Sight Words

If I had to pick ONE thing only for children to practice during this time, it would be their sight words!!  These words are found frequently in the level A, B and C books your child reads in kindergarten.  If they become fluent with these words, then they will be able to spend more time figuring out unfamiliar or tricky words while reading.

We practice these words two ways.

Reading the Sight Words
Reading the words comes along quicker than writing them.  There are endless ways to practice these words in fun way.  Here are a few ideas:

Play dots and boxes.  Take two markers.  You and your child take turns connecting 2 dots.  When you complete a box: read the word inside!  Find the board below and a blank copy here.

*Play memory or concentration: on index cards or blank paper, make 2 cards for each word.  Place the cards face down.  Flip over and try to find a match. I find this game is better if you choose 5-8 words at a time.  See it in action here.

*Play Roll and Read a word

Writing Sight Words
Learning to write the words is harder than reading.  This is because a lot of the words can't be phonetically written/sounded out.  You can practice writing the words by:

Rolling a sight word
Writing the words in rainbow colors
Building the words with playdoh
Writing the words in pudding, shaving cream or anything else you have around!
Find many other ideas here

In this video, I wrote words in white crayon and painted to reveal my mystery words!

   

Friday Flash Weather

*Watch a BrainPopJr.  about the water cycle!

*I will miss doing this rainshower art project!  You cover the drawing with a card and splash the blue paint!

*Science Lesson: What will the weather be like on your birthday?

*Listen to a National Geographic Book about Weather or the ever silly Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

*Play I Spy: Weather

*Practice writing  our sight words in the sky (aka shaving cream)

*Draw the weather each day this week!

From the Science Department

Teachers are helpers and everyone wants to help you right now. Our science department head has put together some weekly science ideas. Next week's ideas revolve around sound!

Sound Travels

Science Enrichment  K-2

April 6th - April 10th

Monday April 6th

Watch this brainpop jr. video to learn about sound and how sound travels from one place to another.

After watching the video try this: 

-Put your hand in the middle of your throat. Say the word “ahhhhhhhhh”. 

-Say “ahhhhhhhhh” in a higher pitch

-Say “ahhhhhhhhh” in a lower pitch

-What do you feel with your hand? What pattern do you notice?

-Tell your teacher what you observed. Can you explain why it felt this way?

Tuesday April 7th

Sound needs something to travel through in order to reach your ear. 

Let’s experiment with sound travelling through string.

Watch this video with instructions to get started.

You will need sting and different objects to test.

Here are written instructions

Test different objects - a hanger, a big spoon, a little spoon, a wooden spoon,
whatever you are curious about.

Share with your class which object made the most pleasing sound in your ear. 

Wednesday April 8th

Sound travels through different materials differently. 

Let’s experiment with sound travelling through other things besides string.

Watch this video about sounds travelling through solids.

Try it for yourself! 

-Put your ear on one end of a table. Have someone knock at the other end. 
Is the noise louder than when it travels through the air?

-Try it again but this time use a different material. What happens when you put
your ear on a chair and knock? Try a book, a glass, a broom handle.  

-Share your results with your class.  Which material made the noise the loudest?

Thursday April 9th

Usually the sounds we hear travel through the air. 

Watch the first 3 minutes of this video.

-Can you think of an experiment that could help you find  out if there are vibrations
in the air when we talk to each other. Tell your teacher what you came up with. 

-Close your eyes.  Have someone else make a sound - tear paper, zip a zipper,
clang a spoon, open a book, etc. With your eyes closed can you guess what the noise is? 
Was there any noise you could not figure out?

Friday April 10th

Sometimes we can direct sound so that it goes where we want it to. 

-Cup your hands behind your ears. 

-Face your partner and have them whisper to you

-Then listen without your hands behind your ear. What do you notice?

Grumpy Monkey

Hello friends!

We have all been feeling lots of feelings while at home!  Below I am reading the story Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang.  At the end, I ask the kids to draw and write for me.  Email me a picture of their work.   I can't wait to see what they do!

Segmenting and Blending

There are lots of things we do at school everyday to help promote phonemic awareness.  Understanding sounds and how they combine into words or how words break down into sounds helps with both reading and writing.

Segmenting:
We do a LOT of work on this skill.  Segmenting is how many sounds a word has, not how many letters.  For example, the word oak segmented would be "o-k" and the word house would be "h-o-s" since those are the sounds you heard.  Click here for a set of Elkonian box words like we use in school.  It is okay if you do not have a printer, you can view the pictures on the screen and have your child touch each box as they segment the word.

Blending:
Blending sounds back together is trickier than it might seem!  You can play a "guess my word" game with your child.  You can say the sounds of simple words, like "c-a-t" and have them blend and say the word "cat"

Here is a good youtube video about how you can model and help your child tap out and segment simple words.  

Friday Flash: Colors

Share the News:
Each morning we “share the news” with a buddy. Here is a question for each day of the week! Monday: What is your favorite color?
Tuesday: What’s your favorite red fruit?
Wednesday: What’s your favorite green vegetable?
Thursday: Have you ever seen a rainbow?
Friday: What is something you’re grateful to have right now?
Check Twitter each day next week for my responses!

At times for sentence practice I have the kids write a joke. They make a line for each word and then write all of the sounds they can hear. I save the answer for when they’re done. Here are a few ideas: What’s a cat's favorite color? Purrr-ple
What color is a ghost? BOO
Where do crayons go on vacation? Color-ado

Learning through color...
Watch a BrainPopJr. about Color! 
Username: Thompson2020
Password: Thompson2020

Mix up some color for a bird art project 

Write your sight words in rainbow colors using this paper. 

Try a color science experiment: walking rainbow! 

Head into your yard and find something that is each color. 

Dr. Seuss My Many Colored Days

Handwriting

At school we practice handwriting using the "Zaner Blouser" style of writing. I was sending home the strands as we finished them. Click here for a document with the language for each letter. I have started to make digital lessons of me teaching handwriting lessons. When we practice at school the students watch and listen to me, then practice on their own (at times with music.) I have made these lessons to replicate what we do at school! I hope to be able to do all the letters in the coming week. If your child is writing their name at home, they should be writing with lower case letters (except the first!) and we had recently started practicing our last names as well.

 Here are two lessons for the "magic c" letters c o and a and the second for c, g and d.

coa

cgd
l t h l b k w x y z