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.
Which word starts with the letter R?
RABBIT 🐇/ PIG 🐖/ WORM 🐛/ RING 💍
Let’s start with Red Ro-bot from Letterland and listen to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6it9EqiCbko After listening to the song, have your child trace a capital R and a lower case r, starting at the top (song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJnZePnDo-U), go down, jump back up and do a curve line around, then a diagonal line down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBwJnjbRbro
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 R (rabbit, race, radio, rain, rascal, rat, read, ready, really, red, ride, right, ring, road, robber, robot, rock, roll, roof, rope, roses, round, rubber, rule, run, ruler.) You might want to add a picture of a bee, so that your child can say bee does not start with R! Here is a book of R word pictures: https://www.first-school.ws/t.asp?t=http://www.first-school.ws/images/alpha/ap1/r1.gif Also, you can add new objects/pictures starting with the letter R every day and let your child explore the container all through the week.
Science
For the Egg Cracking Experiment, you need (1) real brown and white eggs, or color plastic eggs, (2) black marker, (3) bowl, and (4) cotton balls. This experiment is fun and can be messy!
Draw faces with black marker on eggs, real or plastic. Tell your child that eggs are like people. Eggs have different colors and people have different color skins. Encourage your child to crack the eggs with faces and see if the inside of each is different. Your child will find out that even though the outside is a different color, the inside of eggs have the same yolk and white. If you are using color plastic eggs, put a cotton ball in each plastic egg, draw a face with black marker and have your child open each egg and find the same cotton balls. People have also different color skins on the outside and are the same on the inside!
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.
Language Arts
Martin Luther King, Jr. Literarure:
1. Martin Luther King, Jr., My Furst Biography by Marion Dane Bauer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpPrrenKvek.
2. The Story of Martin Luther King Jr. by Johnny Ray Moore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-2JQFx7CKk.
3. Martin Luther King Jr. Day by Margaret McNamara (advanced) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnEU3S8sgJg.
4. A Picture Book of Martin Luther King Jr. by David A. Adler (very advanced) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6orRByAzBc
After viewing a book, help your child sequence the life of Martin Luther King Jr.: what happened first, next,… at the end. Brainstorm with your child what you and your child’s dream is….(like Martin Luther King Jr.)
Math
For the Equal Number Math Activity, you need counters like bottle caps, legos, pompoms,…. Show your child how to make 2 groups of counters of equal numbers (2 groups of 2). Then let you child explore and make the same 2 groups of 2 counters. Expand groupings and numbers of counters: 3 groups of 4, 4 groups of three, 2 groups of 4, …. It emphasizes the notion of equality!
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 the “I have a dream….” Cloud Art Project, you need (1) white construction paper, (2) scissors, (3) color popsicle sticks, (4) black marker, and (5) glue.
Directions:
1. Cut a cloud out of white construction paper.
2. Write “I have a dream …” with black marker on cloud.
3. Write on color popsicle sticks what your dreams are, like no bullies, food for everyone, …… 4. Glue sticks to the bottom of paper clouds vertically.
For the Peace Dove Art Project, you need (1) blue construction paper sheet, (2) white tempera paint with brush, (3) orange construction paper for beak, (4) googly eye, and (5) glue.
Directions:
1. Take sheet of paper.
2. Paint your child’s hand with white tempera paint and brush.
3. Print hand on paper horizontally.
4. Hand palm is dove’s head and glue orange beak and googly eye.
5. Write “Peace Dove”.
You can also use different paint to paint your child’s hands and have different hand prints representing different people. By placing a paper hat on hand prints, you show there is love between all people.
Small Motor Skills
Color Each Letter R https://twistynoodle.com/color-each-letter-r-2-coloring-page/.
Letter R Dot Painting https://twistynoodle.com/letter-r-dot-painting-2-coloring-page/.
Love Birds Coloring Page https://twistynoodle.com/love-birds-coloring-page/.
Love Rainbow Coloring Page https://twistynoodle.com/i-love-rainbows-28-coloring-page/
Gross Motor Skills
Outside time with climbing, jumping, bicycling, running, walking are great ways to develop the whole child.
Social-Emotional Development
In the classroom, I provide all children with a magnifying lens to observe their arm and hand skins during circle time. We all share our discoveries (I have lots of freckles!) The children tell me that each child has a different color skin and I ask question like: do you all have a head, 2 eyes, a nose,…. All say yes, yes and yes. Then, I read a book like My Brown Skin by Tomishia Booker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hv_0UTii4U. I tell children that my skin reminds me of yummy croissants and ask children to share what theirs remind them of. We all finish with a creative activity. Children use crayons of different brown and white colors to color in the faces they drew.