J1 Suggested Activities

Ensure your child is reading on a daily basis. There are three ways they can do this, all equally important. 

• Listening to Reading - listening to an adult, peer or audio book

• Read with Someone - shared reading 

• Read to Self - independent reading

• Razkids https://www.kidsa-z.com/main/Login

• See your child’s homeroom teacher for their login 

• Have your child keep a log of all the books they read and note the time. How long are you reading??

• Make Predictions what do you think your book will be about. Use the title and the picture on the front cover to help make your predictions. 

• Check for comprehension Stop half-way through the book. Turn and Talk with your adult. Who is this book about? What is happening in this story? Where is the story taking place?

• Draw or write about your favorite part. A sentence starter could be:- My favorite part of this book was when ………….

• Do a short vowel word hunt in your books. Identify short a, e, i, o , u  words 

• DO SOMETHING! Maybe you will: (retell the story, re-read your favorite page, copy your favorite words or sentences, talk about the book, then write down what you discussed, draw a picture)

Have your child engage in writing for authentic purposes. What does authentic purposes mean?

Make Lists: Lists can be great first writing experiences for beginning writers because they do not require full sentences. Think...

• Grocery lists

• Wish lists for birthdays or holidays

• Reading lists for books read or books a child would like to read

• Goals for school, extracurricular activities, etc

• Invitation lists for gatherings

• Places to visit

• Things observed at an event or place like the zoo or a park

• Comic Creator: Try this free website to create your own comics. http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/   

• Story Narrator: Explore these two free websites to write the words to the stories. www.storybird.com/ and www.storyjumper.com

• Encourage telling stories with a clear structure and some detail. Your children will be focused on narrative writing this term. They will be encouraged to tell true stories in writing and drawing. Encouraging young writers to practice storytelling by telling stories about their day can be a huge support. Some prompts might sound like:

  • • Tell me the story of your time on the slide.

    • What did you do first? Then what? At the end what did you do?

    • What was the best part of being on the slide? Tell me what you were thinking and feeling!

• Invite children to draw and write story booklets as gifts. These can be wonderful surprises for family members! Put together a booklet by stapling together or binding pages like the one found in this link. The picture boxes are for kids to tell the story across pages in drawings. The lines below are for them to write as best they can the words that tell the story - the beginning, the middle and the end. If they need more pages, you can add them on for a longer story. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1VRWOuGvc61cNCwLbaQ4uDihJarmmJcwV

• Play storytelling games. Story cubes (search for Zygomatic Rory’s Story Cubes) and story blocks (search for Melissa & Doug) can be fun ways to co-author stories with your family.

• Watch this sweet Storybots video that explains all about emotions.

• Read books that offer visions for conflict resolution. These books can be good conversation starters to get kids thinking about how people can work to solve their differences in peaceful ways. This website has some good ideas for titles: https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/early-childhood/conflict-resolution/. 

• Be a UNIS Learner: Have your child think about what they do each day. 

What part of the learner profile were you? 

What about the people in your family?

Keep track and celebrate all the great things you do!

• Have them make up a peaceful game that they could play on the playground. 

• Have them ask a family member or care-giver what: looks like peace, smells like peace, tastes like peace, feels like peace or sounds like peace

• Have them think of a time when they felt conflict or a time when you felt peace. 

• Have them ask someone at home if they know a good strategy to go from feeling not peaceful to peaceful. 

Games, games, games! Playing number based games as often as possible. This will help computational fluency. Adding and subtracting everything and anything. Just think cards, dice, board games, the LOT! Just like in writing, the more authentic the maths can be in their daily life the better! Games are one way of course but here is a list of a few more authentic ideas…

• Play the dice tally game- Roll a dice and represent the die numbers in tally marks.( Roll 2 or three die - add them together and then tally the total)

• NYC Street Math | Addition and Subtraction: Notice the New York City Streets and calculate how far you travel as you walk, ride, take the subway or drive. Ask your child “If we start at 33rd and end at 57th… How far did we travel? What math will you use to calculate?”

• Loose Change: Keep a coin jar. Give your child a handful to sort, classify, and count in different ways (i.e. How many of each color? Size? Value?)

• Count forwards or backwards to/from 100 by 10s, 5s, 2s. Start a t different starting points

• Make a Game: Invent your own math game and teach to others! How will you  make it harder, and then harder again!?

• Race to 100 game

• SPLAT

• BrainPop Jr: Login in to BrainPop using the login below. Think about what you want to learn about and watch some of the videos and try the tasks! https://jr.brainpop.com/ 

Username: unis Password: unispop 

Check the Temps | Calculations & Conversions: Practice reading a thermometer and keep a log of each day’s temperatures. Calculate the difference in temperatures between days and make educated predictions about the next day’s temperature. Advanced students can practice converting temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius.