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 an emoji 🙂) 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.
The question of the day has been part of your routine. Let’s introduce another way for tallying objects. Fill a big container/jar with small items and ask your child to sort them. For very young children, you might want to explain the sorting categories: by color, by shape, by use, etc. For older children, encourage your child to find ways to sort items. Have a sheet of paper ready with columns reflecting your child’s sorting categories and have your child draw and count the tally marks. Children are so creative; they will surprise you!
Your child started with Poor Peter Puppy from Letterland and listened to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuAraEZFaEM After listening to the song, your child traced a capital P and a lower case p, starting at the top (song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJnZePnDo-U), go down and jump back up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBfJ31ZtsvY.
Now, let’s listen to the story from the Letterland Corner: Peter Puppy at the Play Park https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMi-nMxi-6E After listening to the story, help your child retell the story using lots of P words.
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 P (paint, paper, parcel, park, party, pass, paw, pen, pencil, pet, picture, pig, pink, play, please, pond, pony, present, pretty, puddle, pull, puppy, purple, put.) You might want to add a picture of a dog, so that your child can say Dog that does not start with P! Here is a book of P word pictures: https://twistynoodle.com/my-letter-p-minibook/ Also, you can add new objects/pictures starting with the letter P every day and let your child explore the container all through the week.
Science
What is snow? The book Snow by Marion Day Bauer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdV2dY5Ub4A will explain the natural process.
For the Snowflake Chromatography Experiment, you need (1) coffee filter, (2) color markers, (3) scissors, (4) water, (5) cup, (6) string, and (7) paper towel. Ask: What will happen to the colors when you put the coffee filter in water? (Hypothesis)
Directions:
1. Pour water in cup.
2. Color filter with color marker.
3. Fold coffee filter.
4. Cut little triangles out of folded coffee filter.
5. Dip tip in water for 1 minute and let dry on paper towel. What did you find out? (Conclusion)
6. Hang colorful snowflake(s) with string.
As an alternative, you can fold the coffee filter and cut triangles. Unfold and lay flat on paper towel. Put a couple of skittles on the coffee filter and drop with eye dropper/pipette warm water on skittles. What happens?
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 Art
Snowflakes Literature:
1. Let It Snow by Maryann Cocca-Leffler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN0bC_C1Nek
2. Snow Dance by Leslie Evans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY47vMzj4FA.
3. Ten Sparkly Snowflakes by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbZ146DJrVA
4. Snowflake Bentley (very advanced) Jacqueline Briggs Martin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtyLpo3cWic
After viewing a book, help your child sequence the story: what happened first, next,… at the end. The major theme is snowflakes. Brainstorm with your child what you and your child know about snowflakes and make a story: “once upon a time, there was …… who really loves snow……..”
Snowflakes Song (“Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around” tune).
Snowflakes, snowflakes, turn around.
Snowflakes, snowflakes, touch the ground.
Snowflakes, snowflakes reach my nose.
Snowflakes, snowflakes freeze my toes.
Snowflakes, snowflakes, in the air.
Snowflakes, snowflakes everywhere!
”I’m a Little Snowflake” Song (“I’m a Little Teapot” tune)
I’m a little snowflake all ice and white.
Watch me fly round in the sky.
Slowly, slowly I do fall,
And I land big and small.
”Ten Little Snowflakes” Fingerplay
One little, two little, three little snowflakes,
Four little, five little, six little snowflakes,
Seven little, eight little, nine little snowflakes,
Ten little snowflakes falling on my tongue!
Other verses: on my hat, on my mittens, on my boots, on my back, falling in my hands,…..
Math
Independent Practice and Review:
1. Snowflake Sorting https://twistynoodle.com/snowflake-sort-by-size-coloring-page/
2. Snowflake Graphing https://twistynoodle.com/snowflake-graphing-coloring-page/
3. Count the Snowflakes https://twistynoodle.com/count-the-snowflakes-7-coloring-page/
Happy New Year! January just started. 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/january-calendar-set/january-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 Letterland P Art Project, you need: (1) p print out, (2) 2 pompoms, (3) purple and pink tempera paint, (4) 2 small paper plate, (5) 2 clothespins.
Directions:
1. Print letter P https://twistynoodle.com/my-letter-p-coloring-page/.
2. Pour some pink paint on one paper plate and purple paint on another paper plate.
3. Attach pompoms to clothespins.
4. Paint pink and purple dots with pompoms attached to clothespins inside the letter P print out.
5. Once dry, put the letter P art project in your Letterland Binder, if you have one.
Other words start with P and your art project can be a parrot, popcorn, pirate, penguin, parachute, pig,…..
For Watercolor Snowflake Art Project, you need: (1) watercolor with brush, (2) water in cup, (3) white construction paper, (3) milk in cup and brush.
Directions:
1. Paint snowflake(s) with milk and brush on white construction paper. You can also paint a house, trees, people,….
2. Once dry, have your child cover the whole sheet with blue watercolor paint or other colors. What does your child discover?
Small Motor Skills
Snowflake Coloring Page https://twistynoodle.com/snowflake-2-coloring-page/.
Snowflake Tracing Practice https://twistynoodle.com/snowflake-tracing-practice-coloring-page/
Snowflake Activity Book https://twistynoodle.com/snowflake-activity-book-2-minibook/
Gross Motor Skills
Outside time with climbing, jumping, bicycling, running, walking are great ways to develop the whole child.
Building an obstacle course inside your home with your child’s creativity can be fun, like jumping from a couch, crawling under a table, climbing stairs on all four, …..