Morning Circle Time with Ms. E. 2020

Art & Shapes ~ Shapes & Art

I channeled artist P. Mondrian to have some fun painting!

I used blue painters tape to create a ‘frame’, then made smaller shapes with the tape. The painters tape is easier to pull off of paper.
Then, I painted inside the shapes. I chose bright colors.
Once dried the next day, I carefully pulled off the tape.

I’m including a link to Mondrian’s site. Look at some of his amazing paintings.
https://www.piet-mondrian.org/paintings.jsp

Don’t forget to sign and date your artwork!

Today I used sidewalk chalk to create art. The images show 2 steps:
1) Use tape to create outlines and shapes
2) Color in the shapes. Your child can easily do this step.

Discuss - Remember to use open ended questions for conversation & communication
What color are you going to use in this (triangle)?
Why do you think orange or green (examples) should go in the square?

Math discussions
How many sides does this shape have? How many corners?
Do we have more triangles or rectangles?

The most important part: Have Fun!
Which shape is the biggest? the smallest?

Here are some ideas to do with shaving cream. Use different ideas based on the age and skill level of your child.
Messy! But fun!
(Shhhhh - Don’t tell them that they are learning.)

String Art. One way of painting with string.

This morning we continued talking about Sound. Here is the website for the wonderful Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra which has educational online videos. This week has several ideas about Sound.
Try creating a tambourine today!

Sound Discoveries | CSO The Sound Discoveries School Residency program brings weekly music instruction into schools. Each residency is customized to address each school’s individual learning goals.

This morning I showed some activities that you can do at home to practice skills learning letters of the alphabet and also word families. Below are some of those ideas, including capital letter - lower case letter matching scavenger hunt, and using those plastic eggs to learn and practice writing words in word families.

I know this “new normal” is really hard on everyone. Take care of yourselves and give yourself grace as we all work through this difficult time.
It’s long but worth the read. SO powerful!

👇THIS!👇

⚠️Copied.⚠️

*Dear parents with school aged children who are about to start day one of remote learning from an educator and mom:

You might be inclined to create a minute by minute schedule for your kids. You have high hopes of hours of learning, including online activities, science experiments, and book reports. You’ll limit technology until everything is done! But here’s the thing...

Our kids are just as scared as we are right now. Our kids not only can hear everything that is going on around them, but they feel our constant tension and anxiety. They have never experienced anything like this before. Although the idea of being off of school for 4 weeks sounds awesome, they are probably picturing a fun time like summer break, not the reality of being trapped at home and not seeing their friends.

Over the coming weeks, you will see an increase in behavior issues with your kids. Whether it’s anxiety, or anger, or protest that they can’t do things normally - it will happen. You’ll see more meltdowns, tantrums, and oppositional behavior in the coming weeks. This is normal and expected under these circumstances.

What kids need right now is to feel comforted and loved. To feel like it’s all going to be ok. And that might mean that you tear up your perfect schedule and love on your kids a bit more. Play outside and go on walks. Bake cookies and paint pictures. Play board games and watch movies. Do a science experiment together or find virtual field trips of the zoo. Start a book and read together as a family. Snuggle under warm blankets and do nothing.

Don’t worry about them regressing in school. Every single kid is in this boat and they all will be ok. When we are back in the classroom, we will all course correct and meet them where they are. Teachers are experts at this! Don’t pick fights with your kids because they don’t want to do math. Don’t scream at your kids for not following the schedule. Don’t mandate 2 hours of learning time if they are resisting it.

If I can leave you with one thing, it’s this: at the end of all of this, YOUR KIDS’ MENTAL HEALTH WILL BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THEIR ACADEMIC SKILLS. And how they felt during this time will stay with them long after the memory of what they did during those 4 weeks is long gone. So keep that in mind, every single day.