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.
Did Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog of Pennsylvania, see its shadow?
YES / NO
Your child started with Annie Apple from Letterland and listened to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K93fF2fOjEw&list=PLg-EvfrcPrH35rd3Kx8ZkW_vkRaCACa5J After listening to the song, your child traced a capital A and a lower case a, starting at the top (song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJnZePnDo-U), go down, jump back up, go down, and a line across. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5gPlhG_d1E
Now, let’s listen to the story from the Letterland Corner: Annie Apple and the Ants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGO9Mv3-oCQ After listening to the story, help your child retell the story using lots of A 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 A (add, address, adventure, alligator, alphabet, ambulance, an, and, animal, ant, apple, arrow, as, at, avenue, axe, apron, April, age, acorn). You might want to add a picture of a kite, so that your child can say kite does not start with A! Here is a book of A word pictures: https://twistynoodle.com/my-letter-a-minibook/. Also, you can add new objects/pictures starting with the letter A 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/ap4_zb_tracers/a4.gif
Science
Let’s explore shadows! For this fun science activity, you need a dark room and a flashlight. Shine the flashlight on a wall in a dark room and use your hands to make shadow puppets. Your child can retell or make up a story with hands’ movements.
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
Groundhog Literature:
1. Who Will See Their Shadows This Year? by Jerry Pallotta and Dani Biedrzycki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=534r_ZTxFYw
2. The Day I met my Shadow by Melissa Brun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L52xSUtJNg.
3. Groundhog’s Special Secret by Iris Hiskey Arno (advanced) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2oBCjXA85Y
4. Gregory’s Shadow by Don Freeman (advanced) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn5B7ufRAAI.
After viewing a book, help your child sequence the story: what happened first, next,… at the end. Take a walk with your child and look for your shadows and ask questions like which shadow is the tallest, is it the same size all year around, what happens when you move an arm, what happens when you stand in front of me?
“Mr. Groundhog” Song (“Frère Jacques” tune)
Mr. Groundhog, Mr. Groundhog,
Take a peak, take a peak.
If you see your shadow,
The weather will be snowy
For 6 weeks, for 6 weeks.
Math
For the Roll and Cover Math Activity, you need (1) piece of paper, (2) marker, and (3) dice.
Directions:
1. Label the sheet of paper with “Roll and Cover Groundhog Holes”.
2. Draw medium circles and write a number from 1-6 (1-20 for advanced) in each circle (groundhog holes).
3. Roll a die (dice for advanced) and cover the number(s) corresponding to the amount of dots on die (dice for afpdvanced).
More Opposite Practice Sheet with tall and short https://twistynoodle.com/tall-or-short-coloring-page/
February is here to stay! 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/february-calendar-setbr-4-pages/february-calendar-set-3
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 Brown Paper Bag Puppet Art Project, you need (1) brown, black and white construction paper, (2) scissors, (3) glue, (4) black marker, (5) 2 googly eyes, and (6) brown paper bag.
Directions:
1. Cut 1 big heart for head and 1 small heart cut into 2 for ears out of brown construction paper.
2. Cut 1 small heart out of black and 1 medium heart out of white construction paper.
3. Cut 2 arms, 2 legs and 1 tail out of brown construction paper.
4. Glue all on brown paper bag and draw eyes and whiskers with black marker (or 2 googly eyes).
5. Templates:
For Make a shadow Art Project, you need (1) big paper plate, (2) green tempera paint with brush, (3) scissors, (4) tape, (5) small groundhog template, (6) black marker, and (7) brown construction paper.
Directions:
1. Cut paper plate in halves and paint with brush and green paint 1 half.
2. Cut out paper groundhog and draw eyes, mouth, whiskers with black marker.
3. Tape bottom of groundhog to half painted paper plate.
4. Put painted paper plate down flat and the attached paper groundhog at a 45 degree angle.
5. Shine a flashlight on groundhog and see if you can see it’s shadow!
Small Motor Skills
Groundhog Coloring Page https://twistynoodle.com/groundhog-11-coloring-page/.
Groundhog Day Book https://twistynoodle.com/groundhog-day-7-minibook/.
Groundhog Number Tracing https://twistynoodle.com/groundhog-day-number-tracing-coloring-page/
Gross Motor Skills
Outside time with climbing, jumping, bicycling, running, walking are great ways to develop the whole child. Look for different shadows too!