Monday
Bring Me with Numerals
Hello Parents. It is week 2 of our distance learning fun!
Primary 1&2 can join us for a teacher led "classroom gathering" using Discord this Wednesday from 11:00 am to 11:30 am. We are excited to see you all there! Please see my email for how to connect with us there.
I will have an "office hour" from 11:30-12:30 daily. Come to the text chat in Discord with all of your questions!
Note that some of these materials/activities can be expanded and used multiple times with more levels of difficulty added each time. Always start small! We want to end on positive notes and with the child feeling success. Some easy traps to fall into...giving them too much difficulty before knowing how much they can do on their own, and making the activity last too long where they lose interest or feel fatigued. It is better to end "early" and leave them wanting more than to overdo it and leave them not wanting to do the activity again!
Also, if your child is ready for more challenging work (like our kinders and new five year olds, etc) please feel free to hop on over to the Lower Elementary activity page and mix and match.
Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!
Bring me is a favorite game in the primary class and it can be used with numerals, letters, continents, colors, etc. Today, we are practicing matching numerals with quantity. This work can be a 1-5 work for our youngest Primary students, or a 1-10 work for our older Primary students. You can also save this work and do it over and over again, or use the same method for a Bring Me game with one of the other options (ex. Bring me something purple, something red, etc)
Materials Needed:
Paper
Scissors
Marker
Bowl
Small plate or tray
5 or 10 gems or beans or beads or buttons or?
Preparation: Cut 5 or 10 paper squares (your child may be able to do this, draw the cutting lines on the paper if needed.) Write one numeral on each square (your child may be able to do this as well. Draw the numerals with a yellow marker or highlighter and have your child trace them if needed). Put the bowl with your counting manipulative (gems, beads, etc) and the small plate in another room from where you will be sitting.
Activity: Have your child come over with their tray and give them the numeral card of your choice and say, “Please bring me (say the numeral chosen)." (Teachers note: For our youngest students, choose lower numerals to start and advance to larger numerals as they are ready. Also, going in order is easiest to start with and is for the child who is new to numbers. Go out of order when your child is able.) Place the numeral card on the tray. When they return with the counting manipulative, count what they brought (or have them count with you or count on their own, depending on level) and repeat with a different number. Do this 3 times, and continue up to 10 times, stopping when your child is losing interest or showing signs of fatigue. Try to end on a numeral that you know that they will get correct.
Tuesday
Making Sandpaper Letters
Sandpaper letters are a useful tool in the classroom for learning the sounds that each letter symbol make. Teachers note: we will make the first set this week, "m" "c" "s" "t" "a" "r". They are not done in alphabetical order but done in an order that will best support the spelling program we use. Please use lower case only. Consonants will be on red paper or with red marker and vowels will be on blue paper or with blue marker.
Materials Needed:
Red construction paper (or white paper with red marker)
Blue construction paper (or white paper with blue marker)
Glue
Sand (this is best. If no sand is available, try cornmeal or glitter or...)
Bowl
Paint brush
Black marker
Activity:
Cut paper in half and write with the letter with the black marker. Put white glue in small dish with a little water. Paint glue on letter. Help your child with these steps so that the letter is represented accurately. Have your child spoon sand on glue. Lift construction paper and shake over sand bowl to discard extra sand. Say, "This is.... mmmm (or sssss or rrrrr, etc)" Let sandpaper letter dry flat.
These sandpaper letters can be used in many different ways. We will use them for an activity on Thursday. It’s very important that you are only saying the phonic sound of the letter, and not it's name. For example the "s" makes a ssssssssssss sound, and not an eeeeess sound.
Wednesday
Find it Game
This is fun game for numeral recognition practice. The basis to this work is "picture to picture" matching, and as you go through the game saying the name of the numeral, they will begin to memorize this on their own and say it themselves. (This can be done with letters as well. If doing this with letters, keep the activity to a few letters at a time and advance to using the whole alphabet.) Keep this work to do over and over again.
Materials:
2 pieces of paper
scissors
Marker
Preparation: Write the numerals that your child is working on recognizing (1-5 or 1 -10 or 11-19) on both pieces of paper in separate squares. Leave one piece of paper whole with all numbers listed. This will be the "control." Cut out the numbers on the other paper.
Activity: Hide the loose numbers around the room and have your child find them. When they find one, they can bring it to the control and match them by placing the found number on top of the one it matches on the control. Have your child review the numbers when they have found all of them.
Thursday
Beginning Sound Hunt with Sandpaper Letters
The children have been introduced to the concept of beginning sounds but you may need to prompt them by saying the word a few times and really listening for that first sound. It helps for them to say the sound themselves while you are saying it because they will hear the beginning more easily in their own voice. As you say the word, extend the first sound of the word as long as possible. ex. rrrrrrrrracecar.
Materials:
Sandpaper Letters
Random objects around the house
Activity: Lay out sandpaper letters and help your child find objects around the house that begin with each letter's sound. Line the objects up under the letter. Start with 2 sounds from the first set (m,c,a,s,t,r), advance to 3 sounds, and up to all 6 sounds.
Extension: If you can find multiple objects for each letter, then you can do Object Sorting. Simply choose two letters and put the objects for those two letters mixed together in a basket or bowl. Let your child sort the objects by beginning sound, lining them up under the letter.
Friday
Easter Egg Rock Painting
Every spring the children really enjoy this project, and then for weeks after they have "Easter Egg Hunts" on the playground. This will surely keep your kids busy in the back yard for a good amount of time. At school I model how to be the hider and then the children get a chance to be the hider and host the hunt. There will always be opportunities to work on virtues like not peeking, letting someone else get the egg when two friends are going for the same one, and working together to find all of the eggs.
Materials:
oval shaped rocks
bowl
scrub brush
towel
paint
paint brush
egg carton for keeping the rocks in
Activity: Start by finding oval rocks. Set up a bowl of warm water with a little soap, the scrub brush, and the small towel for drying. Scrub the rocks free of dirt and let them dry on the towel. Paint the rocks and let dry.When the rocks are all dry put them in the egg carton and count how many you have so that you know when you have found all the eggs in the hunt. Take the finished "eggs" and hide them in the yard or in the house for someone to find.