Good morning families! Yesterday we worked on personal safety and part of our “community helpers” theme. I received many videos of your children practicing their name, your name, where they live and their phone numbers. Please know, your children should continue to practice being able to recite this information to you daily – at least until you feel confident they have it completely memorized without error. With my children, we practice this in the car when we are out driving to do errands or visit with our family.
Today we are going to continue our “community helpers” theme by talking about construction workers and builders.
You will need to print out the pages for today’s physical movement activity with the link below.
Kids:
Good morning friends! Today we are going to talk about construction workers and builders. Before we get into that though, let’s do some work with our letter of the week: Mm.
Language, Literacy & Communication:
Today we are going to pretend to be builders while we build our letters! I made a video to show you how to do this.
When you build your letter, have your grown up take a picture and send it to me on Remind.
Our story today is about construction/building. I hope you like it!
Math:
For this activity, you are going to need to find different types of boxes (or other items you can stack together) around your house. Here are a few ideas of things you can use:
boxes from your recycling bin (Amazon boxes, delivery boxes)
food boxes from your cupboard (cereal, mac and cheese, noodles)
cans from your cupboard (fruit, vegetables, soup)
plastic food storage containers
plastic cups
Once you have found all the things you’re going to build with, you are going to create a big building! Let’s see how tall of a building you can make! Is your building taller than you? Or is it shorter than you? Can you make it taller without it falling down? When your building is complete, have your grown up take a picture of you standing next to it so I can see how tall it is and send it to me on Remind.
Physical Movement:
The weather outside has been extra yucky the past couple of days. By now I’m sure you all need to do some moving and exercising to keep your body healthy and strong. Have your grown up print out these pages I made for you. When you have them all, you can lay them on the floor in a long line, move to each paper one at a time and do the excercise it shows you to do. Have fun!
A quick reminder; this upcoming weekend in Memorial Day weekend. Dearborn Public Schools will be closed on Friday May 22 and Monday May 25, 2020. For preschool we already do not post assignments on Fridays but I thought it might be worth a reminder for those of you who have older children as well. This also means I will not be posting any assignment on Monday May 25th.
This week I am using a “theme” along with our lessons. We are going to be learning about community helpers to help us guide some of our language, literacy, communication, math, science and social studies learning. Our letter of the week this week is the letter Mm. A quick quote for all of you parents for the reason why I chose to focus on community helpers this week:
We regularly talk about being a “helper” in our classroom and about doing good things to help others.
Also, remember to make sure your child has SCREEN FREE time EVERY day! Send me a picture or two of your child doing something away from a screen today.
5 to 10 Minutes
Plan for Work Time (playtime): Build your child’s ability to organize their time by having them make a “plan” with you about what they would like to play with. Children do this everyday with us at school. It helps children learn to organize their thoughts. Adults make plans all the time to organize their thoughts (shopping lists are made before going to the grocery store, to do lists are made to help plan your day etc..). Kids will tell you what they are planning to do/want to play with/how they will use toys at home.
1 hr.
Work time/Kids play WITHOUT ELECTRONICS Kids can use toys to pretend play, build, and create.
15 min
Clean Up: Kids clean up the mess they have made while playing. If you notice your child making too big of a mess during play, it’s ok to remind them to clean up what they have already finished using before they move on to the next part of their plan.
5 to 10 min
Recall: Build your child’s memory of events by having your child tell you what they did while they played (ask “tell me how you did that” or “what did you do next?”)
Lunch
Prepare lunch: have your child help you prepare lunch. They can help with cooking/setting table- whatever seems appropriate for the meal time. At school the children normally assist with putting plates and utensils on the table as well as scooping their own food onto their plates and passing the food bowls to one another.
Kids:
Language, Literacy & Communication:
Good morning friends! This week we are going to be learning about different community helpers. Each day we are going to learn about different types of ways to be safe and how people in our community/where we live help us stay safe.
We also have a new letter of the week. This week we are learning about the letter Mm. We have 2 friends in our class who have the letter M as their first letter in their first name. Can you think of who they are? Here is a hint: one is a boy… and one is a girl. (Parents: the answer is Mustafa and Mariana.) Here is a video for you to watch today about the letter Mm.
I also have a story for you to watch today. As we learn about community helpers, we are also learning about staying safe. This story talks about knowing where we live.
Instead of writing today, we are going to focus on using our words to communicate. This means when someone asks a question, we can talk to answer the question. Some things that are important for you to know are these questions below. Your grown up can ask you these questions, practice the answers with you and send me a video on Remind of you trying to answer these questions.
What is your name? (Parents: your child should reply with their first and last name. If they don’t, ask what is your first name? What is your last name?)
What is your mom’s name? (Again, they should be able to reply with mom’s first and last name… not “mom” or “mama” or “mommy”)
What is your dad’s name? (Here they should say the first and last name… not “dad” or “baba” or “daddy”)
Where do you live? (Here they should know they live in Dearborn and also their address.)
What is your mom/dad’s phone number? (Don’t forget to teach your child the area code too!)
Math:
We are going to practice learning the numbers in our address as well as the numbers in your grown up’s phone number.
First, you are going to need a piece of paper and some crayons or makers.
On your paper, you can draw a picture of your house. Remember to add details like doors, windows and colors! When you think you’re finished drawing your house, go outside with your grown up and have them show you the numbers/address on your house. Write those numbers on the picture you drew of your house. Don’t forget to send me a picture of your house when you’re finished.
Next, we are going to work on learning your phone number. Your grown up can write their phone number on a piece of paper. You can get a pretend phone out and practice finding those numbers on the phone and pretend to call your mom/dad on the phone. If you don’t have a pretend phone (or an old cell phone) you can find the numbers on a computer/laptop keyboard too.
Also, your grown up can draw buttons from a phone on a piece of paper for you to practice touching.. like this:
Friends!
Here are pictures I received of you writing about your favorite animal from our Virtual Zoo videos. Also, Deen got a new pet turtle named Buddy!
Good morning families! Yesterday would have been our class field trip to the Detroit Zoo. It would have been such a beautiful day to have spent outdoors, learning about animals with you and your children.
Today, it appears the weather is going to be yucky and rainy… so we are going to have our own little virtual zoo field trip!
The Cincinnati Zoo has been doing “Home Safaris” on YouTube. I chose a few of their videos for your children to watch today. These videos touch on all areas of learning: Language & Communication, Math, Science, and Social Studies. I will warn you the videos are lengthy for preschool aged children. If your child loses interest in a video after 5-10, that’s ok! Come back later to a different video and spend 5-10 minutes on that one.
I am going to put 4 videos on here. I would LOVE if everyone can watch all 4 videos (NOT all at one time) sometime today. At a minimum though, I’d like your child to watch two of the videos before doing their writing. As always, don’t forget to send me a picture today!
Kids:
Good morning! Today we are going to be learning about animals! I have four different animal videos for you to watch.
This first one starts with our letter of the week: Letter Kk! Check out this Komodo Dragon!
After you watch the videos of the Komodo Dragon, the Giraffe, the Hippo and the Porcupine, I want you to write a story about your favorite one! Grab your journal and your crayons I brought to your house… don’t forget to make your line! Above your line, draw the animal you liked learning about the most. Under your line, write your words for your story about your animal. When you’re finished, tell your grown up your story and have them write it at the bottom. Don’t forget to send me a picture of your story today!
Good morning families! Many of you have been successful in finding the email I sent you to create your child’s account for Epic! There are still several who show up as “pending” on my account. This means you have not found the email and set up an account yet. I resent email invitations this morning to the email addresses still showing as “pending”. If you did not receive the email, or cannot find it, please text me on Remind with the email address you would like me to send the invite to.
Remember to log your kids in to both Epic and Happy Numbers today. I am expecting everyone to spend about 5 to 10 mins on these daily. Some of your children might want to do the online activities for longer, and that is also ok. However, please make sure it’s at least 5-10 minutes at a minimum.
If you need the directions for setting up Epic, please see my post from yesterday.
Kids:
Language, Literacy & Communication:
You are all doing AMAZING with writing your first and last names! Today, I want you to try to write the names of the people in your family. It’s ok for your grown up to tell you how to spell the names or to tell you which letters to try to write. Some of you are getting really good at listening for the sounds that you can hear when you say a word/name. So for those of you who are doing that… I want you to try to say the name of each person REALLY SLOWLY and see what letter sounds you can hear in their name. Guess the letter and write it. Have your grown up send me a picture of the names you tried to write today.
For a story, I want you to choose one on the Epic app/website that you think looks interesting. You can have someone else in your house read it to you… or you can listen to it in the app.
Math:
Today we are going to work more on counting, as well as on writing numbers. I made you a video to watch so you can see how to do this:
You can ask your grown up to take a picture of you playing this number counting game and send it to me on Remind.
Science:
You all really seemed to like “growing a rainbow” when we did it last week. I found another way for you to experiment with making a rainbow… and since it’s supposed to be sunny today, today is a great time to try it. (Note to parents: you will need to do this either earlier in the morning, or later in the afternoon when the sun is kind of blinding your eyes for this to work.)
If you cannot get this to work with the sun, you can also try it with a flashlight!
Friends!
You all found so many things that start with K or have the letter K on them!
Good morning families! We are off to a great start on our Happy Numbers website with your children. Now that we have a place to do Math online, I want to make sure all of you have access to books for your children online.
On another page of my iBlog, I mentioned a website/app called Epic. This week I want all of you to create an account for Epic. Please click this link for directions on how to do this:
We are going to continue to learn about the letter Kk. Today we are going to discover the sound the letter Kk makes. You might notice letter Kk makes the same sound as letter Cc! Here are a few videos you can watch about the sound for letter Kk.
This one has our letter sound song! Make sure you sing along!
After you watch the videos, I want you to do a letter Kk hunt around your house. You can find things that start with the Kk sound when you say the word…. or you can find things that have the letter Kk written on it somewhere. Make sure your grown up takes a picture of you with all your letter Kk items and sends it to me on Remind.
Math:
We are going to do some more counting today. I have a paper that your grown up can print for you if you have a printer at home. If you don’t have a printer at your house, then your grown up can draw the same pictures on a piece of paper for you to use.
For this activity, you will walk through your house and count how many chairs there are. Every time you find a chair, draw a dot in the box/on your paper. Once you have found all of the chairs, count the number of dots you made. For more of a challenge, you can write the number next to your dots.
For example, in my house I have * * * * * * * * * * * * * * chairs. I have 14 chairs in my house.
You will do this for chairs, beds, lamps/lights, couches, rugs and shelves. When you’re finished, have your grown up take a picture of you with your paper so I can see how many things you found in your house today.
Friends!
Yesterday you all worked hard on counting the letters in your names! Here are pictures of that, along with some extra things you did at home.
I hope all of the moms out there had a great Mother’s Day yesterday. Thank you to all of you who reached out to wish me a Happy Mother’s Day as well! <3
This week we are going to focus on a new letter of the alphabet: letter Kk. I am sure you’re beginning to notice some repetition in the way I post things to do each day. This is how I normally teach in the classroom as well. Repetition is important for children and how they learn. When children know what to expect, they feel more secure and are therefore more successful.
Remember to make sure your child has a minimum of one hour of free “play” time. Here is a reminder of how to implement the ‘plan-do-review’ cycle from school at home.
5 to 10 Minutes
Plan for Work Time (playtime): Build your child’s ability to organize their time by having them make a “plan” with you about what they would like to play with. Children do this everyday with us at school. It helps children learn to organize their thoughts. Adults make plans all the time to organize their thoughts (shopping lists are made before going to the grocery store, to do lists are made to help plan your day etc..). Kids will tell you what they are planning to do/want to play with/how they will use toys at home.
1 hr.
Work time/Kids play WITHOUT ELECTRONICS Kids can use toys to pretend play, build, and create.
15 min
Clean Up: Kids clean up the mess they have made while playing. If you notice your child making too big of a mess during play, it’s ok to remind them to clean up what they have already finished using before they move on to the next part of their plan.
5 to 10 min
Recall: Build your child’s memory of events by having your child tell you what they did while they played (ask “tell me how you did that” or “what did you do next?”)
Lunch
Prepare lunch: have your child help you prepare lunch. They can help with cooking/setting table- whatever seems appropriate for the meal time. At school the children normally assist with putting plates and utensils on the table as well as scooping their own food onto their plates and passing the food bowls to one another.
Log your kiddos onto Happy Numbers today too!
Kids:
Good morning! I had a VERY busy three “home days” this weekend! On Friday, I was able to see Mr. Liepe and Mrs. Ronchetto! I have missed seeing them so much since we have been learning at home and was so excited to be able to see them in person for a little bit. They are both doing well and said to tell all you hello and that they miss seeing you guys too!
I have also been spending a lot of time with my new puppy, Cooper. We are working on teaching him how to go potty outside, how to sleep in his own bed at bedtime, and how to play without biting. You can have your grown up use the Remind text to send me a “voice clip” of you telling me about what you did over these past three days too.
Language, Literacy & Communication:
To start today, I have a story for you to listen to. It’s the story of Big Chickens! See if you remember it from school.
This week we have a new letter of the alphabet we are learning about. Let’s watch this video to learn about the letter Kk!
After you’re finished with these videos, it is time to write your name! Remember to write both your first name and your last name. Don’t forget to put a space in between your first and last name as well.
Math:
We are going to use our names to help us do some math today. I made you a video with an example to see how we are going to count the number of letters in our first and last names… and then compare which one has more letters and which one has the least number of letters. You might even have a name where your first and last name have the same number of letters! (This is called being equal.) Tell your grown up to take a picture of your paper when you’re finished and send it to me on Remind.
Friends!
Here are some pictures of more “growing rainbows”…. some rainbow letter Aa writing you all did… and many shape and pattern caterpillars! Some of you are even starting to work on the paper packets I brought to your houses last week!
Just a quick update: 14 out of 16 of you have set up your child’s Happy Numbers account. Hooray! I can see that those of you with accounts are still working almost daily on completing activities within the website. Excellent!
Also, don’t forget to make sure your preschooler is getting plenty of time to play and also to be outside. Refer to Monday’s post for our plan-do-review cycle guidelines.
Kids:
Good morning!! I know you’re all so excited to see pictures of my new puppy…. so here he is! I’d like you all to “meet” Cooper! He is a 7 week old Australian Shepherd puppy.
Now for some learning….
Language, Literacy & Communication:
We are going to do one final day of practicing with the letter Aa. Just like we do at school on a Thursday, we are going to ‘rainbow write’ our letter Aa today. That means you can write capital A in as many colors as you can find… and write lowercase a in as many colors are you can find. I also have a video for you to watch so you can see how to write the letter the correct way. Remember to always start at the top.
Remember to send me a picture of your colorful letter Aa!
I also have a story for you today:
Math:
Today we are going to work on patterns. Most of you are doing really well with the basic pattern, so I want you to try to create your own more tricky version today. I made a video of a few different kinds of ways you can make your very own pattern caterpillars!
When you’re finished, take a picture of your pattern caterpillar and send it to me on Remind.
Friends!
Here are some of the pictures I got of the learning you’re doing at home yesterday. Talk to your grown up about which friend you miss the most and what you wish you could do with them at school.
Good morning families! I was able to get materials/school supplies to all 16 of your houses yesterday. It made my heart so happy and left my heart feeling so full of love to be able to see you and your children! Please remember to supervise your kids while they’re using these items (especially the scissors) to help them make sure they’re taking care of the materials so they last them from now through the middle of June when “school” is finished.
Kids:
I have a big announcement for you! Mrs. Laurus is getting a puppy today! I am VERY excited about this and I cannot WAIT to show you guys pictures of him! I’ll be sure to post some pictures here tomorrow for you. 🙂
Language, Literacy and Communication:
We are still working on learning about the letter Aa. Today we are going to focus on the sounds letter Aa makes. I made you a video using the Aa tub from school to show you some things that start with the Aa sound. Check it out!
Here is a video of our letter song we sing at school for the letter Aa.
https://youtu.be/AOL9wGhZnxs
After you finish watching these videos, you are going to go on a scavenger hunt through your house to find things that start with the Aa sound. After you’re done collecting your items, have your grown up send me a picture of you with your Aa things on Remind.
I also have a story for you today! Check it out…
Math and Science:
Yesterday for science we made a rainbow. Today, we are going to use rainbow colors for learning about math. Since you like going on hunts to find things… we are going to go on a rainbow hunt! I want you to look for toys or other things that are the different colors of the rainbow. You can choose which colors of the rainbow you are going to look for, but make sure you pick at least four different colors. Some ideas of colors you can choose are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink. Once you decide which colors to search for, we are going to use our observation skills to sort them into groups. In science we call this “classifying”.
Once you have your items sorted into your groups, we are going to COUNT how many items you have of each color. Once you count all your groups, talk to a grown up about which group has the most (biggest) number of items…. which group has the least (smallest) number of items…. and if any of your groups are equal (the same) number of items.
Don’t forget to have your grown up take a picture of your groups and send them to me on Remind.
Good morning families! I will be driving through Dearborn today and delivering materials to all of your homes. My goal is to start arriving at homes by 10:00 AM …. and to be finished and on my way back home no later than 1:00 PM. I tried to plan my route and timing so it would not force anyone to have to wake up super early during Ramadan … and also grouped homes that are in the same area together for distances as well. I am SUPER excited to be able to see all of your children’s faces from a safe distance today!
Kids:
I cannot wait to see you today! Remember to stay inside your house and talk to me from the door or window so we all stay safe and germ free. 🙂
Language, Literacy & Communication:
We are going to continue to learn about the letter Aa. We have three friends in our class who have a capital A as the first letter of their first name. See if you can remember which names start with the letter A and tell your grown up. (Hint to grown ups: It’s Abraham, Almeqddad and Aseel.) In addition to these three friends, EVERYONE in our class has a lowercase a somewhere in their name! It might be in your first name, it might be in your last name… or you might be really lucky and have a in BOTH your first AND your last name!
Today, I want you to write your name…. your first and your last name on a piece of paper. When you’re done writing your name, find all of the letter Aa ‘s in your name and circle them. Have your grown up take a picture and send it to me on Remind.
Science:
I made a video of a science experiment you can try at home to grow your own rainbow! First, watch my video to see how I did it… then you can try it at home.
When you finish “growing” your rainbow, talk to your grown up about why the colors moved like they did. What happened to make the colors move across the paper towel?
Don’t forget to have your grown up take a picture of your rainbow and send it to me on Remind!
Friends!
Here are some pictures I received of all the awesome and creative ways you found to build the letter A yesterday!
I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has set up their Happy Numbers account for their children. I can see many of your kids are visiting the site daily (even on non-school days!) and completing activities.
I have everyone’s home learning materials sorted, packed up and ready to go. I will be driving through the Dearborn area on TUESDAY May 5th to deliver these items to your front porch so your child will have materials to help them continue to be successful with learning for the remainder of this school year. As a reminder, please stay inside your house when you see me. Please feel free to open doors/windows to wave and say hello though! I can’t wait to see all of you and am hoping to snap some window “selfies” with your kiddos during my drive!
If you have not already sent me your current address, please do this today on the Remind text message.
5 to 10 Minutes
Plan for Work Time (playtime): Build your child’s ability to organize their time by having them make a “plan” with you about what they would like to play with. Children do this everyday with us at school. It helps children learn to organize their thoughts. Adults make plans all the time to organize their thoughts (shopping lists are made before going to the grocery store, to do lists are made to help plan your day etc..). Kids will tell you what they are planning to do/want to play with/how they will use toys at home.
1 hr.
Work time/Kids play WITHOUT ELECTRONICS Kids can use toys to pretend play, build, and create.
15 min
Clean Up: Kids clean up the mess they have made while playing. If you notice your child making too big of a mess during play, it’s ok to remind them to clean up what they have already finished using before they move on to the next part of their plan.
5 to 10 min
Recall: Build your child’s memory of events by having your child tell you what they did while they played (ask “tell me how you did that” or “what did you do next?”)
Lunch
Prepare lunch: have your child help you prepare lunch. They can help with cooking/setting table- whatever seems appropriate for the meal time. At school the children normally assist with putting plates and utensils on the table as well as scooping their own food onto their plates and passing the food bowls to one another.
Kids:
I hope all of you spent a lot of time playing outside during your “home days” this weekend. The weather was warm, sunny and beautiful! At my house, we did some yard work, played on the swings and trampoline, rode our bikes, went for family walks and even ate breakfast and dinner outside.
Language, Literacy & Communication:
We are going to start today by watching this Greeting Time video I made for you.
This week we are learning about the letter Aa. I have something fun planned for you to do each day with the letter Aa. Today, I want you to see what you have in your house that you can use to make/build the letter Aa. When you are making your letter Aa, make sure to do both the capital A and the lowercase a. Here are a couple of ideas. You can do this with anything you can find in your house. Don’t forget to have your grown up take a picture and send it to me!
I also have a story for you to listen to today.
Math:
Count the number of things you used to make your letter Aa! Write the number on a piece of paper next to your letter. Have your grown up take a picture of your Aa and the number you wrote and send it to me on Remind.
