. It is greatly appreciated!

BUTTERFLIES!!

We are very fortunate to have the unique opportunity to learn about Painted Lady butterflies for the next three weeks! Mrs. Lee will be sharing her home with 6 of these little creatures, and will be giving updates every few days as to how they are doing. There is a new tab on our menu above called “Painted Lady Butterflies”. Go to this tab to find updates and links to anything butterfly related. For this week though, we have included the butterfly activities and links on the home page. We hope this experience will be fun and exciting for everyone!

DAY 1

Butterflies start off as caterpillars. They are very small. They will be living in a small plastic tub with a layer of food (soy, wheat and vitamins) on the bottom for the caterpillar to eat. They will mainly eat and rest for up to 14 days or until they move onto the next stage in their development. We can keep track of their growth with a Butterfly Journal. Mrs. Lee has started one and you can too! Click here to get a copy of the Butterfly Journal.

 

Science: Why are Butterflies So Colourful?

Watch this video from Mystery Science to find out more. After watching the video, click on “Extensions” or the blue tab “Hands on Activity” to make a paper butterfly. There will also be instructions on how to make a flower card for the butterfly to rest in at the end of this craft video. Take a photo or video of your paper butterfly flying!

Click here to see how to draw a butterfly. Add patterns to your butterfly. Make the pattern symmetrical (the left side is the same as the right side). After drawing and colouring your butterfly, write a story about your butterfly. Where did it fly to? What adventure did it go on?

Check out the new story in our Storybook Corner called “From Caterpillar to Butterfly”.

Make origami butterflies! Don’t forget to watch Mrs. Rawnsley read “Butterflies for Kiri” before you make them.

 

Make Word Family flowers! A word family is a set of words that have the same endings and sound the same, but the first letter(s) is (are) different. For example the “-ap” word family includes: cap, map, lap, tap, flap, etc. There are 4 word families included in this activity, but you can make more word families by making different flower centers and petals. Other word families you could use: -at, -ed, -op, -in, -ug. Make a garden full of Word Family flowers!

Create a story. Go to Scholastic Story Starters. Spin the wheel and see what interesting or silly character you will write about. Use your imagination! You can draw a picture of your story and print it out too! Happy writing!

Make your own Glitter or Sensory Calm down Jars to support your child’s social and emotional needs. This jar is a container usually filled with a liquid solution where different materials can float and flow creating a visually soothing and pleasant experience. By shaking the jar and watching the glitter slowly fall down to the bottom of the jar, children have a few moments to take a breath and calm their anxious or upset feelings. Read this poem to them while they use the sensory jar.

Check out our Recipes tab for a delicious and healthy recipe of Zucchini Waffles!

Take a walk outside or around your neighbourhood and ESTIMATE:

How many minutes will it take to go around your block?

How many trees are there along your block?

How tall (in centimetres) is the flower plant in front of your house?

How many rocks it will take to fill up a cup?

How far (in metres) can you hop on one foot?

How many steps it takes from your front door to the mailbox?

What other ways can you estimate?

We are excited about the new learning opportunities this week and hope you enjoy doing them with your child! Remember to send your child’s teacher all their learning.

Mrs. Lee, Ms. Maratovic, and Ms. Nero

 

Week Three Learning Activities

April 28, 2020 leen No Comments Week Three Learning Activities

Hello Parents! We hope you and your children are settling in at home with a regular routine. By now your children should be able to wake up at an appropriate time, have a healthy breakfast, and be ready to start their learning from home with you. We trust that the weekly email communication and blog activities are adequate in supporting you and your child’s learning needs. We continue to look forward to receiving all the creative and interesting learning experiences you are sharing with your child at home. We have listed many fun and different learning activities for this week, including videos of our salmon release and our school garden so, enjoy!

  • Create a story using Story Stones. Find some stones. Paint different characters or objects on the stones, or use stickers of characters or objects to put onto the stones (see pictures below). Whatever stickers you have at home will do. We used princess, Dora, Minions, Holiday characters, Paw Patrol, Sponge Bob, and forest/ocean/zoo/farm animals. You can also use small plastic figures or dolls if you don’t have materials to make the story stones.

Create a setting using blocks or other objects you have at home. Now make up a story. Remember to include all the story elements (e.g. characters (forest animals), setting (where it takes place-in forest), problem (character sees a polluted lake), solution (ask animal friends to find out who made the mess and to help clean it up).

Take a video of your child telling their story and send it to your teacher. It doesn’t need to be long. We have done a sample story video for you to watch.

After watching the video, retell the story in your own words to your family. The boy and dragon have a special friendship. Why is the dragon sad? What happens at the end of the story that makes him happy again? Who do you see in the last page of the book, peeking around the corner? Who is the little girl? Draw a picture of Puff. Continue the story. What happens to Puff? What other adventures does he go on?

  • Writing Tips for Your Child – Children learn to show their ideas on paper gradually. They begin with pictures, eventually experimenting with strings of letters or “pretend writing,” and eventually work their way towards what we can identify as words and sentences. This does not happen overnight, and each stage of writing development is valuable and worthwhile! Help your child develop confidence as a writer at home. Click here to read some valuable tips on writing.
  • Measure the volume of containers. Volume is how much a container holds. Find several containers such as plastic jars, cups, and measuring spoons and cups of different sizes and shapes. Put them in a box or bin. Fill the bin with anything you have on hand such as rice, beans, pasta, or water. Allow your child to fill the containers with these items and explore how much each container holds. They might discover that a short and wide container may hold more than a narrow and tall container. Perhaps it takes 4 small cupfuls to fill one large container? How many spoonfuls will it take to fill each container? Your child will be learning about Estimation in this activity as well.

You can also extend the learning into Science and explore prediction and measurement. Have your child draw the containers and record their predictions in a chart. In one column draw the container. The next column write their prediction (how many scoops will the container hold?). In the last column write the actual number of scoops used to fill the container.

 

Here is an additional activity that explores volume and water that you can do with your child as an option.

  • Play the card game WAR! All you need is a deck of cards and 2 players. Take out the face cards    (Jacks, Queens, and Kings). Your child will learn the following math concepts: greater than/less than, number value, winning and losing, and rule following. Here is how you play.

 

 

 

  • How are you feeling today? Have a daily discussion with your child about how they are feeling. There might be some anxiety or feelings of confusion during this uncertain time. Your child has had many changes happen in the last few months: learning from home, social distancing (less contact with friends and family), distractions at home, more sibling/parent conflicts, less outdoor playtime, etc. It is important that you encourage your child to talk about how they are feeling, and if they are feeling sad or upset, that they should let you know. Use the playdough you made (or go to Recipes on our blog for the playdough recipe) and have your child choose an emotion face card (happy, sad, silly, scared, etc.) to create on their face mats using playdough.

Click on this link to read about how to do this activity.

Click on this link to download the emotions face cards and playdough face mats.

  • Fruit Salad! One way to stay healthy is to eat healthy! Have your child choose a few fruits that they like. Wash the fruits. Give your child a plastic knife. Teach them how to safely cut the fruit into small pieces. You will need to cut the hard fruits for them. Mix the different fruits together. Now your family can enjoy some fruit salad!

  • Spring Crafts- Celebrate Spring with these easy crafts. You only need a few supplies to create them.

Tie-dye flowers

Watercolour flowers

Cardboard spinners

  • Do Cosmic Yoga every day! Here are a few favourites to get you started:

Star Wars

Frozen

 

  • SALMON!! In January our school received salmon eyed eggs. Our students had the opportunity to learn about the salmon life cycle and watch them grow from eyed eggs to fry. Now the fry are strong enough to be released into a local creek. Mme. Dare and Ms. Rawnsley were at Eagle Creek last week and recorded a video of the salmon fry being released. Make sure to tell your parents what you learned about salmon after watching the video. We wish the salmon fry good luck and safe travels. Goodbye salmon fry!

 

 

 

  • Check out the video of our school garden with Mme. Dare! Look at all the plants that are growing!

 

 

 

Have a wonderful week that is filled with quality family time, active outdoor play, exploration, creativity, and imagination!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Lee, Ms. Maratovic, and Ms. Nero