Story Time: Scroll down for the Books of the Week

Choose one book each day to focus on

Scroll down for the Books of the Week. Pause during the book reading to discuss what you see and ask your child to identify items either by labeling or pointing. Keep a list of what they were able to identify and share it with us!

After reading the books/watching the videos, mask up and go on a nature walk or LISTENING WALK (even if it's just around the block). While walking ASK QUESTIONS and talk about what you see (ie colors, animals, clouds, wind blowing in the trees). Gather colorful leaves, and blades of grass, talk about the colors and sizes of your discoveries. Allow your child to explore what you've discovered and we'll be using some of these materials throughout the week.

Invite your child to look out of a window (store, bus, subway, bedroom, etc.) and discuss what they see AND hear at various times throughout the day. What do they see AND hear in the morning? In the evening? Right before bed? What is different each time? What is the same? Why?

Literacy Activity:

Choose an activity to work on over a couple of days or choose one activity per day

Vocabulary words to target this week: ear, hear, loud, quiet, sound,

EXAGGERATE the target letters below and pair those sounds with the vocabulary words

(Focus Letters: E, H, L, Q, S)

*Feel free to add your own words, the key is consistency. KEEP LANGUAGE GOING ALL DAY*

CLICK HERE FOR NAME MATS

CLICK HERE FOR LETTER PRINTABLES

There are puzzles, tracing, painting, play-dough mats to choose from. The goal is to have your child engage with letters of the alphabet but also to be able to identify the letters in the vocabulary words. Experiment with what your child shows the most interest in. Target fine motor skills, following directions and communication. Allow your child to use glue, safety scissors, paint, markers, stickers, etc. For play-dough and paint recipes, click on this link below or check our "Resources" page.

NO PRINTER? NO PROBLEM! DRAW LETTERS FOR YOUR CHILD TO TRACE WITH THEIR FINGERS, MARKER, ETC

Letter Q Song

Letter S Song

STEAM:

Science/ Technology/ Engineering/ Art/ Math/ Science

Choose an activity to work on over a couple of days or choose one activity per day

Examples of questions to ask:

What happens when ___? How do you think that works? How could you change that?

What does that remind you of? What would happen if ___? Tell me more.

*Remember to narrate play and ask questions; label objects, animals, parts of things (ie leaf on stem), colors, sizes, be creative!

*This is where you can use the items gathered during your nature/ neighborhood walk (ie branches, leaves, grass, dirt, flowers)

1. Instruments: Invite your child to make various instruments such as shakers or string instruments. To make shakers, provide empty tubes, containers, plastic eggs, etc. as well as materials to put inside such as rice, beans or beads. Secure the containers and have your child decorate. To make string instruments provide various boxes and containers as well as rubber bands, string, and tape. As your child creates, invite them to think about how the instruments will make sounds, and introduce the relationship between movement and sound. BE CREATIVE and HAVE FUN!

2. Matching Sounds: Provide small closed containers with various materials inside that make noise when your child shakes them. There should be two containers for each material. Invite your child to shake the containers and listen to find the matching sounds.

3. Listening Tube: Easy to create listening tube will amplify sounds! Check out the tutorial below. TALK about the sounds. Is is soft, loud, crunchy?

4. Mr. Potato Head: Invite your child to add eyes, ears, nose, mouth, etc. to the body. As they are assembling Mr. Potato Head, talk with them about how his senses can help keep us safe. *Remember to narrate and label items throughout the activity*

5. Water Xylophone: Create a water xylophone by pouring varying amounts of water into empty, clean baby food jars (or similar type of jar). Demonstrate how to gently strike the jars and encourage children to listen to the sounds produced. Additionally, consider adding food color to the water in the jars calling attention to the water level in each.

Books of the Week

Once finished with the book, go through it again and PAUSE video to get a better look at pictures; assist your child to identify pictures (focus on animal labels, body parts, animal sounds, verbs, colors, quantity.

Use this as an opportunity to talk about how we use our sense of vision, how things may look different throughout the day (depending on time of day), how light and shadows may alter the way things look; discuss colors, shapes, quantity, patterns. Pause the books at any time to answer questions, ASK questions, and point out important information. At the end of the book, talk about it some more. Ask WH questions (ie WHAT did we just read?/ WHAT did you see?)

Interested in more books? Check this out: My Five Senses Library

Videos of the Week/ Music and Movement

When exploring these videos, use this as an opportunity to talk with your child about parts of their bodies and the function of body parts (ie. see with eyes), EMOTIONS and following directions and imitations.

It's important to engage with your child, narrate videos and PAUSE video if you need to. Have your child perform emotions and movements with their bodies. Write down any reactions or words and share with us!

The goal here is to HAVE FUN! Making mistake and having a do-over is OKAY, it's all part of the learning process!

Check out these activities!!

Simon Says: Invite children to play Simon Says. Give directions for touching their noses, ears, mouth and eyes, but only if “Simon” says!

Making Popcorn: LISTEN to the sounds of the kernels POP!

Freeze Dance: Play different kinds of music and encourage the children to dance freely or copy movements. Pause the music at various points and encourage students to “FREEZE!” when they hear the music stop.

If you need some time to relax and calm down, take 10 minutes.. just click here for our Calm Room.