Helping your Child Learn at Home
April 2020 - Learning Remotely
This is new territory for all of us! As parents, you are your child's first teachers and everything that you do with them is an opportunity to learn a new skill, or deepen learning that they have already started. I hope that I am able to support what you're doing at home, and keep learning play-based and fun, with suggestions of things that your child can do while they are at home during this time.
Please know that you can do all, some, or none of the learning activities that I have suggested. Encourage wonder and discovery as your child follows their interests, and help them find creative solutions to the problems they encounter. Step back and watch what they are doing, rather than doing it for them. There is no necessity for what they are working on to be perfect.
This is new territory for all of us! As parents, you are your child's first teachers and everything that you do with them is an opportunity to learn a new skill, or deepen learning that they have already started. I hope that I am able to support what you're doing at home, and keep learning play-based and fun, with suggestions of things that your child can do while they are at home during this time.
Please know that you can do all, some, or none of the learning activities that I have suggested. Encourage wonder and discovery as your child follows their interests, and help them find creative solutions to the problems they encounter. Step back and watch what they are doing, rather than doing it for them. There is no necessity for what they are working on to be perfect.
In Kindergarten, we draw in our journals as a way to show our learning. You can do this at home too with regular paper (stapled or clipped together) or a blank notebook . Some students finish their drawings very quickly, so you can encourage them to add more details to the drawing or to use more colours if they have only used one or two. Remind them that the goal is not to finish quickly, but rather to do our best work possible, every time.
If they are interested, I would encourage students to start labeling their drawing with words or letter sounds that they already know. For example, if your child has drawn a house, you could encourage them to write the letter "m" for maison, or "h" for house. I have started a "Virtual Word Wall" on the web pages for each of the letters we have learned so far , that they can use with your help. If they don't want to write the whole word, the initial sound in the word is just fine. If they don't want to write any letters or words at all, that's also OK. Talk to them about their drawing, see if they can tell you a story about it and record it briefly for them. I would love to see their drawings and hear their stories if you are able to send them to me.
Once a week, please choose one activity that your child enjoyed and share it with me. This can be one of the ideas I've suggested for the week, or something your child decided to do on their own, or with you. You can take a photo and write me an email about it, or record a short video to send to me if you prefer. Tell me what your child did, how they made out with it (was it easy? hard? did they have to solve any problems?), and how they felt about it when it was done. If they would like to share something with their classmates, we can also do that during our video time once a week. I will respond with feedback and next steps as quickly as possible, given the time it will take to respond to 19 students.
Looking forward to seeing what we create together!
Mme. Erin
If they are interested, I would encourage students to start labeling their drawing with words or letter sounds that they already know. For example, if your child has drawn a house, you could encourage them to write the letter "m" for maison, or "h" for house. I have started a "Virtual Word Wall" on the web pages for each of the letters we have learned so far , that they can use with your help. If they don't want to write the whole word, the initial sound in the word is just fine. If they don't want to write any letters or words at all, that's also OK. Talk to them about their drawing, see if they can tell you a story about it and record it briefly for them. I would love to see their drawings and hear their stories if you are able to send them to me.
Once a week, please choose one activity that your child enjoyed and share it with me. This can be one of the ideas I've suggested for the week, or something your child decided to do on their own, or with you. You can take a photo and write me an email about it, or record a short video to send to me if you prefer. Tell me what your child did, how they made out with it (was it easy? hard? did they have to solve any problems?), and how they felt about it when it was done. If they would like to share something with their classmates, we can also do that during our video time once a week. I will respond with feedback and next steps as quickly as possible, given the time it will take to respond to 19 students.
Looking forward to seeing what we create together!
Mme. Erin
Links to resources for learning: