Good Morning KG1A!
Activity 1
Reading: (20 minutes)
Beginning:
Ask your child to choose one or two story books she/he has at home.
Middle:
Flip through the pictures in the book.
· Look at the pictures in the front and back of the story.
· Introduce the author and the illustrator to your child.
· Ask “What do you think the story is about based on the covers?"
· Read the story book to your child.
- While reading, ask the child to predict what may happen at the end of the book
· Give the child paper, pencil, and coloring pencil to draw his /her favorite part of the story.
· Talk about the characters in the story. What are they like, how they act in the story and why?
End:
Give your child a 5 minutes notice. Ask him/her to add the story to their library so s/he can return to it whenever the child wants.
Activity 2
Fine motor skills: (5-7 minutes)
Shaker
Beginning:
Give your child a plastic bottle, rice, beans, pasta, and a spoon.
Middle:
- Ask your child to fill the empty bottle with any ingredient she/he wants.
- Tape the lid of the bottle and enjoy the musical rhythm.
- Decorate the bottle. You may paint it or draw a design on paper and stick it on the bottle. You can add streamers to both ends of the bottle for more effect.
- Ask the to shake the bottle to a rhythm. Try- shake, shake, stop, shake, shake, stop, shake, shake, stop. Ask them to come up with their own sound pattern.
Let your child know the activity will finish in 5 minutes and let them clean up their work area. The shaker can be kept alongside their other instruments.
Activity 3
Creative arts: (10 minutes)
Beginning:
Give your child different art materials like: markers, coloring pencils, glitter, glue stick, paper or paint…
Middle:
- Acknowledge what the child is saying about his/ her drawing.
- Encourage your child to add details to their work.
End:
Give five minutes notice. Ask the child if s/he would like to send a picture of the drawing to the teacher or hang it somewhere at home.
Thought of the day...
As we move into the weekend, how are you all feeling? Click on the link below to a fun song!
Can't stop the feeling!
Can't stop the feeling!
Materials for next week include:
Please note most of these items will be found at home, in the kitchen
or in your child's art boxes. If any items are not, feel free to improvise.
Please note most of these items will be found at home, in the kitchen
or in your child's art boxes. If any items are not, feel free to improvise.
- Pipe cleaners, Q-tips (ear sticks), a couple of cupcake cases
- Regular art materials: glue, colored paper, scissors, markers, feathers, paint, buttons etc.
Tips for parents
ACTIVE
LEARNING
“Active
learning is defined as learning in which the child, by acting on objects and
interacting with people, ideas, and events, constructs new understanding. No
one else can have experiences for the child. Children must do this themselves.”
- Mary Hohmann
& David P. Weikart
The
HighScope Curriculum is distinguished from other curriculums by its importance
on “Active Learning”. That means learning is not simply a process of adults
giving information to the children. Rather, the children are active learners-
discovering things through active involvement with people, objects, events and
ideas. They learn best from following their own interests while being actively
supported and challenged by adults. In the classroom, the teachers are as
active and involved as the children. They give thoughtful attention to the
materials they provide, the activities they plan, and the ways they talk with
the children to both support and challenge what the children are experiencing
and thinking. This approach is called
“Active Learning” – a process in which the adults and the children are partners
in the learning process.
Active
Learning has
five ingredients, all of which must be present when the teachers plan an
activity for the children. These five ingredients are:
1.
Materials: The adults provide enough materials of
children’s interest. For Instance, the children like to play with cars, or
dinosaurs etc. Then these objects may be used for sorting, classifying or
counting activities to develop mathematical skills.
2.
Manipulation:
The children have opportunities to explore and transform the materials they
choose to use. For instance, the adults do not demonstrate how to use the
materials. If a child does not want to count the cars but he/she is sorting
them by colors then he is given a choice to do so. The child is still learning
a mathematical skill by classifying the cars by their colors.
3.
Choice: The
children choose materials and play partners and plan their activities according
to their interests and needs. For instance, a child chooses to play in the
block center with the cars only with a certain person.
4.
Child language: The children describe verbally or nonverbally what they see and do. For
instance, in an activity, if the adult is doing all the talking the child
becomes distracted and impatient; therefore no learning is taking place. When a
child talks about what they are doing, they modify their thinking to take new
learning in account.
5.
Adult Scaffolding: The adults support the children’s current developmental level and offer
gentle extension to advance their abilities to reason, create and
problem-solve. For instance, using the
same example, if a child does not want to count the cars but he/she is sorting
them by colors then the adult may encourage him/her to count the sorted colored
cars and discover which is more and less.
Family
involvement
is a key aspect of “Active Learning”. The teachers are experts in child
development and the parents are experts on their children. Working together
will lead to a happier and successful child. Just as children engage in
active learning throughout the class, they can do the same at home when parents
incorporate learning into different parts of the day. The children’s homes
can be extensions of the classroom and therefore can be natural learning
environments. Family members can use the home environment to build on learning;
for example, supporting math concepts my naming the shape of common household
objects, such as round plates, or counting the stair steps on the way to a
room. The parents may also provide their children with activities keeping in
mind the five ingredients of Active Learning.
Regards,
Ms
Zarmeena Aamir
Final Notes:
For any questions, please email Ms. Ayesha.
Do send in pictures of the kids doing their work to the teacher. She will post them under "Our Class"
on the right of this blog.
