Monday 23 March 2020

March 23 - Important Updates - Please Read!



First and foremost, Mrs. T, Mme Vida and I hope that you and your family are safe and healthy. We miss our students and look forward to being back together again! Please tell your child that we say hello and would love to see pictures of what they are up to (playing outside, helping set the table, making creations, practicing printing etc). Feel free to send me an email with a picture to andrea.rocco@ocsb.ca .

A special thank you to many of you who are or who have someone in your family who is in the healthcare profession, is a public servant, is in the service industry etc. and are putting themselves at risk to care for and help others. We are truly blessed to be part of such a wonderful school community.

For the first few weeks of school closure the Ontario Ministry of Education has created a website to support students and parents. Follow the link for resources:

https://www.ontario.ca/page/learn-at-home


The Ministry of Education will release phase two of Learn at Home if it becomes necessary to keep schools closed beyond April 6.

In the meantime, please visit our classroom blog http://roccokinder.blogspot.com/ as we pass along more ideas for activities you can do with your child during this time.


Although we have reached out with some learning ideas (see below), please remember that the first priority during these stressful times is you, your health and that of your family. We encourage you to take the time to do things that lend to your well-being.


Image result for We are at our finest when we take care of each other





A suggestion of things to work on:

Language:
  • Simple rhyming using word families (at, it, op, and, og”) They can sing our rhyming song: Eg: “Cat and bat are rhyming words, are rhyming words, are rhyming words. Cat and bat are rhyming words. Their endings sound the same.”
  • Practice letter recognition and letter sounds. You can listen to Jolly Phonics A-Z or the Phonics Song (Kidstv123). You will find these on Youtube as well as many great songs..
  • Review the word wall words we have learned so far. (you can go back to the old blog posts and review the words and letters).
  • Keep a daily journal where your child writes one thing about their day. Let them sound it out using phonetic spelling.
  • Scholastic Learn at Home: https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html
  • Raz Kids - https://www.raz-kids.com/ Login information and passwords were sent home in the Fall.
  • Abcya.com https://www.abcya.com/
  • Storybots.com or watch the videos of each letter of the alphabet on youtube : ie: storybots letter A. The kids love these videos. They are informative and entertaining! https://www.storybots.com/
  • ABC Mouse on youtube - their videos on each letter of the alphabet are amazing and the kids love them!
  • Storyline Online is a great website where actors read children’s stories online. The kids love watching and listening to them. https://www.storylineonline.net/
  • https://www.tumblebooks.com/
  • https://www.getepic.com/
  • Snuggle up and read together for 10 minutes daily. Enjoy the snuggles! For the sk students, you can follow the same format as our Snuggle Program. Jk students can talk about what was read, their favourite part of the story, etc.
  • Encourage the kids to use their creativity and make masterpieces with boxes, toilet paper rolls etc. This is endless fun for them! When they are done, ask them to write one simple sentence about their creation. Let them sound it out independently.

Math:

Physical Education:
  • Go Noodle
  • Cosmic Yoga Kids
  • Just Dance Kids 
  • Get outdoors and do a scavenger hunt or just enjoy a walk and fresh air!
  • A great website for calming activities and self regulation activities which will help to keep everyone grounded through these stressful times: https://www.mindfulness-rocks.com/
Science:
  • Explore Science through nature. Go on a walk and look for leaves or buds on trees, count birds, look for shapes in nature (are they 2D or 3D?), talk about seasons and the differences between them all, check the temperature outside and write it down. Track it for a few days and see which day was the coldest and warmest.
  • Watch live zoo cams (San Diego Zoo, Maryland Zoo, Monterey Aquarium)
  • Bill Nye The Science Guy: https://www.billnye.com/
  • The Magic School Bus on Youtube
  • Mystery Science https://mysteryscience.com/ (when it asks you to “set password”, click “skip for now”.

Religion:
  • In keeping with the season of Lent, you can watch child friendly stories on Youtube by searching “The Beginners Bible, The Story of Easter”.
  • Youtube : Kids Present The Easter Story 

French: