Distance Learning for Kindergarten: What We're Doing

Hi everyone!


Hope your distance learning is going well!
Many of you have been asking if I could share what I am doing for distance learning so I'm finally sitting down to write a blog post about it!

GENERAL INFO

At our school, our divisions were asked to works as a team and provide the same materials for each grade.  So at my school, we have 8 educators collaborating each week.

We have set up a Google Site (not sharing the link to this, sorry!) with..

HOME - Which has a welcome note to our families and a link to our school technology website (recommending apps and websites by grade).

WEEKLY ACTIVITIES - Where we upload our weekly placemats every Sunday.

READING - Tips on reading with kids at home, including a reading strategies chart and a "Practicing Comprehension Questions at Home" handout.





MATH - A break down of each strand in parent friendly language and suggestions of activities they could do to practice these at home.

WRITING - A short summary on Kindergarten writing encouraging inventive spelling.

SIGHT WORDS - Some suggestions for practicing sight words and the Dolch pre-primer and primer sight word lists.




MUSIC - A link to our music teacher's website
LIBRARY - A link to our librarian's website.
GYM - A link to our gym teacher's website.

The only thing we change each week is we upload the new placemat and corresponding (optional) printables to the "WEEKLY ACTIVITIES" page.  On Sunday nights we send out an email to the parents letting them know that the placemats are up.

The suggestion is that students and parents try as many activities as they want and send at least one picture to us by email.  One of the educators will then respond to the email with some descriptive feedback.

I wasn't sure if this was going to be enough, but our parents have been giving us amazing feedback and have been very grateful for the ease of this format!

WEEKLY COLLABORATION

To make choosing activities together each week as painless as possible, I made a Google Doc and shared it with the rest of the team.  The Google Doc has a table for each section (e.g. Alphabet, Sight Words, Shared Reading etc.) and we go in and add ideas as we see them/think of them.

Then on Thursday nights we have been meeting on Google Meet and we choose activities for that week.  We all look at the google doc before the meeting and have a few ideas in mind for each section so that the process goes as fast as possible!

After our Google Meet, I finalize the placemats and then upload them to our Google Site by Sunday afternoon so it is ready for everyone by Sunday night!

PLACEMAT FOR WEEK 1:

PLACEMAT FOR WEEK 2:




PLACEMAT FOR WEEK 3:

PLACEMAT FOR WEEK 4:





PLACEMAT FOR WEEK 5:







*The "Design a Medical Mask" worksheet was inspired by @jarrett_lerner's printable and is being shared with permission from him!

PLACEMAT FOR WEEK 6:





PLACEMAT FOR WEEK 7:



I'll be adding more weeks when I am able to! Follow me on Instagram or check this post periodically if you are interested in seeing what we are doing!



Hope that was helpful!

- Yukari

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 

(Added April 16, 2021):


1. Do you sell the poems in a package? I need more!

I don't a set exactly like the ones that are in these placemats, but I do have sight word poems in my store that are similar! You can find them here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fill-in-the-Blank-Sight-Word-Poems-for-Kindergarten-5914838


2. So these placemats are for asynchronous time. What do you do for synchronous time?

So the only time I was online (March 2020-June 2020) we didn't have the same requirements as now and we only did one Google Meet a week. I have been on a leave since, but have been creating Google Slides for teachers based on requests from current virtual teachers.

The Google Slides I get the most feedback on as being useful for synchronous time are my math slides! There are lesson slides, practice slides and centre slides included so you can do some during your synchronous math block and then assign some for asynchronous work too!

Here is a link to all of my math Google Slides if you are interested in taking a look: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/A-Pinch-Of-Kinder-Yukari-Naka/Category/DIGITAL-Math-485608

I've gotten the most positive feedback on these non-standard measurement slides:


23 comments

  1. My colleague and I love this!!! thank you for sharing

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  2. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  3. What program do you guys use to create these?

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  4. You are a true gem to share these with us! My teacher heart thanks you!

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  5. I wish I had thought to check here when we submitting ideas to our admin. What you are doing is incredible. Thank you for sharing. I have since purchased many of your programs on Teachers Pay Teachers.

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  6. Thank you so much for sharing and your resources with us!! I was wondering where I could find a copy of the mask template?

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  7. Thank you for sharing! I always love your posts and all the work you do with the little ones.
    Question regarding LRP: Do you have one that includes all 4 frames for purchase?

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  8. will you be posting more ideas. These ideas are great

    Thanks

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  9. wondering how you added the voice to your slide? was it a app you use on google slide

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  10. Thank you so much for sharing. As a fellow Ontario Kindergarten teacher, I truly appreciate your work and your willingness to share these amazing activities. I just came off of a mat leave into distance learning in a Kinder class and was panicking; until I came here. Thank you <3

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  11. Yukari, Thank you so much for sharing your ideas, activities and tools with all of us! I have visited your site many times over the past 3 years. I teach French Immersion but I like to see how you lay out your plans in sequence. Thank you also for sharing your distance learning activities! Your students are lucky to have such a dedicated teacher. Have a relaxing summer!

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  12. awesome resource! Thanks for sharing. Do you have a link to the shared reading resource?

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  13. Thank you for sharing. You have a very kind heart.

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  14. Are the placemat activities considered asynchronous? I agree with everyone above, love the template!!! Thank you so much for sharing your hard work! Much appreciated.
    I am curious what your day to day schedule look likes, do you do a mix of whole group and small group meets? I am still trying to wrap my ahead around going online!

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  15. Thank for all you are doing and all that you have done. Is there anyway of changing the safetube links to videolink or the youtube links...either on our end or your end? All of these placemats are super amazing and I would love to use them for end of year fun activities. But I'm not sure where the link came from or how to change them in the pdf. Thank again

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  16. I have loved the placemats - do you have some available for this week (May 25) and throughout June?

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  17. I have used your placement mats from last year religiously since going online since April this year! They have been fantastic, and the kids have loved them. I just want to thank you to you and your colleagues for sharing and saving so many of us fellow teachers that extra little bit of time! I am sad to see them come to an end! haha.

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