Let’s sing together our song “Rise and Shine – Welcome to School Today” by Dr. Jean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyAD2OoFuoY and our greeting song “Hello to all the children of the world”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nYjGy_ZUG8
My favorite Closing Song sung on “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” tune with movement:
Twinkle, twinkle little stars! Time is over and we say goodbye. (Open and close hands)
We had fun with all our friends. Let’s come back and do it again! (Arm moved up and back)
Twinkle, twinkle, little stars! What a wonderful bunch you are! (Blow kisses)
For the writing/reading process, have your child trace or copy (advanced skill) daily his/her name on paper/dry eraser board/ mini blackboard (kindergarten handwriting page) starting at the top of each letter (you could draw 🙂) either in all uppercase letters or just first letter in capital/uppercase and the rest in lowercase. If your child is starting to write on paper, you can write your child’s name with a highlighter and your child can use a crayon to trace it.
I realize that you might have to survey other members of your family for the question of the day so that your child have enough tally marks to count or have your child put more than one tally mark.
Which word starts with the letter G?
GOAT 🐐/ QUEEN 👑/ GIRAFFE 🦒/ GERBIL 🐹
Let’s start with Golden Girl from Letterland and listen to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWB_K3_XBSw After listening, your child traced a capital G and a lower case g, starting at the top (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJnZePnDo-U), go down and jump back up (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IhunLGvptM). Let’s listen in the Letterland Story Corner, Golden Girl and the Gap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHgmR7JATd0 After listening to the story, help your child to retell the story using lots of G words.
G has two different sounds to emphasize: a hard sound like in goat, game, gobble, goal, gap, glue, glass, good, go, gas, gum, gutter, gorilla, goose, groundhog, and it’s called Hard G (https://www.first-school.ws/t.asp?t=http://www.first-school.ws/images/alpha/ap1/g.gif) But G also has a soft sound like in gist, gentle, gym, giant, genius, germ, gem, general, gerbil, giraffe, gingerbread, gymnast, and it’s called Soft G (https://www.first-school.ws/t.asp?t=http://www.first-school.ws/images/alpha/ap1/g2.gif) If the vowel after the G is I,e,y, the G makes a soft sound. To practice, write with your child on a sheet of paper divided into 2 columns all the Hard and Soft Gs you and your child know.
A whole week activity:
For the phonetic part, have a big yogurt container with a lid filled with small objects or pictures that start with the letter G (gerbil, giraffe, goat, goose, gorilla, grasshopper, groundhog.) You might want to add a picture of an Queen, so that your child can say that Queen does not start with G! Here is a book of G word pictures: https://twistynoodle.com/my-letter-g-minibook/ Also, you can add new objects/pictures starting with the letter G every day and let your child explore the container all through the week.
Letter G Writing https://www.first-school.ws/t.asp?t=http://www.first-school.ws/images/alpha/ap4_zb_tracers/g5.gif
Science
Brown and black are the major nature colors in my area. How do we make the color brown? For the color brown, secondary color, ask your child the question and then have your child drop red, blue and yellow tempera paint, the three primary colors, in a small ziplock bag. Seal the bag and have your child squeeze, shake,… the bag. What happens? Brainstorm with your child how to make the color black and experiment.
On the tune of “Oh, my Darling Clementine”, we can sing: what’s the weather, what’s the weather, what’s the weather like today? Is it cloudy, is it rainy, is it sunny, is it cold? (You can also change the weather words).
Let your child check the weather and tell you about it. You might want to ask your child to do a weather drawing that you can label. Some activities will be repetitive to create a routine that brings comfort to your child.
Language Arts
There are so many thanksgiving books. Here are:
- Five Flying Turkeys by Barbara McGrath https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-KmH_O1Ze8
2. The Littlest Pilgrim by Brandi Dougherty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3D38r1pHdM
3. The Story of the Pilgrims by Katharine Ross (advanced) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8FwGAI3yPQ with the First Thanksgiving Book https://twistynoodle.com/the-first-thanksgiving-2-minibook/ mentioning the Wampanoags we studied during our Native American section.
After viewing a story, help your child to sequence the story: what came first, second,… and at the end. Share with your child your memories of thanksgiving in your family and encourage your child to remember what you do now with your family.
“Hello, Mr. Turkey” Song (“If you are happy and you know it” tune)
Hello, Mr. Turkey, how are you? (2x)
With a wobble, wobble, wobble, and a gobble, gobble, gobble.
Hello, Mr. Turkey, how are you?
Five Little Turkeys Fingerplay
Five little turkeys standing at the door.
One waddled off and then, there were four.
Four little turkeys sitting near a tree.
One waddled off and then, there were three.
Three little turkeys with no much to do.
One waddled off and then, there were two.
Two little turkeys bathing in the sun.
One waddled off and then, there were one.
One little Turkey better run away.
Soon, it will be Thanksgiving Day!
“If You Are Thankful and You Know It” Song (“if you are happy and you know it” tune)
If you are thankful and you know it, clap your hands. (2x) (Clap twice)
if you are thankful and you know it, then your face will surely show it.
If you are thankful and you know it, clap your hands. (Clap twice)
Other verses: stomp your feet, say ”I am”, jump up high,……
Math
Sudoku Thanksgiving Puzzle https://www.dltk-holidays.com/thanksgiving/msudoku.htm
For Feather Counting and Sorting, have your child sort feathers (Craft) by color or by number using an egg carton and a marker(s) to color or write numbers in cups. Your child can also sort feathers by other attributes like sizes.
November is still here! The calendar is a daily activity to do with your child that develop number and pattern recognition. Here is the link to print a calendar to update daily with your child. The set has a weather component, if you like. https://www.themailbox.com/magazines/november-calendar-setbr4-pages/november-calendar-set-2
Daily counting of tally marks and show your child a number card or write the number down to show your child. The numbers of the tallies will be different every day. Extend the concept by comparing numbers: which has more? Which has fewer? Which are the same? How many more (count with fingers)?
Art
For Thankful Turkey Art Project, you need (1) yellow, orange, green and red construction paper, (2) scissors, (3) glue, (4) 2 googley eyes, and (5) marker.
Directions:
- Cut the turkey’s body, like a number 8, out of brown construction paper, a triangular beak out of orange construction paper, a wattle out of red construction paper, 5-10 feathers out of different colored construction paper, and 2 feet out of yellow construction paper.
- Glue wattle, beak and googley eyes on turkey’s body.
- Write what your child is thankful for on each paper feather.
- Glue paper feathers and paper feet at the back of turkey’s body.
- Picture https://www.adabofgluewilldo.com/cardboard-thankful-turkey-craft/
For Pilgrims’ Mayflower Art Project, you need (1) light blue construction paper, (2) blue, brown, white tempera paint and brushes, (3) scissors, and (4) 3 little squares of white construction paper.
Directions:
- Take light blue construction paper sheet.
- Paint bottom with blue paint for ocean and white clouds at the top with white paint.
- Paint your child’s hand with brown tempera paint.
- Print hand above blue ocean.
- Once dry, glue 3 little white squares as sales on 3 finger tips.
- Picture http://easypreschoolcraft.blogspot.com/2012/07/thanksgiving-day-mayflower-handprint.html
Small Motor Skills
Thanksgiving Book https://twistynoodle.com/thanksgiving-5-minibook/
Thanksgiving Pattern https://twistynoodle.com/thanksgiving-patterns-coloring-page/
Thanksgiving Dot Painting https://twistynoodle.com/thanksgiving-dot-painting-coloring-page/
Gross Motor Skills
Outside time with climbing, jumping, bicycling, running, walking are great ways to develop the whole child.
Let’s play Turkey Lurkey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnIywQRysuo
Social-Emotional Development
Thanksgiving celebration often brings joy in our hearts and time to reflect on our lives. Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks by Margaret Sutherland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIcxjUOHyqo invites us to acknowledge what we have and be thankful.
Brainstorm with your child what you are thankful for. Here is: I am Thankful Coloring Page https://twistynoodle.com/i-am-thankful-for-117-coloring-page/