Thursday, April 2nd

Hello and welcome to our first day of learning together!

We are working on compiling a list of educational resources that may be helpful to you in addition to what we have shared on our "Parent Resources" page here on the blog. We will share it with you when it is complete.

For your reference, here is the Kindergarten Program of Studies: https://education.alberta.ca/media/563583/kindprogstate2008.pdf

In addition to any tasks that we share, we highly recommend reading with your child for at least 20 minutes per day. We are working on a list of guiding questions that you can ask while reading and will share it soon. 

In the meantime, asking any questions that get your child thinking deeply about the story are helpful. For example: Who was your favourite character and why? Which character do you think you are most like? If you were <character> what would you have done? 

You can also ask your child to make predictions about what might happen next, and retell the story referring to beginning/middle/end. It's also fun to have your child look through the pictures of the story first and tell YOU the story (guessing what will happen based on the pictures) before you read the actual words. Is their version similar to the "real" story?

We will be working on a literacy task today.

Today's Outcomes (from the Kindergarten Program Statement):

• begins to make connections among sounds, letters, words, pictures and meaning
• hears and identifies sounds in words 
• forms recognizable letters by holding a pen or pencil in an appropriate and comfortable manner
• connects letters with sounds in words

We are using the resource "Handwriting Without Tears" to learn how to print our letters. This teaches students the letters in a developmentally appropriate sequence, designed to help them learn in the most efficient way. Below is the order we are following:

We have learned to properly print the UPPERCASE letters F, E, D, P, B, R, N, M, and H so far. What sound does each letter make? Can they remember how to write each letter? Consider reviewing these letters with them. 

Our letter of the day today is K! 

Please watch the videos below.

The letter K is another corner starting capital. We know that we always start our letters at the top! 

Your child should begin at the top left "corner" and make a strong straight line to the bottom. Next they "jump" to the opposite corner and "slide" down to meet the first line, and slide down again to reach the bottom. 

We have been practicing our letters on interlined paper. You may be able to search this online and print off similar lines for your child to practice on as we continue with our letters. Otherwise you can create your own lines for your child using a ruler! 

When writing the letter K, we don't want it to be too high in the sky (above the top solid line) or in the dirt/underground (below the bottom solid line).

Please have your child practice printing the letter K! Talk about the sound that it makes and ask them to brainstorm words that start with K (the videos should given them some ideas).

Next, your challenge is to go on a hunt around your home, looking for things that begin with the letter K! How many can you find? Do you know any people who's name begins with K? Can you think of any animals that begin with K?

Afterwards, your child can draw pictures of some of the things that they have found/brainstormed. As an additional challenge, they can use "kindergarten spelling" to label each word with the beginning, middle, and end sounds (this is something we were just starting to do in the classroom). An example of kindergarten spelling would be "KTN" for "kitten", "KE" for "key" and "KD" for "kid". 


The following is an additional resource we will be using (Epic Books): https://www.getepic.com/ 

We ask that you please create a free student account with Epic as we will be recommending this resource often to supplement math and literacy activities. 

Mrs G's Classroom Code for Epic: cdu3248
Miss Aebli's class should have received an invite link. Check your email!

Once you have logged into Epic Books, search "Letter K" for a book about words that start with this letter that can be read out loud to your child, while they follow along with the pictures. 

That's everything for today! We are taking it slow while everyone adjusts to our new normal. Please also remember to spend time together playing games, going outside, making crafts, baking, or whatever it is that your child enjoys doing!

See you tomorrow! ☺