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.
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.
How many parts does your snowman have?
3/ 5/ 7/ 10/ More
If you have My First School Book from Handwriting Without Tears methodology https://www.lwtears.com/hwt. Have your child complete page 48. More practice with https://twistynoodle.com/uppercase-letter-p-2-coloring-page/ and https://twistynoodle.com/lowercase-letter-p-coloring-page/
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 frost? For this Frost Making Science Experiment, you need: (1) a clean and empty tin can, (2) ice cubes or crushed ice, (3) salt, and (4) water. Fill tin can halfway with ice with 1/4 cup of water and 1 tsp of salt. What is going to happen to the ice and can? Let it stand and watch for 2-3 hours. What do you see? Frost is forming on the outside of the tin can. Why? The air contains water. The process is called water condensation (you can also see it on windows.)
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
Snowman Literature:
1. The Most Perfect Snowman by Chris Britt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VApUD59D4g.
2. Frosty’s New Friends by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7p191QWzII
3. Snowman Magic by Katherine Tegen (advanced) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uPOQ8RELvg.
4. How to Catch a Snowman by Adam Wallace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VgpJP6VqhU
After viewing a book, help your child sequence the story: what happened first, next,… at the end. The major theme is snowman and you and your child will prepare a snowman kit ready for building a snowman. I loved making it with children and counting all items in the paper bag! For the Snowman Kit, you need: (1) paper bag, (2) 1 carrot, (3) 6 pebbles/rocks, (4) a newspaper hat, and (5) 2 sticks. There are 10 items in the paper bag!
“Frosty the Snowman” Song
Frosty the snowman was a jolly, happy soul.
With a corncob smile and a button nose, and two eyes made out of coal.
Frosty the snowman is a fairy tale, they say.
He was made of snow, but the children know how he came to like one day.
There must have been some magic in the silky hat they found.
For when they place it on his head, he began to dance around.
Oh, Frosty the snowman was alive as he could be.
And the children say he could laugh and play,
Just the same as you and me!
Thumpety, thump, thump,
Thumpety, thump, thump,
Look at Frosty go.
Thumpety, thump, thump,
Thumpety, thump, thump,
Over the hill of snow!
“Five Little Snowmen” Fingerplay
Five little snowmen standing on the ground.
The first one said, “oh, we are so round!”
The second one said, “I see snowflakes in the air.”
The third one said, “Do we really care?”
The fourth one said, “Let’s jump and run!”
The fifth one said, “I’m ready for some fun!”
But when out came the sun,
The snowmen knew their fun was done!
Math
For Build a Snowman Math Activity, you need: (1) a die, (2) markers, and (3) 20 or more medium white paper circles that are snowballs. To goal is to race to 10 snowballs (or 20 for advanced learners). Each player takes a circle and draws a face to be his/her snowman face. Each player then rolls the die and add the number of circles/snowballs corresponding to the number on the dice to his/her snowman’s head. The player that has a 10 snowballs’ snowman is the winner!
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
Free Watercolor Painting Day!
For the Name Snowman Hanger Art Project, you need (1) wide strip of blue construction paper, (2) white paper circles (1 for each letter in your child’s name), (3) glue, (4) markers, (5) scissors, (6) string, and (7) small paper hat.
Directions:
1. Draw with markers snowman face on 1 white paper circle and each letter of your child’s name on a white circle.
2. Take strip of blue construction paper and glue from top to bottom: snowman’s head, snowman’s hat, snowman’s body of each letter of your child’s name.
3. Draw snowman’s arms and other detail if wanted.
For the Melted Snowman Art Project, you need: (1) shaving cream/white paint, (2) glue, (3) blue, red, black construction paper, (4) scissors, (5) googly eyes, and (6) marker.
Directions:
1. Take blue construction paper sheet and drop some shaving cream/white paint that your child can spread.
2. Once dry, glue googly eyes, paper nose (red triangle), paper black hat, red scarf, black paper circles for buttons, and draw a smile.
3. Write with marker: “I made a little snowman with a black hat. The sun came out and melted him. And now, my snowman is flat!”
Small Motor Skills
Frosty the Snoman Coloring Page https://twistynoodle.com/frosty-the-snowman-16-coloring-page/
Winter Fun https://twistynoodle.com/winter-fun-coloring-page/
Build a Snowman https://twistynoodle.com/build-a-snowman-8-coloring-page/
Find the Snowman https://twistynoodle.com/find-the-snowman-coloring-page/
Gross Motor Skills
Outside time with climbing, jumping, bicycling, running, walking are great ways to develop the whole child.