Dear Families,

Here are some suggested activities your child can work on during the break:

Reading – home reading

- Online with Tumblebooks and Epic booksCan be accessed through our school Website under:

o Our Library/Library Services/Tumblebooks- Online with www.starfall.com for reading and math

Writing – Inquiry Journal/Poems

There is an open-ended journal for students to write down an inquiry question where they can draw and answer or write down what they think.

Some suggested writing prompts could be:

What if animals can talk? Why did dinosaurs go extinct? How can I make a difference for the environment? What is plastic made of?

Math – Games and mental math practice

- Practicing skip counting objects around the house (ex: counting how many shoes in the house – recognizing can count by 2s for individual shoes).

- Asking math questions like: How many forks will we need for dinner? What if we had 4 more people here, then how many? (getting them to explain their reasoning)

- How many socks do you have in your drawer? How many pairs of socks (counting by twos)? - Practicing counting backwards- Measure and compare how many steps it takes to walk around the rooms in your home. Which

room is biggest? Smallest?

Online activities:

- www.gregtangmath.com - www.abcya.com - http://pbskids.org - www.oakhammockmarsh.ca/learn/nature-at-oak-hammock-marsh/live-videos/

Here are some ideas to create learning from everyday activities:

- Read and write with your child everyday – writing can be anything – grocery lists, describing what something looks like, writing out a recipe for dinner and so on

- Practice your addition facts to 20 (Grade 1) and addition facts to 100 (grade 2)- Ask questions about daily activities – how many forks are we going to need to set the table?

(counting) How many peas are in the bowl? (estimation)- Create things with your child – a fort in the living room, something out of recycled materials- Count objects in a bucket, guess how many there are before you count. Try different ways to

count – count by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. Don’t forget backwards!- Go for walks and discuss what you see. Play outside in the snow (while it lasts) – discussing the

changes in the weather- Write out as many sight words as you can. Make a memory game with words- Make a map- GoNoodle is a great child-friendly website providing tons of free activities. -

www.gonoodle.com/goodenergy

Inquiry/Research project – Spring has arrived!

The first day of Spring is March 19th this year, the earliest in 124 years! What does Spring look like in Winnipeg? Keep track of the temperatures for a few days? What do you notice? What is happening outside? Take a walk and look at the environment, what do you see? What kind of clothes are you wearing? Are they different or the same as the clothes we wore in January? Write down some of your observations. Ask your family members what they can remember about the springs of the past. Draw a picture of what you see.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us via email: pmcmahon@retsd.mb.ca and swarkentin@retsd.mb.ca

Sincerely,

Mrs. McMahon and Ms. Warkentin

Name: __________________

I wonder…

If…

why…

how…

where…

when…

who…

what…

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Dear Families:

Your child will be missed in the music room! The following is a list of suggested activities to keep the music humming in your home!

Grade 1’s and 2’s!

I hope you keep using your very special singing voice at home and make music when you can. Try some of the following ideas at home. If you can, write down or draw what you do and show it to me when you come back or send me an e-mail at eneufeld@retsd.mb.ca. I would love to hear what you have done. Here are some things I would like you to try.

1) Sing everyday-sing songs you know or songs from music class

-sing Happy Birthday TWICE while you are washing your hands! Can you make up some new words to this tune? Like “Happy Birthday dear water…” or something even better?

-sing some songs from musicplayonline.com. Ask whoever is reading this to you to help you find some your favorites like Apples and Bananas or Goin’’ on a Bear Hunt. You can also try to sing any song from the Grade 1 or 2 list.

Musicplayonline.com has been designed by a music educator who is giving access to students at home during this time. Go to www.musicplayonline.com. Log in using the word snow. The password is 2020. Go to Grade 1 or Grade 2 songs or the rhythm practice section once logged in. (You will only be able to access it starting next week)

2) Practice and sing the pitches so, mi and la!

Can you make your own melody using so, mi and la? If you are in Grade 2 Can you make your own melody using mi re do?

Which one is your favorite? Practice it and either write it down or record it and send it to me at eneufeld@retsd.mb.ca

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

3) Play Musical Statues!

How to play: 1. Play age appropriate music and ask your child to move to the music without moving their feet! It’s always more fun if the adult joins in! 2. When the music stops, the children should freeze like statues. Encourage them to make statues of different shapes and of different levels (high, middle, and low statues)3. The kids must stand like that for ten seconds and so, and try not to move, giggle, or even wobble. 4. When the music is back on, they continue dancing. Ask them to move different body

parts while dancing, such as fingers and elbows, head, arms and knees. Near the middle of the game ask them to move with their feet also! Repeat.

4) Grade 1 and 2 students Clap the rhythms on the following sheet. Can you use something that you can find in your house to tap these rhythms? Grade 2 students: Make up your own song using the patterns on the next sheet. Optional: Try to record your song and e-mail it to me: eneufeld@retsd.mb.ca Or you can try to write it down.

Early Years Physical Education activity suggestions

Hi Everyone,

As we enter these next few weeks, I hope that you will try to stay active when you get the chance. Mr. Zajac and I have spent some time getting a few activities set up for you as basic suggestions, but we know that your creativity will shine. We are very aware that you will want to change equipment or equipment set up to make the activity more challenging. THAT IS GREAT…GO FOR IT!!!

As mentioned in phys ed classes this week, we do not want to break anything in the house while participating in any of the suggested movements, so we did try a few alternative equipment choices. For example, if you are supposed to use a ball for an activity, you can always make it safer by rolling up a sock or using a plastic bag and scrunching it up like a snowball. For the juggling activities, if you do not have official juggling scarves, you could use socks, Kleenex, or plastic bags.

If a game requires cones or pylons, you can always use water bottles, cups as the markers.

Please use your imagination to make the game yours. I would love to hear how you may have changed the game to make it more challenging.

For ALL students, our phys ed curriculum was bringing us into the rhythmic outcomes. The Folk Dance festival is in May, so part of our grade 1,2,3 classes would have included music and movement. The older students (grade 3-5) were developing their skipping skills, which also require rhythmic work. Before school was let out, ALL STUDENTS were working on a warm up routine called FOLLOW THE LEADER from the Soca Boys. I wonder if your child still remembers the moves? If yes, perhaps they could teach it to you. Another routine we were developing was to the song COUNTRY THUNDER, by the Washboard Union. Again, I wonder how much of that they could show you. Please feel free to dance at home.

Another outcome that we would have been developing was the eye-hand coordination piece. With ALL students, we had started to use racquets and birdies. We had used plastic racquets, ping pong racquets, even our hands as racquets. You could make your own racquet simply by cutting out a hand shape out of cardboard. This could then be held by your child to use as a striking object.

Please find several different pages that hopefully will give you many INDOOR IDEAS for the next few days. I will attempt to update these with new ideas for the second week (April 6-10).

Of course, if the weather is cooperative, getting outside for a walk or an adventure at one of the nearby parks is always a great way to spend time together.

I wish you many happy moments together and look forward to seeing your child in the next little while.

Madame Gagnon and Mr. Zajac

BINGO AT

ECOLE SALISBURY MORSE PLACE SCHOOL

Feel free to try to complete one line a day. This would be a great FAMILY CHALLENGE…GOOD LUCK!!