Dear Parents, It really has been an interesting week to say the very least and the unknown of the future that lies ahead for all of us.
During all of the these closures there is difficulties and feelings of stress and anxieties and now in addition, so many of you have the added pressure of being a teacher to your children. Some great advice that I have seen and totally agree to involve the following points: -You don't need to try to replicate the whole school experience, do what works for you and your family. -Don't try to be your child's classroom teacher. Just keep being the teacher you already are and who have been as their first teacher since the day they were born. -Please be easy on yourself - keep in mind that we are trained for years and had many years practise and do not expect you to replicate the same overnight.I know that I couldn't possibly take over your job overnight and we know and understand that you wouldn't be able to do ours. Let us support you when you need, we are here. I believe right now following the curriculum isn't as important as spending time with your child doing some of the following experiences- reading with your child, cooking with your child, gardening with your child, enjoying nature and its wonders with your child. Also making and creating things, singing and dancing and playing with your child. There is important readiness skills that can also be reinforced at home during this time such as your child putting shoes on/off, doing up zips and buttons, helping make snacks, setting the kitchen table, following a sandwich recipe, butter toast, feed pets, fold socks for mum and getting dress independently. Above all parents, keep being the kind, calm role-model your child needs through this challenging time. This is how you teach. Keep doing you - your child is learning from you every day.
For those parents wishing for support or feeling uncertain - I am here. Please contact me if I can help. We are currently learning ourselves and evaluating how we can try to adapt our teaching methods to digital based and trying to help you to help your child. This is all new to me too! So please bare with me as I go online to help your 3 and 4 year old continue to learn. Kind regards, Miss Horrocks.
A new platform for learning: SEESAW is COMING TO KINDY!
Seesaw is a great digital platform for parents to see learning activities given to you by their classroom teacher. Then the parents and child can send responses back in the form of photos, video and even voice recordings.
Follow these steps-
Parents will receive their child's learning code by email or facebook messenger.
Parents are to sign in as their child in order to be able to share with the classroom and teacher.
2:Press " I'm a student".
3: Scroll down to the text code box. DO NOT SIGN UP. Put your child's code in. It should save automatically.
This is what your page will look like. You will see the Kindy Red or Kindy Blue 2020 front page come up on the right hand side. On the left hand side is your child's journal page. Only parents can access their child's individual page. I have used a sample student called Katie.
4- You can press on the Green + icon and the following page will come up.
5-You and your child could take a photo/video of a piece of work to send onto your wall. Only the teacher can see it.
6- If you press on the light bulb icon on the right hand side, you will see the word Activities. There will be a sample activity for you to try to see if it works. If you press on this, you will see what the teacher has posted for your child to complete at home. There will be videos, voice instructions, stories, learning experiences and even links to songs.
Good luck and don't hesitate to contact me by the facebook page or email me
Thank you again for all of the efforts you are putting in to helping your child
continue to learn and develop at home.
Please find below the main learning concepts for Week 9 of Term 1.
If you need any assistance please send me an email, I am happy to help
in any way that I can or even send photos my way as I miss the children dearly.
Let's start our learning with the good morning song. Don't forget to warm up your hands by reaching up high to the sky.
Today it is Kindy Blue's Monday but Kindy Red are very happy to join in.
On Mondays, we have Music with Mrs Horrocks. Here is a good morning song that Maureen loves to sing to the Kindies. Their siblings can join in too.
It's time to warm up in the lounge room or near the computer with the Freeze game. This is also on spotify.
Name activity-
Have your child sign their name in. Write your child's name on some card. Have your child locate all their letters of their name using the ABC mat attached below or you may have fridge magnets or puzzle pieces at home. If they have retrieved their name poster from school, they could also have ago at tracing their dot to dot letters using a whiteboard marker. ( See info regarding this at bottom of post). Using the letter names are fine at this stage as we start to focus on the sounds they make in Term 2.
- The concept that not all families are the same. They may be different in size, but no matter what they are all special.
Warm up rhyme:
Today's story: The Family book by Matthew Ingram read by Miss Horrocks.
Some parts of the story might be tricky for your child to understand, however, It would be nice to tell them that families come in all different sizes and no matter what, families are all special.
On a piece of paper, can your child draw a person to represent each family member that they have. A parent can label each person on the page. Can your child go outside to find some medium size leaves to stick under each person.
Explain to your child that they have made a family tree. All these people love you very much. Can you count how many is in your family?
Have your child count out how many is in their family by using 1-1 correspondence with objects of their choice- cheerios, blocks, rocks, coins, buttons etc. One object can represent Mum, Dad, Brother, Sister, Nanna, Pop, cat etc. Have your child make a line.
Can they go to 3.... 5 or even 10. Tell them what clever counters they are.
Before morning break or lunch have your child spend some time with their family
- building a lego tower
- Playing outside in the garden
- playing a board game
- doing a puzzle
- Going for a walk
- read a story for enjoyment together.
You and your child can sing a song together during the day. The Kindy children are beginning to learn 'Skimmerarink' to show how much they love their Mums and Dads.
Don't forget to practise saying the beats in some two and three syllable words. Your child can jump them or pat their head, shoulders and hips to say and hear the beats. They may have ago at doing this activity on the way to the toilet, on their way to brush their teeth or even out the door.
BUT /TER / FLY
Here are some common words to try: Elephant. zebra. camel, butterfly, octopus, jellyfish, motorbike, strawberry, cucumber, pencil, scooter etc.
Ask your child if they know how to do their name: Some may only have on beat in their name.
Have a HAPPY MONDAY !
TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY learning for both classes. -
In literacy, share the story together called " We're going on an Easter Egg hunt" .
In Numeracy the children will learn-
- About simple patterns and positional language.
Have your child press on the story below: " We're going on an Egg Hunt"
Tell your child your going to say some action words just like in the story and that they have to try and follow them. Can you go-
-Over the chair
-Under the table
-Next to the couch
- through the carpet
- behind the....
- on the...
- top of the...
- on the bottom of the....
- In between. You may have to model some of these positional words to your child.
* Click on this interactive work book to print out or have your child point to the right spot where the butterfly belongs.
In your child's pack from school is ten little gems. In the story, the reader had to find 10 Easter Eggs. Can your child count to 3... then 5... then 10 eggs by tapping each gem and lining them up in sequence.
This time a parent could hide the gems in close proximity using words from the story ( over, under, on, top, bottom, next to etc and see if your child can find all 10 eggs. Count them together at the end.
This could be helpful for a real Easter egg hunt over the next two weeks :)
Here is some more learning activities you might want to try at home:
Scavenger Spring Back yard hunt:
or
Have an egg and spoon race outside: You can substitute an egg with a ball and a spoon from the kitchen.
THURSDAY/FRIDAY learning for both classes
Don't forget the good morning song and have your child sign their name in again using Monday's format.
Explain to your child we are learning about different patterns today.
Show children a picture of some Easter eggs. Can you see the different designs on them- spots, lines, twirls, stars, flowers etc. The different patterns go on and on and don't stop. A pattern is a set of colours or shapes that are repeated over and over again in a line or sequence.
Make some patterns together with materials at home. Find objects of the same colour or shape, beads, beans, buttons, blocks, leaves etc) that you can use to make a pattern. Parent models a pattern first. It might be a simple pattern of all the same coloured lego in a line. Can your child copy it.
Then explain, we can make patterns more exciting. "I'm going to choose two colours this time and repeat the pattern".
Blue,Yellow, Blue,Yellow,BlueYellow.
Have your child make a two colour pattern with chosen objects.
Parent is to begin a two coloured pattern using the chosen objects then stop. Ask your child to complete it.
Draw an oval shape easter egg on some paper. Have your child use their crayons to make patterns across the egg. Have them try a two coloured pattern to check their understanding.
If you have a drawing app on your ipad. You could make patterns with your child on this.
Doodle Buddy is a good app for this. It has pictures and interactive crayons.
Can you sprinkle some flour on a bench . Get your child to make some pre-writing patterns in the flour using their index finger. ( hands should be cleaned and fully dried first). Here are some examples
Play dough exercises for anytime during the day
THE EASTER STORY-
Clink on the video below to here a reading of the Easter story. As a kindy teacher, I always modify it to be appropriate for the little children.
I substitute different words for the serious parts of the Easter story.
At Easter time, we think about all the animals that come alive at spring time just like Jesus came alive again in Heaven after he died on the cross. That's why we eat Easter eggs at Easter. It reminds us about 'new life' just like a baby chick hatching from an egg and just like a caterpillar changing into a butterfly.
Sing If I were a butterfly- Young children love repetition of new songs they have been learning.
This week there is a small package for each child including their name poster to pick up outside the Kindy in a box. You may choose to come and pick it up after school hours 3-4pm.
Also in your pack is an Easter egg card to colour in and decorate. Inside, a Parent could write Happy Easter. Help your child print there name at the bottom of the card.
Goodbye Kindies. It is now time for the Easter Holidays. Have fun with your families and stay safe. I will leave you with this song sung by Mrs Horrocks to all of you.
2 cups plain flour
4 tbs Mckenzie's Cream of Tartar
1 cup of salt
2 cups of hot water
2 tbs cooking oil
few drops of food colouring
( you could add any other safe oils such as lavender etc)
Mix all ingredients in a bowl with the two cups of hot water- pour and mix slowly. It may look watery at first but keep mixing untill you get a good dough consistency.
Put some flour on the bench and knead dough all together.
Hope it works well for you at home, even if you don't have Mrs Sweeney's magic touch.
What’s
happening in Kindy this week and some things you can do at home with your Kindergarten child:
We always
start with our greeting song to say good morning and get settled for the day.
As a class
we sing some more of our thematic weekly songs. A lot of our listening skills
and oral language comes from learning and singing chants, rhymes and songs.
Here is a
list for over the week:
They can be found on You tube or spotify.
ABC SONG to help us wash our hands
properly. The children sing the alphabet names together. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P. This helps us not to rush
when we are rubbing our hands with soap. I say they can stop at the letter P. Then they can rinse off with water to the the letter Z.
If your happy and you know it- you tube or spotify.
Rainbow song, as we have been looking
at the story ' The Rainbow Fish'.
Monday the 23rd: Kindy Red have their Rainbow fish to colour, cut and glue some
sparkles onto ( look around your house or craft table). Kindy
Blue have completed theirs.
The children hunted for their coloured magnet letters and matched them onto a letter in their name. They also counted how many letters they had in their name. At home you can write your child's name and give it to them. They could find the letters on the Alphabet mat below or use puzzle pieces if you have them at home.
( Children don't need to say letter sounds at this stage. Just let you child hunt for their letters to help with recognition and observation skills)
WEEK 8:
We are moving onto exploring spring, new life and Easter.
You can find
the following songs on you tube or Spotify to sing at anytime with your child:
·
Five current Buns: Can change to Five
hot cross buns. Instead of the word penny in the song, I change it to a dollar.
·Five Little bunnies
·This is the way the bunny hops- Spotify or you tube
Little peter rabbit had a fly upon his nose- found on spotify playschool version.
·
The butterfly song-
·
Literacy:
In Kindy
this week, we are reading the Hungry Caterpillar.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Animated Film or story book on you tube.
You can read this to your child at Home.
Cover
story: You could ask
your child to describe the caterpillar? Why do
you think he is hungry?
As you are
reading: How many things did the hungry caterpillar eat on Monday, Tuesday etc.
Ask your child to check by counting the pieces of fruit one by one. Wow what is
happening to the caterpillar?
How many
things did he eat on Saturday?
The next day
reading:
Discuss the
changes the caterpillar undergoes: egg, small caterpillar, big caterpillar,
goes into a cocoon then a butterfly.
Then ask your
child if they can think of other living things that grow and change eg tadpole, flower, chicken, baby etc
Explain- What did the caterpillar change into?
Tell the children that during spring time many living things come alive. They start from an egg or a baby and then they have to grow. Some animals change into something new just like the caterpillar.
In class we are making caterpillars and a butterfly painting. If you have paints at home you could make a butterfly blob painting with your child. Place blobs of paint in the middle of the page. Then fold over and place your fingers on the crease of the page. Open up and surprise!
New words for syllable learning: The children have also been jumping into hoops to count how many beats are in a word.
They have been having ago at " What are the beats in?....
Lion, zebra, camel, elephant and octopus
This week at home you could see if your child can say the beats in the words
rabbit, butterfly, sunshine, flower, Easter, bunny, chicken, ladybug and even caterpillar ( this one is a challenge hehe)
If you are reading a story to your child and a new word comes up. You can ask your child " How do we say this word with your beats. Start with your hands on your head, for the next beat move to your shoulders and if the word has three beats you need to move your hands to your hips.
e.g But / ter / fly
Mathematics:
On Monday we
went for a living thing hunt around the garden. You could go for a living thing hunt at home ( ants, bugs, flowers, bulbs, leaves, worms etc). Make sure there is an adult to
lift up any rocks.
Name the living things that grow in your garden just like
the Hungry Caterpillar.
Criteria for children: do they move, breathe, need food and water, do they grow etc... Point to a rock or stick. Are they living things?
We are still
exploring the concept of one to one correspondence through hands on counting,
sorting and lining up of objects. “ I
can count five rocks etc. On Monday the caterpillar ate One apple, two pears etc.
Can your child make a recipe in their backyard.
With your child, go outside and make a recipe. What do we need?
3 sticks
1 flower
1 cup of sand
1 cup of water
4 rocks
5 leaves etc
Play a number matching game with your child. Get them to line up five objects of choice. See if they can count to 3...5.... or even ten.
In class we are matching number quantities: Can your child have a go at matching One object to the number 1? Two objects to the number two? I always have the number of dots near a number so your child can still count without recognising the written number at this stage.
The children don't have to complete this. You could look at this with them and see if they could find the correct amount of objects around the house to match it to the correct number.
Have fun counting!
Understanding the world
- Which objects float or Sink. Which objects are heavy or light?
Fill up a container of water. Collect some objects that sink or float. Eg metal car, wood, marble, tennis ball, spoon, sponge, plastic toy, feather etc.
Get your children to test if they are heavy/sink or light/float?
Counting with Nursery Rhymes
The Kindies have been learning that numbers are different from letters.
They are learning that you can count an object one at the time and in the correct sequence. You can point to an object with a finger and say the number . The Kindies know to use their " slow power" and not to rush when tapping an object once.
Learning to count objects by using one to one correspondence is lots of fun with nursery rhymes. We explored counting in the correct sequence to 5 with the help from the songs; " Five little Ducks", "Five Little Monkey's" , " Five Elephants Balancing" and " Once I caught a fish alive".
I 2 3 4 5 Once I caught a fish alive
Later in the day the children made their own fish tanks with five fish. Come in and see them hanging up.
Five Little ducks went out one day Counting during our exploratory play.
The children counted five beads for the little ducks and one large bead for the Mother duck. They had to use their "slow power" when counting to help them not to rush. The Kindies are learning that the last number in the count represents how many in the set. When they reached the number five in sequence they could stop counting.
The children were chosen to come out to the front with the teacher to count their own Five little ducks one by one. Some children wanted to go to ten. What clever mathematicians we have in Kindy.
" Don't forget to move one at a time"
On Monday we read the Rainbow Fish.
The children hunted for the letters in their name and counted how many letters they had in their name using the rainbow counting stick.
This is the way we wash our hands ( tune to " hear we go round the mulberry nursery rhyme) This is the way we wash our hands Front and back and in between, This is the way we wash our hands And count all the way to Fifteen. This is the way we wash our hands Front and back and in between, This is the way we wash our hands And count all the way to Fifteen OR
" Under the Sea" theme has come to Kindy. The children have been talking about and exploring everything that can be found at the beach and the different types of sea creatures that live in the Sea. Some of the words are tricky to pronounce, so we have been learning our syllables such as " what are the beats in the word " Octopus"? Oct /to / pus. The children place a beat on their head, then their shoulders and for the long words even down to their hips.
"Kindys how do we say " Seahorse". SEA/HORSE
"Kindys how we say " jellyfish". JEL/LY/FISH
Below are our learning centres for the next two weeks-
Exploration sensory tray
Magnetic Fishing
ICE-CREAM SHOP
WATER PLAY WITH
SOAP BUBBLES
Ocean Finger painting
sea creature drawings
fine motor table
Some activities have been made safer or been put away in light of Covid-19.
KINDY RED BEACH DAY
PADDLING POOLS
SEA CREATURES
HOPSCOTCH
Thank you to the Butterlys for our new fire truck
Bubbles
KINDY BLUE
Don't forget to put the ice-cream in the fridge
BEACH TIME
We had to take our hats off as we were having too much fun with the water. We didn't forget our sunscreen though.
