Cool Calendar for Virtual Field Trips

Hello!

I found this calendar that has an activity a day to go and explore.  There are some pretty cool museums and aquariums posted.

Enjoy!

Calendar of Virtual Field Trips for Families 

March/April 2020

(Just click on the blue words and then click on the link that appears below the words.)

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
3/23 San Diego Zoo SPRING BREAK FUN	3/24 The Louvre in France - Egyptian Antiquities SPRING BREAK FUN	3/25 The Great Wall of China SPRING BREAK FUN	3/26 Boston Children’s Museum SPRING BREAK FUN	3/27 Canadian Egg Farm SPRING BREAK FUN
3/30 Guggenheim Museum, New York	3/31 Live Webcams from the Georgia Aquarium	4/1 Mars (Google) Mars (NASA)	4/2 Yellowstone National Park - visit several locations in the park.	4/3 Hubble Control Center - Lobby Hubble Control Center- Operations Room  (NASA)

**Want to add a LEGO engineering challenge each day, too? Please CLICK HERE for the 30 day LEGO challenge from https://www.freehomeschooldeals.com/.




Daily activities (weekdays only):


Josh Gad (Olaf from Frozen) reads books every weeknight (times vary but you can also watch the recorded videos) on Twitter - #GadBookClub


Drawing with Michael Woodside - learn to draw Disney Characters - live streamed on YouTube and Instagram daily at 10:00 am - #drawingwithwoodsy (videos are also recorded).


Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems - draw with author and illustrator Mo Willems daily on YouTube at 12:00 pm #MOlunchdoodles. (videos are also recorded). For more information go to: https://www.kennedy-center.org/mowillems


Deb’s Virtual Art School - Artist Deborah Putnoi does lessons on Facebook daily at 1:00 pm https://www.facebook.com/TheDrawingMind (videos are also recorded).


Want more?? - Check out this spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121u24nzZE7hLduT8zdDHowZ8Vvl-lUrorUP5E5UBkts/edit?fbclid=IwAR0kYHStNFWWBbz_RZH9Y-mqc_Ohh4DGaVN6jqFiZA80wCqM2Rf3P6RxNw4#gid=560148342

Calendar of Virtual Field Trips for Families 

April 2020

4/6 How Science Powers Us - Tour of a pharmaceutical lab	4/7 Children’s Museum of Indianapolis (Museum at Home videos)	4/8 The Louvre in France - The Apollo Gallery	4/9 Discover Hawaii (takes a bit to load so please be patient)	4/10 Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
4/13 Future U. - Visit Johnson Space Center and meet Boeing employees	4/14 Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida	4/15 The National Gallery, U.K	4/16 Canadian Apple Orchard	4/17 St. Louis Aquarium Galleries
4/20 Stanley Black and Decker Makerspace	4/21 The Louvre in France - History of the Louvre	4/22 Space Shuttle Discovery	4/23 Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico	4/24 National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
4/27 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, South Korea	4/28 Monterey Bay Aquarium Live Animal Cams	4/29 Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii	4/30 Soar with Wings - exploring social/emotional health	5/1 STEM Careers - Improving Animal Health

Calendar of Virtual Field Trips for Families 

May 2020

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
5/4 Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska	5/5 Van Gogh Museum, Netherlands	5/6 Teaching with Testimony - #strongerthanhate	5/7 Polar Bears in the Tundra	5/8 Careers that Count - with the NBA
5/11 Discover Your HAPPY	5/12 Undeniably Dairy-   Visit a Dairy Farm	5/13 J. Paul Getty Museum, California	5/14 Yosemite National Park, California	5/15 Technology in Agriculture - Feeding the Growing Globe
5/18 Celebrate 400 Years of Shakespeare	5/19 Dig into Mining	5/20 Smithsonian’s National Zoo  Webcams	5/21 Colonial Williamsburg Webcams	5/22 Star Atlas - explore over 60,000 stars
5/25 Memorial Day	5/26 The Great Lakes	5/27 Powering the Planet - Renewable Energy	5/28 Borneo - The Symphony of the Rain Forest	5/29 Ellis Island

** Want more LEGO Challenges - click here for 31 more LEGO challenges  from www.freehomeschooldeals.com

Zoom Meeting

Hello again!

Please check your personal emails regarding a Zoom meeting on Monday, March 30th at 10:30 am.  It will be a great way to reconnect and check in on each other.  Mrs. T and I are so excited to see everyone so we are hoping that all the kids can join.  We will send more information soon on how to sign up for Zoom.  A link will be sent to you so that you can join our meeting!

More Resources to Explore

Dear Parents,

Here are a few more valuable resources as well as a schedule you can follow if you are looking for some structure. Simply pick an activity that we sent you yesterday and use it during the “academic time”. It is important to remember that the Kindergarten program does not follow a structured schedule like Grades 1-6. Kindergarten is a play based program where learning can be done in all learning environments (indoors, outdoors in nature etc). Something simple like making playdoh together (then using it to make letters, numbers, creations), making a bracelet or necklace with beads to show patterning and counting, baking, listening to stories, counting birds while on a walk, creating masterpieces out of recycled materials are all simple things that your child can do. For the sk students, you can extend their learning by asking them to write about their day, write about their creations etc. Worksheets are not something we work on in class but if you are looking for some, here’s a great website with free worksheets:


https://kindergartenfirst.ca/ .

Below are some great visuals to use:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Sgk9Pq5eCRJFvnjM9PNdei21z5-AQ6l0-bJqFE7n25o/mobilepresent?fbclid=IwAR24Hyq9bmdNtGrY9lT1prldusbowV_VWgL340FaqhumAsutF2wiknriLFo&slide=id.p

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.

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:

• Kid Food Nation - https://kidfoodnation.ytv.com/ A website with recipes, games and activities about nutrition.
• Dreambox (90 day free trial)
• Mathletics
• http://www.mathscore.com/
• http://bedtimemath.org/
• https://mashupmath.com/free-math-worksheets
• https://www.worksheetfun.com/
• Make and find simple patterns in the house or outdoors
• Practice composing and decomposing numbers to 10. (3 + 2 = ?) Ask if it can be shared equally (odd or even)
• Listen to the Big Number Song(Kidstv123) on Youtube
• Zorbits.com

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:

• https://www.duolingo.com/
• Google Translate - put in the english word and listen to it in French
• Find a favourite show/movie on Netflix and change the language to French
• https://www.thefrenchexperiment.com/
• https://ici.radio-canada.ca/jeunesse
• https://www.telequebec.tv/jeunesse-famille/
• See blog for list of French songs that Mme uses in class

Week of March 9th

Our letters this week are "sh" and the word is "she".  We learned that the letters s-h together make the sound "shhhhhh".

We are excited for St. Patrick's Day in Room 138!  We have been busy colouring shamrocks, reading stories about leprechauns and making rainbows.  It is going to be a fun week ahead! On Friday, we will be making leprechaun traps with our reading buddies.

Next week the school will be closed for March Break.  We hope you all have a wonderful week with your family.

VIP Project - Please send in your simple write up and workplace selfie.  This is a fun project for the kids.  They always love guessing what each parent does at work.

Kleenex- we are running out of kleenex in the classroom.  If you could spare a box for the classroom, it would be much appreciated.

On Friday, March 13th, we will be having a "beach day" where the kinder students are welcome to wear their favourite "beachy" outfits.  No bathing suits please!

Week of March 2nd

It's hard to believe that we have entered the month of March already!  Bring on the warmer weather!!! This week we are dancing our way into March with some fun hip hop dance classes taught by Luv2Groove.  We will be going all week for 30 minutes a day.  Today was our first day dancing and the kids had so much fun!

This year, we will be collecting pasta noodles for our North of 60 Lenten project.  A note is coming home tonight with more details.  Our kindergarten students are asked to donate 454g bags of spaghetti, rotini, small bowtie and elbow macaroni.  Your generosity and support is very much appreciated.

Our letter this week is "y".  We talked about all the sounds this letter makes and how it can trick us when sounding words out.  Our word is "my".  Ask your child to sing the song they learned today.

This afternoon, we read an amazing story called "The Invisible Boy".  The children were captivated by this story and were able to make so many personal connections.  We spoke about how one simple act of kindness can be contagious and can really change someone's day.  It was nice to hear about kind acts that the students have done or received from others.

Just a reminder that the school will be closed on Thursday, March 5th and will re-open on Friday.

Here are some pictures from today: