It is May! I feel like this weekend brought some brightness in a lot of ways... News of being able to tiptoe our way (slightly) out of complete quarantine, sunshine and warm weather, hopes of the coming months looking a little different than the past two. I have been breathing in the fresh air and praying that May brings some new joy, new adventures, and new excitement (and less fear, less loneliness for everyone, and less sickness).
Anyway, since next week would have been our final week (which I find crazy), I decided to go ahead and end with this blog post. I hope that some of them have been helpful and given you some fun things to try at home. I also hope that you can enjoy your summer months before your sweetie heads off to kindergarten. It will be here in a blink of an eye, so just enjoy these days to come. Soak them up!
I will try to stay in touch with all of you over the summer. I look forward to hopefully seeing some smiles from some of you soon when we do binder pick-ups! (More details to come next week.) I have so enjoyed putting together everyone's portfolio and thinking of all the fun memories and moments we shared throughout the year. Please continue to stay in touch, let me know how you're doing, and reach out if you have any questions leading up to kindergarten. I hope that as this year comes to a close (in a rather unexpected way), you each know what a true joy it has been to get to know your families and your child this year.
Our last week the past few years we have spent doing some fun farm activities. Here are some fun ideas for this week!
1. Number Work/Adding/Subtracting: I have this cow outline laminated at school and usually use it with small black buttons as the "spots". You can have your child roll two dice, use these two numbers to write an addition sentence, and then place them on the cow. (4+6=10) You could then roll one of the dice to take a certain number off and write a subtraction sentence (10-3=7). Great for number formation and concrete addition/subtraction practice!
2. Writing/Sorting/Cutting: This isn't a great picture, but I have enjoyed doing this sorting activity. For Anna, I will either use some old magazines or print out some pictures of different products to have her sort. While sorting may seem simple, it is a great activity to continue weekly if you can. The mental processing that takes place when sorting develops critical thinking skills and prepares their minds for many of the demanding reading comprehension strategies they will be asked to do in elementary school. If your child is ready, have them draw the chart and write each animal word or animal sentence ("Pigs give us...___.") Also, having them cut out the pictures themselves is great scissor work! I am going to email you another sorting page as well.
Art/Fine Motor: Mrs. Laura shared with her class this sweet picture of her daughter, Ruby, making this sheep, so Anna and I did it yesterday as well. Simple craft with cotton balls. It was also a good chance to talk about what wool is used for, what shearing means, and more! I usually make a cow craft out of a paper plate as well...I like to do one similar to this but have the students tear the paper instead of cutting it. Who doesn't love tearing up paper? The act of tearing is actually an important fine motor activity, believe it or not! I may do it with Anna tomorrow and watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWmbg16ywD8
4. Poetry/Rhyming: In the past, I have drawn a red barn on chart paper and done this poem... It is great for segmenting phonemes in words as well as working on rhyming. You don't even need to write or print the poem... You can just say it and then have small cards or pieces of paper for the animals (starts with "ch" and rhymes with "stick", starts with "p" and rhymes with "wig".) It this is to simple, try having your child come up with some on their own and write them down!
5. Reading/Sight Words: I am emailing you a PDF with some fun "Who Am I?" poems that involve guessing farm animals... My class loved them last year! If you print them, you could also use them to search for known sight words.
6. Exploration: Try to get out and visit someone's farm!! Ask a friend if you could drop by and see any animals, even if they just have a few. :) A great outdoor, socially distanced activity for May! :)
Last but not least, enjoy looking at these sweet faces! Everyone have a fabulous summer, and like I said, please, please stay in touch!
Such an artist!!
We should all follow this girl!
Happy, happy birthday to an
amazing 5 year old!
Look what someone found when he was exploring?!
An awesome jockey!
We sure do have some talented
artists in our class. :)
What a great big brother!
Quite the adventurer!
