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Early Childhood Education Newsletter!

Teacher Lisa July 20-24 Newsletter

Message from Teacher Lisa!

Hello everyone! Welcome to our first newsletter of the summer! Here you’ll find a few activities to do each day this week (with pictures at the bottom!), along with some links for Seattle Public Schools information. Also, please remember to read with your child every night! It not only helps them develop language, but it also helps you bond with them!

ALSO, please remember that we are hosting live class sessions every Tuesday morning at 10:30 and Thursday afternoon at 2:30! The meetings are held on Microsoft Teams.

- IF YOU ARE USING A SMARTPHONE OR TABLET: You have to download the Microsoft Teams app to join the meetings! When you get the invite, you can click the link, and it’ll open the app. You can then type in your name and join the meeting

- IF YOU ARE USING A LAPTOP: You do not have to download Microsoft Teams, but it does help the process go smoother. Same step: click the link in the invite, type in your name and boom! You’re in.

If you ever need anything, feel free to call or text me during the day!

My work cell is (206)480-7230.

MONDAY ACTIVITES

1. Calendar & Weather Graph: Go over today’s date with your child. What day of the week is today? What month are we in? What day was yesterday? How many days has it been so fat in this month? Count and clap how many days we’ve had so far! For example, you would clap and count 20 times for the 20th of July. Then go over the weather! Is it sunny? Rainy? Cloudy? How many sunny days have we had so far? I will attach a picture of the weather graph below. Do your best to do weather and calendar every day!

2. Graphics Practice: with some music, practice one of these shapes – it helps their hands train for writing letters! As you practice, pause the music at times so everyone freezes! This helps them practice their self-regulation I will attach a picture of some shapes you can practice with at the bottom of the newsletter

3. For a simple math activity, practice making and labeling simple shapes out of play dough! Or you can practice drawing them, cutting them from paper, etc.

4. To help with emotional development, read a story to your child and ask them to connect with it somehow. For example, if you’re reading a story about sharing, ask them how they would feel if someone shared with them.

5. For some active time, do a freeze dance! Put on a fun song and pause at random times to freeze the dance! My favorite song to use is “The Party Freeze Dance Song” by The Kiboomers.

TUESDAY ACTIVITES

1 Do an ABC hunt! Pick a letter from the alphabet and try to find an object that starts with that letter. For example, you could find an apple to match with the letter A. This also helps us practice letter sounds!

2 Now do a shape hunt! Show examples of shapes to your child and do a treasure hunt to find objects with the same shape! For example, if you show a circle, they could find a toy wheel!

3 Calendar & Weather Graph (described in Monday Activities); you can also learn about animals by looking at books and have your child act like them! They could slither like a snake, or jump like a kangaroo!

4 Play Simon Says, Feelings! This helps us recognize and label different emotions and what they may look like. For example, you could say “Simon says be happy!” And then smile or laugh.

5 To stretch those growing muscles, try some yoga! I’ll attach some poses below that they can try!

WEDNESDAY ACTIVITES

1 Do a Message of the Day! In school, we practice these by saying, “I am going to ___.” Decide what your message will be. As an example, I wrote down “I am going to play.” Then, count how many words there are in the message. Write lines, one for each word. Count with

your child to make sure you have enough lines! Then write in each word, one at a time. I will attach step-by-step pictures below.

2 For math practice, play with some puzzles! If you don’t have any jigsaw puzzles at home, you can work together to draw a picture, color it in, and then cut it up into different shaped pieces to make a new puzzle!

3 Calendar/Weather (see Monday Activities). Also, play detective! Find something in the house you’re curious about, and ask questions! For example, you could work together to make a recipe, like muffins!

4 Make a self-portrait – wait, make a BUNCH of self-portraits! Try to make each face different. You could draw what you look like when you’re happy (maybe you’re holding a favorite toy or eating one of your favorite foods), or when you’re tired (maybe you’re wrapped up in a blanket). The possibilities are endless!

5 For an exercise activity, build an indoor obstacle! You could even pretend it’s the Olympics and you’re going for the gold medal!

THURSDAY ACTIVITIES

1 Find a story to picture walk through with your child. Before reading the words in the story, go through the pictures and make predictions: what does your child think is going to happen based on the pictures they see?

2 I will attach an example of a Vengar drawing. The idea is that you have a piece of paper with a simple shape drawn in the middle. See what creations your child could make with it: maybe they could draw a house, or a spaceship!

3 Calendar/Weather (see Monday Activities). Also, do some more investigating, but in nature! If you go on walks around your house, look for leaves, plants and ask questions! What color? How many leaves? How big is the plant?

4 This is what I call an Emotion Scavenger Hunt. Find things around the house that help you with certain emotions. For example, when I feel sad, I love to get a drink of water and go for a short walk. When I’m happy, I usually have my favorite pair of socks on!

5 For exercise, indoor basketball! It can be as easy as tossing balled-up socks into a basket!

FRIDAY ACTIVITES

1 On top of reading a story, Tell a story! You and your child can each tell a story: it can be made up or a real experience you had. Telling real experiences can bring a new sense of bonding between you and your children. It also helps them develop their verbal language skills!

2 For some Math practice, look at how we measure things. As your children get ready for school, they’ll learn how to measure things! Before learning about rulers, they can measure using pencils, blocks, etc. This introduces the concept of measuring in a fun, engaging way!

3 Calendar/Weather (see Monday Activities). Today, we’re practicing our Science Eyes! You can work together to make some binoculars out of cardboard (I love to use old paper towel rolls!) Decorate them however you like, and use them to look out the window! Do you see any birds? Dogs? What kinds of plants are outside?

4 This Feelings activity is a little different, but one of my favorites! Whenever I feel upset or sad, one of the ways I work through it and feel better is by belly breathing. Lay down and put one hand on your belly. Breathe in through the nose and watch your belly go up! Then breathe out through the mouth and watch your belly go down. This can be one of the ways children practice regulating themselves – it can also help them recognize when they need to breathe for a minute.

5 This is a very simple exercising activity. Pick an exercise that your child can do – jumping jacks, running in place, etc. And have them count to a certain number before moving on to the next one. For example, they could do five jumping jacks before moving on to jogging in place for five seconds. You can even spin it into a Simon Says game!

Useful Links

Click these links for local school information!

This is the Kindergarten page from Seattle Public Schools: https://www.seattleschools.org/departments/early_learning/kindergarten

Seattle Public Library: https://www.spl.org/

Picture Helps