This is our final week of school, and it is time to celebrate! Take time this week to look back and experience some of your favourite activities from the last few months of home learning. What did you learn, what did you work hard on, and what did you enjoy the most?

We are so proud of you, and can't wait until we can all learn together again!

It took hard work, perseverance, and lots of people helping you to complete this year of school! This week's challenge is to plan a party to celebrate your many accomplishments after a year well done!

Make a poster to plan your party! You can print a fillable party planning template here, or design your own!

Take a look at this week's learning plan for ideas on ways to incorporate learning into your daily routine. You can view the learning activities here.

What is something you have imagined building or creating? This week we are focusing on how to begin bringing your thinking and imagination to life through the process of design. A designer's job is to plan how things look and work before it is made. This is done by making drawings, plans, and even examples. So get thinking! What is something that you would like to design this week?

This week's challenge invites you to get inspired to design a structure of your choice. Maybe it is a bridge, a tree house, or even a house. Designers begin with a plan, sketching out their ideas and thinking about the tools and materials they will need to bring their designs to life! Draw your own design on a piece of plain paper or graph paper, or use one of the printables below to get started.

Treehouse poem and design plan printable

Plain design plan printable

Need an idea of what to design? Look around you at the buildings and structures in your neighbourhood, or listen to one of these fantastic stories:

Iggy Peck, Architect, by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts

Take a look at this week's learning plan for ideas on ways to incorporate learning into your daily routine. You can view the learning activities here.

This week we will explore our real human homes, the homes of some animals, and even magical fairy homes!

Where do we go to feel safe, warm and cozy? What protects us from the wind, rain, sun, and snow? Yes! Our home. Our homes are more than just places to shelter. In our homes we eat, sleep, play and learn.

Animals have homes too. Their homes come in many different shapes and sizes that are made from different types of materials. Birds make nests. Check out this song by Emily Arrow, titled, Little Bird Song. For some of us, we are staying home, in our nests. For others, we are creating new nests as we return to in-class learning at school.

When you go walking in the woods, do you ever look at all of the little cracks and crevices in the roots of the trees and wonder who might live in there? Sometimes we can see where the birds and squirrels and insects make their homes, but what about the fairies and the elves? Tracy Kane wrote and illustrated a series of books about Fairy Houses and she talks about the inspiration for her books here. Have a listen to a read-aloud of the first one here, and then see if you can go out and build one yourself.

Take a look at this week's learning plan for ideas on ways to incorporate learning into your daily routine. You can view the learning activities here.

Collections are a fun way to gather, sort and save special items. This week we will be looking at collections. Maybe you have a collection at home, or maybe you create collections when you are outside, such as collecting rocks or sticks. This week you will have many opportunities to write about, to draw, to add to, or maybe even start a new collection. Check out the newest math activity, Counting Collections and the new letter printing pages loaded in the Printables Section of the website. We are looking forward to hearing about and seeing pictures of your collections.

Can you make a collection of tiny, perfect things? Use an old egg carton to collect and display your collection. Head outside and look closely at the tiny, perfect things around you. Take a picture of your collection and share it with your teacher through email or FreshGrade.

If you have fun creating this collection, experiment with other collections you can create: a collection of sounds, a beach collection, forest collection, colour collection, flower collection, or insect collection? Use your imagination and follow your curiosity!

Take a look at this week's learning plan for ideas on ways to incorporate learning into your daily routine. You can view the learning activities here.

Wow! We have had A LOT of change these past few months! We have gone from learning at school to learning at home, and from seeing each other face to face to seeing each other on computer screens. Even with all of this change, however, some things don't change - you are still learning, growing, working hard, and showing curiosity about the world around you. And we are still missing you like crazy!

This week we are going to take a closer look at the changes happening in the world around us AND the changes that have happened in you. Can you think back to the beginning of the year when you were first starting kindergarten or grade 1? You have all grown and changed SO much from that first day of school. The natural world is changing too. When you go outside, do you notice changes happening now that spring is here? Does your backyard look different? Are you seeing changes in the animals or plants around you? One thing that is changing quickly are Mrs.Erickson's chicks. Watch the video here to see how they have grown over the past weeks.

This week's challenge is all about changes in the sky! Watch the video to create a cloud viewer and spend some time learning about the different types of clouds, imagining shapes and creatures in the different cloud formations, and noticing changes in the sky throughout the day! There is an optional 'sky notes' record sheet to make your own notes each day, and draw what you see or imagine! If you would like to learn more about different types of clouds, click here for an introductory video and here for an extension of this.

Learn how to make a cloud viewer here.

View the printable cloud viewer here.

Find the printable 'sky notes' record sheet here.

Take a look at this week's learning plan for ideas on ways to incorporate learning into your daily routine. You can view the learning activities here.

This week we have several teacher videos that connect with our focus on 'change'. Watch here for a fabulous story about growth and change, a sequel to the story of Humpty Dumpty with a wonderful twist at the end. Can you guess what will happen?

Do you have anything growing in your home or in your garden? Do you have growing beans or seeds? Do you have plants growing outside and in your neighbourhood? Are YOU growing?

This week we will focus on growth! Animals, plants, ourselves! Anything and everything that grows. Scroll down for the weekly learning plans and Spring learning mats, along with the weekly challenge. Don't forget to check out the newest chick update and the science section of teacher videos for a new video exploring plants in the forest. Past challenges and learning plans are loaded further down on the page. If you missed the germinating seed challenge a few weeks ago, feel welcome to give that a try this week as well.

Things are growing all around us and we hope you have fun while you explore growth this week!

Growing crystals can be an at-home experiment using ingredients as common as water and salt!

You can watch our tutorial video here for growing salt crystals. Recipes and written instructions for growing crystals are found here. We hope you have some fun with this challenge!

Take a look at this week's learning plan for ideas on ways to incorporate learning into your daily routine. You can view the learning activities here.

This week our focus is all about celebrating the moms, grandmas, aunties and all of the other wonderful women in our lives. A pat on the back, moms, for making it this far! We are continually blown away by the strength, resilience, and creativity we see in each family right now - and and in each mom!

Your challenge this week is to create some art anywhere and with anything. Listen to this read aloud (here) first. How can you show your mom how much you love her? Your challenge this week is to make a special card or poster to give to her and show her that she is special to you! If you need some ideas, check out our video lesson here on how to make a funny card for your mom - complete with goofy puns and directed drawings!

Bonus challenge: Facetime or call your grandma, aunt, or another person that loves you to bits and spend some time with them. Read a favourite story together, share something that you have been doing, and ask them about their day.

Take a look at this week's learning plan for ideas on ways to incorporate learning into your daily routine. You can view the learning activities here.

This week our focus continues to celebrate and explore nature and the earth. What have you been noticing as you go outside into nature?

Your challenge this week is to create some art anywhere and with anything. Look at books for inspiration and then head outside to see where and what you can create. The only rule is that there are no rules!

Take a look at this week's learning plan for ideas on ways to incorporate learning into your daily routine. You can view the learning activities here.

This week our focus is all about Spring and changes in nature during this change of season. This includes noticing signs of Spring and thinking about taking care of our planet as we celebrate Earth Day.

This week's challenge involves connecting ourselves with the Earth by germinating a seed!

Step 1: Look through your cupboards or pantry for an item that will sprout. Items like beans, seeds, and popcorn kernels!

Step 2: Soak the beans/seeds in water over night.

Step 3: Take a Zip Loc bag or a glass/jar and put a moist cotton ball or paper towel in it.

Step 4: If you are using a Zip Loc bag, place the seeds in the bag with the moist cotton ball a folded moist paper towel. Seal the Zip Loc bag and tape it to a window. Make sure the beans/seeds are facing where your child can view them. If you are using a jar or glass, place the beans/seeds on top of a moist paper towel or cotton ball. If you have some, you can cover the jar or glass with plastic cling wrap.

Step 5: Watch as the seeds start to sprout! They should start within about 24 hours. Document observations by drawing and labeling what you see each day, starting on the first day before germination has occurred. Have fun!

Take a look at this week's learning plan for ideas on ways to incorporate learning into your daily routine. You can view the learning activities here.

This week we will also have a video to share called Crow's Eye View, which connects to one of the writing prompts. This can be seen in the Teacher Videos section of the website.

This week our focus is all about kindness. This includes kindness towards yourself, others, and your environment.

How can you show kindness?

This week we have a 2-part challenge, all about rainbows.

Part 1: Create a rainbow using found items in nature or from your own home. Can you find all of the colours in a rainbow?

Part 2: Make a rainbow or a heart poster for your window to spread a little love and kindness out into the world.

Take a look at this week's learning plan for ideas on ways to incorporate learning into your daily routine. You can view the learning activities here.

This week our focus is on building routines, easing into some new learning habits, and finding a balance that works for your own family. In the next few weeks we will be offering additional daily activities, but for now feel free to focus on developing daily rhythms that work for your family.

This week's challenge is all about finding a heart in nature. Go to your yard or outdoor space and put on your attent-o-scopes to spot a heart! In your writing book, draw a picture of the heart you found and write the names of three people who are close to your heart beside your drawing.

Take a look at this week's learning plan for ideas on ways to incorporate learning into your daily routine. You can view the learning activities here.