Hi Families!

Here is our weekly learning plan; this week we are focusing on two important skill building routines that are a fundamental part of our usual program in our classroom. Routines are tasks that we do on a weekly or daily basis, and they give students practice in foundational skills. In the absence of in-class learning, we have been varying our activities to keep home learning fresh and fun. Here is where students really get to show off what they know!

The plan looks a little bit different than it has in past weeks; instead of a “choose your own adventure” style list of activities, I have given families 4 types of tasks and ask that you try to do one from each every day. One journal entry, one counting collection, one literacy building job, and one physical activity. There are suggestions and extension options if you need them.

Keep posting on Fresh Grade, keep exploring, and keep being awesome!

-Ms. Osiris

Weekly Learning plan for May 11-15

Optional Challenges for May 11-15

If you require the “translate” function on the blog, keep going for the text-only version.

Week of Monday, May 11 to Friday, May 16, 2020

Theme: Practice Makes Perfect

The Fresh Grade logo before an activity means that I would like you to share a picture or video on Fresh Grade! (you are always welcome to share more)

It’s Routines Week!

This week we are practicing some of our classroom routine activities.

These activities are intended to be done each day – practice makes perfect!

Journals

Journals are an important part of our kindergarten program! Each day this week, create a journal entry. Below are the steps we take in class when creating an entry:

  1. Spend some time talking through your idea with someone at home. Do you want to create a true story (like what you did over the weekend or a fun walk you went on) or a pretend story (that you imagine from your brain)?
  • Who is the story about?
  • Where does the story take place?
  • What happens in the story?
  1. Draw your story! Make sure to add lots of details, so that it is clear to your reader the answers to your “who, what, where” questions. Take your time to do your best work, filling your page up from ceiling to floor, wall to wall. Add at least 5 or more colours to your work.
  2. Choose a word (or more!) to sound out. Say the sound out loud slowly to yourself. S-t-r-e-t-c-h the word out and write down each sound you hear, one at a time.
  • Remember: Trusting our sounds means doing our best on our own! We learn to trust our sounds by practicing our “kid spelling” and not worrying about how words are spelled in books.

If you feel stuck and need some ideas for Journal topics, see our optional activities posted on the class blog.

Counting Collections

We didn’t get the chance to start Counting Collections in class, but this is a routine I like to do with students to develop and grow their number sense. You can record your number representations on a blank piece of paper, or print out the counting collections page from our blog! Here are the steps:

  1. Choose a number from 1-10. Find a set of that many items around your home (ex: if you chose 6, find a set of 6 blocks).
  2. On a paper or printed sheet, represent your collection!
  • Draw your items
  • Write the numeral
  • Write the number word
  • Draw the tally
  • Make the ten frame

If you need some extensions and extra tricky work, see our optional activities posted on the class blog.

Literacy Work

Choose one of these activities for each day this week. You can do the same activity each day or switch it up and try them all!

  1. Headsprout – Spend 10 minutes (or more, if you want) playing some levels on Headsprout!
  2. Read and Retell – Read a book with a family member, or watch a read-to-me story on Epic! After it is finished, practice retelling the story, including the beginning, middle, and end.
  3. Alphabet Jive Hunt – Watch the Alphabet Jive video on Fresh Grade, doing the words and actions along with it! Hunt around your house and find 5 or more different letters.
  4. Printing Practice – Work on your writing skills by practicing your upper and lower case letters. You can do a few at a time, or choose an extra tricky one and practice it a bunch!
  5. Alphabet Stories – Watch an Alphabet Story video from Epic! and pay close attention to all the words they use that start with that letter. Draw a picture of all the things you heard (you can even try to sound out some words to match!).

Get Moving!

What is your favourite way to move your body? Find an activity that gets your heart pumping and practice it each day this week! Need some ideas? Try some of these:

  1. Ball Skills – Toss a ball back and forth between you and a family member. Count how many times you can throw it before it drops!
  2. Sidewalk Hop – On the sidewalk, practice hopping over all the lines you see! Can you travel from one end of the block to another without stepping on any of the lines? How fast can you go?
  3. Dance Party – Put on your favourite album or playlist and dance your heart out! Move your body in all directions – up high, down low, side to side, back and forth.
  4. Animal Moves – Can you move like an animal? Play animal charades with a family member! Choose an animal and move like they would move – have your family member guess what animal you are! See how many you can do!
  5. All Around – Over, under, around, and through! Can you find ways to travel around your house over something, under something, around something, and through something? See how many ways you can move!

 

Optional extension activities:

Journal Ideas

Stuck on an idea for your Journal entry? Try some of these!

Non-Fiction Ideas (real things):

  • Today I…
  • My favourite animal
  • What I miss most about our classroom
  • How to build a Lego bridge
  • My favourite sport
  • What I love about my family
  • When I grow up…
  • On my nature walk, I noticed…
  • I always wonder about…

Fiction Ideas (imaginary things):

  • If I could be any animal, I would be…
  • One day, I flew to space and…
  • Once upon a time, under the sea…
  • In a deep dark forest…
  • My amazing magical invention
  • If I could fly…

Counting Collections

Here are some fun ways to extend your learning for your counting collection! You can try one or try them all!

  1. How many ways can you break up your collection? Record your discoveries using pictures and/or numerals. (ex: my 6 toy cars can be split into a group of 5 and 1 by itself; I can split it evenly into two groups of 3; I can have a group of 2 and a group of 4; I can even have three groups of 2 cars each!)
  2. Play Hide It with a family member using your collection! Have them hide some items from your collection, and, using what you can still see, try to figure out how many are hidden.
  3. Is your counting collection more than 5 or less than 5?
  • More than 5 – Split your collection into “5 and some more” to see how many more than 5 you have!
  • Less than 5 – How many would you need to add in order to make 5?