What's Happening at Heritage
March 23rd, 2020
From the Principal
Dear Heritage Families:
Our community continues to support our students and one another during these times. You can access all of our updates and resources by clicking on the Covid-19 Updates badge on our district website at www.panthernet.net.
As you adjust to the changes taking place, we, with support from Ingham Intermediate School District, wanted to provide a few resources for you to use at home.
Some important things to remember:
Maintain a consistent routine (bedtime, get dressed every day, monitor/limit screen time).
Check-in devices before bedtime and charge them in a common area.
Talk about what is happening with your children in age-appropriate ways.
Roleplay with your child.
Eat meals together without personal devices.
Be sure to get outside and stay active.
Keep in mind that learning can happen anywhere!
The following engagement resources are optional and ungraded, but we encourage students to participate if possible. The activities listed include both online and offline options as we understand access to the internet is limited in much of our area.
If you know of a family that is unable to access this letter please feel free to email me and we will make sure they receive a paper copy. We will continue to check-in with you on a regular basis to help and support our families during this time.
Sincerely,
Sarah Bentley
English Language Arts
Read together (picture books, chapter books, magazines, anything print or digital). Talk about what you are reading. Bonus points for reading outside!
Create cards and letters. Send to family members, friends, nursing homes, etc.
Pick a category (i.e. food, music) and go back and forth to share items that fit into that category.
Play Taboo, Gestures, Scattergories, or Heads Up to build vocabulary
Make up a story together or tell your children stories about your own childhood.
Cut pictures and words out of magazines and ads to make a story or poem.
Have older siblings read to younger siblings, pets, stuffed animals, etc.
Teach someone how to do something new. Write a “How-to” story. Share your story with someone else in the house and have them follow the steps.
Write! (Thank yous, stories, books about topics you are interested in, recipes, journaling)
Visit ABCya.com, EPIC books online, Readtheory.org, Study Island (3rd grade)
Create a video of you reading a book.
Math
Discuss any patterns that you might see in your home, in your yard or at the local park.
Draw pictures of shapes with chalk or in the mud.
Make up stories that involve mathematical operations. Ask your child to draw or represent the story with toys/drawings.
Make and use flashcards (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fraction operations).
Sort laundry items by color, family members, or other. Sort things in the pantry by food group. Sort clothes in the closet by color. Think of other things you can sort together.
Pre-K through Early Elementary math games that can be played with a deck of cards.
XtraMath Math Fact Fluency, Khan Academy, or Study Island (3rd grade)
Science/STEM
Watch Curious Crew together and try some of the investigations and challenges.
Make a Rube Goldberg Chain Reaction or a paper marble run.
Challenge yourself to make a table that can hold 5 books but make it out only out of 5 sheets of newspaper and tape.
Challenge yourself to make a tower out of 3x5 notecards that is at least 24 inches tall and can support a stuffed animal.
Take the cardboard challenge and make something amazing (an arcade game, an airplane, a race car, a train with passenger cars, a rocket ship).
Find your pulse and count how many heartbeats you have in 15 seconds. Run around or exercise and check your heart rate again. What did you notice?
Make a protective device for a dropped egg (drop from a step ladder outside of course).
Design and build a car that is propelled by a deflating balloon or a rubber band.
Design and build a tower out of 20 dry sticks of spaghetti, 1 meter of string, 1 meter of tape, and with a large marshmallow perched on top.
Design a system that keeps an ice cube from entirely melting for 3 hours.
Make paper airplanes and have a contest for which plane design has the longest flight.
Social Studies
Talk about the people and places in your neighborhood and community.
Make a map of your neighborhood or community with materials around your house.
Play the online Geoguessr game.
Talk about your family traditions and your family heritage. Make a family tree.
Challenge yourself to name and learn the 50 states and state capitals.
Write a book about your neighborhood.
Create a chart showing the different places that you live (my name, my street, my town, my state, my country, my continent).
Brainstorm what it means to be a good citizen.
Other Ideas
Try a GoNoodle video on youtube (movement or mindfulness)
Inventory the plants & wildlife (from bugs on up) in your yard.
Have a board game tournament.
Cook or bake together. Read the recipe and measure ingredients.
Make popcorn and watch a movie together. Ask questions about what is happening.
Create a scavenger hunt (indoor and/or outdoor) and see how many things you can find.
Complete puzzles, dot-to-dot and crossword puzzles together.
Facetime or call grandparents, friends and relatives.
Play iSpy with colors, sounds, (“something that starts with the /a/ sound”), or shapes.
Create art together. Paint, draw, reuse items to design something new.
Grab leaves or other outside things and make leaf imprints.
Learn magic tricks.
Practice how to win and lose when playing games.
Use Kahoot for family trivia games (pre-made games or create your own).
Listen to music and write out the lyrics.