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.
For a fun Environmental Print craft, you need (1) poster, (2) glue, (3) food labels. Brainstorm with your child food items that your child enjoy, find their labels and cut them out. Then, help your child to glue labels on a poster. Children are exposed to print in their everyday lives and is a natural way to support their phonemic awareness. For advanced learners, you can point out letters in words and let your child sort labels into categories.
Let’s start with Kicking King from Letterland and listen to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV83Ke07Ovk After listening to the song, have your child trace a capital K and a lower case k, starting at the top (song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJnZePnDo-U), go down, jump back up and then 2 diagonal lines down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXjKhVqswMM
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 K (kangaroo, keep, kennel, ketchup, kettle, key, key, kick, kid, kilo, kind, king, kiss, kitchen, kite, kitten, kaleidoscope.) You might want to add a picture of a rainbow, so that your child can say rainbow does not start with K! Here is a book of K word pictures: https://twistynoodle.com/my-letter-k-minibook/ Also, you can add new objects/pictures starting with the letter K every day and let your child explore the container all through the week. More K words https://www.first-school.ws/t.asp?t=http://www.first-school.ws/images/alpha/ap1/k.gif
Kitchen Science
Children love to cook or bake in the classroom. It is a rich multi sensory activity that covers math with numbers and volumes, science with chemical transformation, language arts with exposure to words in recipes and on ingredients labels, and art with creating an esthetic product, and involving small and gross motor skills of mixing and carrying ingredients. In all, so much learning happens in the kitchen!
For my favorite Chocolate Chips Cookies Recipe, (you can also buy dough or packages of dry ingredients), you can start from scratch. With a large group of students, I usually use this recipe with lots of ingredients to give every child a chance to participate. You need: (1) 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour, (2) 1 tsp baking soda, (3) 1 tsp of salt, (4) 1 cup of butter, softened not melted, (5) 3/4 cup granulated sugar, (6) 3/4 cup of light brown sugar, (7) 1 tsp vanilla extract, (8) 2 large eggs, (9) 2 cups of chocolate chips, (10) optional, 1 cup of chopped nuts, (11) large and small bowl with spoons, (12) cookie sheets, and (13) cookie cooling rack. If you like fluffy cookies, add more flour to the mix.
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Mix all dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt) in small bowl.
3. Mix in large bowl butter with granulated and brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Crack 1 egg at a time and add to mixture. Mix all.
4. Add and mix in large bowl the dry ingredients and then chocolate chips (chopped nuts).
5. Drop a spoonful of mixture onto baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes. Once golden brown, cool cookies on cooling rack. Yummy!
Science
Let’s review the days of the week! Cookie’s Week by Cindy Ward https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dX8BSqdRH4
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
Cookie Literature:
1. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN4-At6dkTQ.
2. Baker, Baker, Cookie Maker by Linda Hayward https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMuFmB_uycI.
3. The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins (advanced) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-tqjCPnHLg
After viewing a book, help your child sequence the story: what happened first, next,… at the end. Brainstorm with your child how you and your child plan to make cookies, what kind, which ingredients you would use,…
“Who took the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?” Song (Circle Time). ……….. (name of child) took the cookie from the cookie jar?
Who me?
Yes, you!
It couldn’t be!
Then, who?
(For the game, give secretly a paper cookie to a child. Every child will be named in the song until the child having the cookie is discovered).
“Hickory Dickory Dock” Nursery Rhyme
Hickory dickory dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one.
The mouse run down.
Hickory dickory dock.
“Five Little Cookies” Fingerplay.
Five little cookies I really adore.
Mommy ate the red one and then there were four.
Four little cookies, 2 for you and two for me.
Daddy ate the blue one and then there were three.
Three little cookies hiding from view.
My sister ate the purple one and then there were two.
Two little cookies belonging to no one.
My brother ate the brown one and then there was one.
One lonely cookie lying all alone.
So, I ate the pink one and then there were none!
Math
For the Cookie Math Activity, you need (1) brown construction paper circles or counters for cookies, and (2) small paper plates.
1.For early learners, put 6 small paper plates in front of your child, give your child 6 cookies (circles or counters), and ask your child to give each plate a cookie. Then take 3 small plates away, leaving 3 paper plates, and ask your child to give 1 cookie to each plate from 6 cookies your child holds. Ask if your child has more cookies and if your child can give 1 more cookie for each plate. Ask how many cookies each small plate has now. Do the same with 2 small paper plates and then 1.
2. For advanced learners, put 12 small paper plates in front of your child, give your child 12 cookies (circles or counters), and ask your child to give each plate a cookie. Then take 6 small plates away, leaving 6 paper plates, and ask your child to give 1 cookie to each plate. Ask if your child has more cookies and if your child can give 1 more cookie for each plate. Ask how many cookies each small plate has now. Do the same with 4, 3 small paper plates and then 1. For more challenge, give your child an odd number of cookies and let your child come up with a strategy to give cookies to each plate. Ask your child to explain the strategy.
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 Paper Cookie Art Project, you need (1) paper plate, (2) brown construction paper or brown tempera paint with brush, (3) scissors, (4) glue, and (5) black construction paper.
Directions:
1. Cut or tear small pieces of brown construction paper.
2. Cut small circles out of black construction paper.
3. Take paper plate and either paint it brown with brush or glue torn/cut small pieces of brown construction paper.
4. Glue small black circles for chocolate chips on cookie.
For the Mouse Puppet Art Project, you need (1) brown paper bag, (2) brown, red, orange and black construction paper, (3) 2 googly eyes, (4) 1 small pompom, (5) glue, and (6) a black marker.
Directions:
1. Cut 2 orange circles for mouse’s ears, 1 black triangle for mouse’s face, 2 brown arms, 1 red rectangle with a square cut out at the top for mouse’s pants.
2. Glue black triangles, orange circles, googly eyes, pompom, red pants and brown arms on brown paper plate.
3. Use marker to give whiskers and a black line to define legs on red pants.
Small Motor Skills
K for Koala Coloring Page https://twistynoodle.com/k-is-for-koala-22-coloring-page/
Cookie Counting https://twistynoodle.com/cookie-counting-coloring-page/.
Put the Cookies in the Jar https://twistynoodle.com/put-the-cookies-in-the-jar-coloring-page/.
Letter K Puzzle https://twistynoodle.com/letter-k-puzzle-coloring-page/
Gross Motor Skills
Outside time with climbing, jumping, bicycling, running, walking are great ways to develop the whole child.