Class Mascot
This is Quentin our Quality Penguin. He was our class mascot and the students loved taking turns taking him home. Read more about having one here. I know you may be a parent doing distance learning and I wanted to share with you how fun it would be to let your child pick one of their stuffed animals to be a class mascot at home or order a special animal. Check out this cute penguin!
Your children could also write about different adventures that their mascot can go through during this time at home. Journaling is a great way for them to express their feelings, and using an animal mascot can help them to write about those feelings. Sometimes children find it easier to talk to stuffed animals about what is happening to them or what they are going through. Read more about that here.
Quentin was holding our word of the day which was silly. My students loved coming in and seeing the new word in Quentin’s flippers. It would be exciting for your child to wake up and see their home mascot holding the word of the day.
Word of the Day Calendar
I put our word of the day calendar piece up and we clapped the syllables and discussed the meaning of silly. Then the students went back to their seats and wrote about the word silly in their calendar journal. Read more about journals here. My favorite kind of primary journal is this one with space at the top for a picture and wide dotted lines for writing.
One of my students used other words from our April calendar along with silly in their writing. I loved that!
Parents:
If you are a parent doing distance learning, these calendars are great for your children! They are set up in themes and you introduce a word each day. It is fun and easy to teach using themes. Most of our themes have to do with science or social studies so you are integrating curriculum. You are teaching vocabulary, phonics, writing and doing a unit all at the same time. For instance, our April calendar has words for Earth Day, so I taught vocabulary words like reuse and recycle. We also used the words to teach phonics like the prefix re- There is a teacher guide with the calendars that show you how to do this.
Cut and Paste Activities
The next thing I did with my students was our cut and paste sheet. Each sheet has our thematic words on it as well as a sight word that we were working on. This sheet was fun and engaging because they cut out egg shaped words and then put them in order . Then they glued the pieces on the sheet to make a sentence. They write the sentence and illustrate it.
Parents:
Your children can write their own jokes and share them with the family, or share them on a Zoom meeting or Face Time with grandparents.
Read Aloud:
The next fun thing I did was read Silly Sally. They loved this book! Read more about it here!
If you don’t have the book, no worries. You can still have the students draw pictures of themselves being silly and write about it.
Silly Dancing:
It was a beautiful day outside, so we went out and did some silly dancing. Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No 5 is a great silly dancing piece!
Parents:
You can have your children make up a silly dance and perform it for the family. They would love it if you danced with them! Who knows, maybe y’all might come up with the next trending dance. The most important thing is they have fun learning! We would love to see any pictures you may take of your silly day or any theme you may teach that you wouldn’t mind us sharing on our blog,FB or IG.
Just email them to info@dynamiclearningresources.com. Thanks!
We have April Fools Day Boom Cards that are digital and the kids love them! You can play them on the smartboard or use them for centers. Try a few cards HERE.
Want to know more about Boom Cards and why we love them? Read HERE.
Other Ideas:
- Wear silly hats
- Wear silly outfits
- Wear silly socks
- Make silly faces and try to illustrate them.
- Dress the animal mascot in silly clothes.
- Make pancakes or cupcakes with silly faces
- Ask your kids what silly ideas they have.
Read about more ideas for distance learning here!
Please share this with teachers or parents doing distance learning!
Email us and let us know how we can help!
Pam