• Find time for your reading life! Find a cozy spot and read, read, read!

• Keep a journal or diary of all the texts you are reading (including books that are read to you). Include a brief summary of each text, any personal connections made, or connections made to other texts. Draw an illustration to support your writing and the text you read.

• Inspire someone! Write a brief poem, with an illustration to accompany it, that inspires a family member or friend to do something positive for the community in which you live.

• As you are reading a book, use sticky notes or paper to jot down key elements of the story. After reading, review your notes/jots and discuss your thinking with a family member or friend.

• Phone a grandparent or family member, and write a reflection of your conversation, highlighting what you liked most about the chat.

• Choose a topic you are passionate about and create a K,W,L chart. Write K- what you already know about the topic, W-What you want to learn about the topic, and then begin to research the topic. Once you have read several different resources about the topic, add to your KWL chart. Write L- what you have learned about the topic. Then create a brochure or poster that tells someone about the topic you have researched. Be sure to include text features including illustrations and captions.

• Create a comic strip with an interesting character and setting. Think about what your plot of the story will be. Consider the characters, setting, problem, and solution. You may want to map out the plot before writing your story. It might also be helpful to write your story down first, then turn it into a comic strip or graphic novel.

• Practice writing in cursive. Write a letter to someone you love and write it in cursive.

• Find an informational text such as a newspaper, magazine, or non-fiction book, then identify the features and graphics that help provide information to the read.

• Narrative Writing: Think of a special place or person in your life. Think about a moment in time with that person or in that place. Make a plan for your story. Practice your story using storytelling with a friend or family member. Write your story. When complete, reread your story, looking for places to revise and edit. Make sure you have added details and feelings/emotions. Publish your story and include a cover and illustrations.

• How-To Writing: Ask your child to write a how-to paper for something they can do on their own. Have someone follow the directions and talk about how it turned out. It might be how to make a friendship bracelet, how to ride a bicycle, how to make a bed, how to make a friend, how to play a certain game, etc.

• Opinion Writing: Ask your child, Would you rather eat healthy food or junk food? Be sure to convince your audience of which one is better to eat and explain why. Convince them why they should eat the type of food you chose and include details.

• How-To Writing: Ask your child to write how they would make a fort. (ex: use pillows and sheets) Have someone follow your directions and talk about how it turned out.

• Expository Writing: Ask your child to tell you about their favorite dessert? Make sure you have a central idea and supporting details. Be sure to convince your audience of which dessert is the best to eat and explain why. Convince them why they should eat the type of dessert you chose. Include details, details, details to support your central idea!

• Have your child help you with a grocery list and estimate costs. “Do you think we’ll have enough to get…?”

  • Practice adding and subtracting-”how much will these items cost together? How much more expensive is...than….?”

  • Practice rounding the cost to total dollar amounts.

  • Count coins and bills to match the amount.

• Have your child figure out the daily temperature range based on the forecast or check your weather app. Compare it over several days or a week.

• Measurement Scavenger Hunt-find things in your house or go on a walk.

  • List 2 things you would measure in inches.

  • List 2 things you would measure in feet.

  • List 2 things you would measure in yards.

  • What could you measure in miles?

  • What about metric measurements?

• Cook together as a family. Talk about the fractions in the recipe.

  • Measurement conversions-how many cups to equal a quart? A pint?

  • What if I want to halve the recipe-figure out the new measurements and write them down.

• Practice adding and subtracting with money and making change. Pretend to have a bakery, coffee shop, or restaurant. One person plays the customer and the other plays the cashier. “If my lunch cost $6.85 and I pay with a $10 bill how much change will I get?” You can even make your own play money with paper or use some from a game like Monopoly.

  • Create a menu and decide how much to price your items.

  • Pretend you only have $10--what could you order?

• Go on Geometry Walk around your neighborhood. Do you see parallel or perpendicular lines? What angles do you notice? (see pics to left)

• Practice solving for perimeter, area and volume!

  • For perimeter and area- use a ruler, tape measure, or pieces of notebook paper to measure the perimeter and area of your bedroom. Next try to figure out the perimeter of another room or your bed or kitchen table.

  • For volume, use this video for reference and these additional practice problems.

  • Choose two different containers and estimate which one will hold the most popcorn. Test it by filling both with popcorn or by figuring the volume of each container and comparing.

  • Find a kleenex or cereal box and measure the sides. Figure out the perimeter and area for one of the sides. Then try to solve for the volume in cubic inches or centimeters. (If you don’t have a ruler, use a non-standard measuring tool like paper clips, or toothpicks.)

• Practice your mental math strategies for adding more than two numbers. Work with percentages and decimals to stretch your thinking. (Strategies may include making a friendly number, using a number line and making jumps, breaking the larger number into smaller chunks-decomposing).

• Domino Multiplication-take two dominoes and line them up horizontally. This becomes the problem. (e.g. A domino has a 4 and a 2 and the second domino has a 1 and 6 so the problem becomes 42 x 16). You could use a deck of cards as well and draw 4 cards. (Face cards = 10 and Joker/Aces = wild card).

• Pick a math skill you want to get better at. Watch Khan Academy or have a parent or older sibling teach you. Practice and then show off your new skill by creating a “how to video” or write the steps/explanation down to share with your teacher.

• Keep adding pictures to your weather journal. What is your favorite kind of weather?

• Give your child three minutes to write down as many places as possible that water can occupy. Encourage creative responses beyond rivers, lakes, and ocean to estuaries, groundwater, clouds, wetlands, precipitation, and others. Ask your child how in the world water would get from one place to another. What role does the Sun have as a part of this process? Draw and label the water cycle.

• Imagine you are a raindrop just formed in a cloud and are about to fall down to Earth. Write a story or draw a comic strip of where you go once you land on Earth. Do you fall into the ocean? A corn field? A rooftop? Where will the raindrop end up? There are SO many places water can go!

• Inside the house in a container or outside in a pot or the ground, plant some seeds with your child. The seeds can be from a seed packet you purchase or the seeds from the fresh fruits or vegetables you are eating. What do plants need to survive? Your student can keep a journal of the growth of the new plant.

• Tell your child he/she is going on a vacation to the Sun, Earth, or Moon. Have your child choose one and create a packing list that would be appropriate for the chosen location, listing at least 10 items.

• Give your child two minutes to list as many items that use wheels as possible. Create a bar graph of how many items he/she identified with 1, 2, 3, 4, or more wheels. Think creatively!

• Who do you look like? Look at pictures of your parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents when they were your age. Did you inherit your mother’s eye color or your grandfather’s ears?

• Using a variety of available craft materials, challenge your child to design and create a model of the Sun. Use paint, markers, cotton balls, construction paper, balls, or any other items and encourage him/her to think creatively in representing the Sun.

• Gather several magnets from around the house. Ask your child if the shape or size of the magnet makes a magnet stronger. Ask for a few explanations. Have a bowl of small metal items like paper clips. Demonstrate how a paperclip is attracted to each magnet. Ask your child to predict how many paperclips each magnet can lift and hold. Make a tally chart of the predictions on a piece of paper, then test the magnets.

• Cut a piece of medium-grit sandpaper into a 4 inch by 4 inch piece for your child. Provide an assortment of old crayons and direct your child to color a picture on the rough side of the sandpaper, the more colors and the heavier he/she colors, the better. Place each square face down on a stack of paper, and with an iron on high heat, iron the back of the square. Allow a few seconds for the wax to cool. Flip the picture over to see how it has changed due to the heat.

• Think about your favorite sports or hobbies. Which form of energy is most helpful to conduct that activity? Is it sound energy in playing music, electrical energy that provides light in the gym to play basketball, thermal energy to bake cookies or mechanical energy with moving parts? Make lists of which energy is most helpful for each of the activities and hobbies.

• An outside game for several children. Using one balloon to begin, have children stand in a circle and throw the balloon in the circle, challenging each other to keep it from touching the ground. After a few “bumps” from children keeping it in the air, add another balloon. Then, add another and keep the challenge going as long as children do not let the balloons drop to the ground. Ask why they continue to fall towards the Earth and identify the force of gravity affecting the balloons.

• Choose a few items that have been in plain sight in your home daily. For example, the television remote, a stuffed toy, your coffee mug. Place the item in a large box, a black plastic bag, or a pillowcase. Put your hands in the container, and start describing the hidden object by touch. Your child is allowed to ask yes/no questions. He/She can also look around the room to see what is missing. Your child can become the describer with another object.

• Something a little silly. Ask your child to predict what will happen to a marshmallow peep (any shape, any color) if heat is added. Put one or two peeps on a paper plate and microwave for 30-60 seconds. Peeps will deflate when the heat is removed. Draw a four-panel comic strip of the Peep in the microwave.

• Go back and complete any activities from the previous weeks.

• Keep adding pictures to your “Quarantine Calendar”. What new skill have you learned?

• Make an illustrated timeline or flowchart of the time you have been at home. Do you see a pattern?

• Pretend to be a police officer and have your child pretend to be lost. Have him/her give you the correct information, like full name, address and phone number, so the “officer” can help him/her. Older siblings can help younger ones practice this.

• Go on a Scavenger Hunt in your neighborhood then talk about the items with a family member. See if you can find:

  • a flag. What different types of flags do you see? Why do people fly flags at their houses? Make a flag to hang in front of your house!

  • a bear in a window. People are putting bears in their windows just for you to find them. Why do you think they would do that?

  • a mockingbird, the state bird of Texas.

  • Texas license plates. How many different designs of the Texas plate did you see?

  • a license plate not from Texas. What state would you like to travel to? Find the other states on a map when you get back home.

  • animals. How many different types of animals did you see? Make a bar graph of the animals you saw.

  • a plant with flowers. Why do plants have flowers? What do trunks do for trees? Why are leaves shaped differently?

  • a statue. Why is the statue there? What is the statue made of? Draw a statue that would look great in your yard.

  • a service worker, like a postman, delivery person, telephone company, plumbing company or electrical company worker. How do service workers help our community?

  • 3 different types of transportation. What is your favorite way to travel?

  • a street sign. What does the sign tell people? What might happen if there were no street signs?

  • a change in the neighborhood, like a new building or a closed store. Why did the change happen? Do you think it is a good or bad change for the neighborhood? What change would you like to see in your neighborhood?

• Make a list of all the holidays you can think of. Which is your favorite? Draw a picture of your family celebrating that holiday. Think of a new holiday that should be on the calendar. When would it be? What would it celebrate? What foods and decorations would help celebrate your new holiday?

• What are some rules at your house? Why do you have rules? Are there any new rules since everyone has to stay in the house? Create a 4 to 6 panel comic strip that shows how the new rule happened.

• Cut apart an old map or large pictures, like those on a calendar, into puzzle pieces and have your child put the puzzles together.

• Go back and complete any activities from the previous weeks.

Yoga heals the soul! Click on the link below to work on increasing your flexibility, muscle strength and tone, while improving your mental health at the same time!

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