P.A. Shaw Elementary School
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Doing these activities at home will help make sure your child is building the skills needed to learn remotely and be ready for K2.  


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Math

Students should practice number recognition.
Use your homemade number cards to play Number Memory. 
-Make two sets of numbers. 
-Turn them face down. 
-Take turns flipping over two cards. 
-If they are a match you keep them. 
-If they aren’t a match flip them back over. 
-Play until all the cards are gone.
Students should practice one-to-one correspondence.  
-Counting Videos
-Fun With Food Game:
​Let your child have some math fun with their food! Here is what you will need:
-Bowls of snack food (grapes, pretzels, goldfish, etc.)
-Number cards (you can make these by cutting paper into small rectangles and writing a number on each card.)
How you play:
1. Ask your child to take two small handfuls from the bowl of food.
2. Have you child count the number in each hand and label each group with the correct number card.
3. Ask your child to add the two groups of snacks together, and label the answer with the correct number card.
*Talk about what you notice. Words to use: group, more, less, add, subtract.*
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Students should practice shapes.

-Go on a shape hunt! Have your child draw and identify the shapes. Count how many circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles you can find. 
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Students should practice patterns.
​-Try having your child make patterns with everyday objects. Click here for Room 101's favorite pattern song, "Banana Banana Meatball"! 
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ELA

​Students should practice rhyming. 
-Rhyming Word Videos
-Rhyme Hunt Game: 
For this game you are going to look for things that rhyme with the word that you say. Have your child get up and touch something that rhymes. Say something like, "Find an object that rhymes with label." They would then go and touch a "table." Find something that rhymes with "clock," they would then go and find a "sock." 

Other words: 
blue/glue
boulder/shoulder
threw/shoe
hook/book
care/chair
fox/box
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Students should practice letter recognition.
Here is a list of fun, hands-on ways to practice letter formation:
- Your child can use pencils, markers, crayons, sidewalk chalk, finger paints or paint brushes.
-Your child can form letters with putty, clay, or playdough.
-Your child can form letters using wikki sticks, pipe cleaners, toothpicks, popsicle sticks or straws.
- Your child can form letters in shaving cream or sand that is spread on a table.
-When your child is in the bathtub you can have them
write letters on the walls of the shower with shaving
cream or soap.
* Have your child name the letters and say the letter sounds after they are formed.


Students should practice letter sounds.
-Have your child make their own Alphabet book! You can draw the pictures or cut them out of a magazine or newspaper. Do a couple letters at a time and help your child sound out the words to label each picture with its name. 
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Literacy

Students should practice answering questions about the story they read independently or with an adult.
-There are lots of amazing online resources for read alouds like Storyline Online, which has famous actors reading picture books you can then discuss.

-Students should be able to tell you who the characters are and where the setting is. 

-Ask students about particular characters' feelings in specific parts of the book. "How do you think Arthur feels after his friends make fun of his glasses? How do you know?"

-Have students make connections between one book they read and another book they know or their life. "Both of these books have characters who try their best and I try my best in school!" 
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Library

-Raising A Reader MA Family Resources
​-Free eBooks, Read Alouds, and Library Resources

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Art

-Visual Art Resources
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Science

-Skype A Scientist

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Physical Education

-Physical Education Resources 
-Yoga For Kids
​
-Going on a Dragon Hunt: Yoga Version  
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Social-Emotional Learning

-Apps To Help Kids Stay Focused 
-Meditation Apps For Kids
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Talking to Kids About Coronavirus Fears
This is an isolating and uncertain time for everyone and it's important for all our kids to feel loved and supported by their full community! This can be challenging when they're not able to see and interact with everyone in person. Remind them of the connections they have through weekly Zoom meetings and phone calls with their classmates and teachers as well as facetimes and phone calls with family members. Just like every piece of learning, social and emotional learning looks different for everyone! Below are some ideas of how to support social and emotional learning at home:
- Create a safe space at home for your child to visit when they're feeling overwhelmed by big feelings. In the classroom, we have a Quiet Corner where kids can go when they don't want to be with the group for whatever reason (they're missing someone, they had a disagreement, they don't want to be social.) It's important that this place is different than the Time Out spot as this is not a negative reinforcement/punishment. The Quiet Corner at home can be a comfy chair, their bedroom, or it could be traveling. Mr. Connor and his mom made a Calm Down basket for his nephews that had a selection of their favorite books, markers and paper to write, word cards about feelings, reminders for calming down (take deep breaths, check in with your body, think about a happy place), and soft things to hold. 

- Journaling is something that can be helpful for people of every age! If you and your family are feeling burnt out and are getting frustrated quicker than normal, try starting a journal time. Everyone stops what they're doing and writes about their day and feelings. This isn't academic writing that will be reviewed, it's for kids to learn that writing has many powers! Play some soft music and if words aren't coming just doodle and draw. After some time to sit and be with our feelings, we're often a lot better at talking about them and listening to others.

-It can be a big challenge in times like this but keeping a regular routine or schedule is really helpful! We would suggest trying to make clear when the "learning time" has started and what the expectation is for it to be completed. The important emotional piece is making these goals transparent to the kids and making sure they agree with them. Then celebrating every piece they accomplish! We love every time we receive a picture of a kid hard at work learning at home! Incentivize the hard moments of at home learning with rewards like "We can send this to Mr. Connor/Nana/your cousin!" At the end of the week in school we do a Star Work of the Week. Have your child pick out their own star work every week and hang it up somewhere special at home.

-One of the most important pieces of learning we're losing due to this closure is peer to peer interaction and problem solving. One way to support this at home is through social stories. Present an issue to your student between two fictional characters. Give them a fun backstory to engage students: "Mrs. Blueberry called me on the phone to say her daughters Rapunzel and Elsa keep arguing about who gets to use the tablet first. What should we tell them?" You can have your child write a letter to these characters or make a video of the solution. This is often a great way to address problems happening in the classroom or at home while removing the heightened emotions of personal experience.
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-Sharing vulnerable feelings can help students feel more comfortable sharing their own. Small, digestible sentences followed by a light question is a great way to open up a dialogue. Saying, "I really miss seeing my friends, don't you?" is a lot easier to answer than, "How are you feeling, don't you miss your friends?" Listen and let your child talk and be okay with some quiet moments. While being vulnerable can help them share, be sure to maintain a sense of control. They don't know what's going on and can't truly grasp this situation, but they can always tell themselves that their family is in control. Avoid statements like, "I'm scared and don't understand what's happening." or, "I fear that we're all going to get sick." Instead frame things in honest but reassuring ways, "We don't know everything, but we're doing all we can to be safe and healthy." 
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  • Home
  • About the Shaw
    • Shaw Spotlight!
    • Mission Statement & Instructional Focus
    • Partnerships >
      • Before & After School
      • Build Our Kids' Success (BOKS)
      • Raising a Reader
    • Shaw Staff
  • Teaching & Learning
    • K0/K1
    • K2
    • 1st Grade
    • 2nd Grade
    • 3rd Grade
    • Specialists >
      • Art
      • Library
      • Physical Education
  • Families
    • At Home Learning >
      • K0/K1
      • K2
      • Resources for Families
    • Policies
    • School Events
    • Family Engagement >
      • School Site Council
      • Parent Council
      • Classroom Support
    • Additional Resources
  • Principal News
  • Shaw Faculty Site