Try to spend a little time each day working on math facts.  Many students 3-5th grade need to strengthen their basic multiplication fact memorization skills. 

Moby Max has a math fact section including addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Email me for student codes. (the kids have been using MobyMax, so they should be able to get on:)  Moby Mx also works on targeted skills.

Math-Drills.com is a great source of math practice worksheets.  They can be downloaded and printed at home. 

Good old fashioned flashcards work well too. 

If you are interested in worksheet packets, let me know and I will put a packet together for your child.

For students with writing on their IEP’s, I invite them to keep a daily journal.   They can include photos with their writing.  I welcome emails from students.  They can send me updates on what they are learning about or writing samples.  I will check my email at least once a week and will respond.

For those students needing spelling practice, please check the website below.  Challenge yourself to learn 10 or more of the words that give you the most trouble on the list.  https://sightwords.com/sight-words/fry/

 

Vocabulary Spelling City  is offering free access for 3 months. 

 

Audible is offering free Audiobooks for kids during schol clousres.  (take advantage of this!!)

 

I wanted to reach out to our families during this time away from school and provide some resources for Social/Emotional Learning activities. You are in no way required to use any of these ideas. I am hoping to strike a balance that provides some helpful and fun things to do together with your kids that does not feel overwhelming to families during this time. We strive to make our Special Education lessons really fun-so hopefully they will be at home as well! Here goes:

 

• Watch some Pixar shorts or even videos like Mr. Bean (any non-verbal short). Talk about how the characters are feeling, what are the cues they are giving, how you can tell, how you would feel if you were in that situation, and so on.

 

·        Practice some breathing or meditations together! Discuss what you like/don’t like about it, how it affects your mood, what you notice in your body before/after etc. Some of my favorite online supports are headspace.com, calm.com, and stopbreathethink.com. I also use Relaxed Breathing Training, Version B on youtube (which has tons of resources too!). None of this needs to be too serious 😊

• Use art to explore the emotional landscape! You can paint, draw, use Sculpey, make a collage, or use any other medium.  Some ideas: draw a picture of yourself and show where you feel strong emotions in your body; make a self portrait of your happiest day; create a before-and-after self portrait of a conflict and how you felt…etc. Use the art as a jumping off point for discussion, and don’t forget to create one of yourself too!

 

• If your kids are familiar with Superflex (most of the K-3’s are!) have them make up their own Superflex characters – make sure they say who they are, their powers, and how you can defeat them.  They can make up Unthinkables (negative behaviors) or Thinkables (positive behaviors). Kids LOVE to act out the Unthinkable characters, so you could even look them up and play a Guess-Which-One-I-Am game!

 

• I have a subscription to Everydayspeech.  Log in and I will send out videos and worksheets.

 

• Create a “Calming Corner” in your home for your child. Let them lead the creation of it: they can put art, activities, stuffies, or anything else that will help them practice calming down. This is NOT a “Time Out” or punishment area! This is their safe, happy, positive corner to practice recuperating from a difficult or overwhelming emotional outburst. It can be inside a closet, large box, or even behind a table-small spaces can feel really cozy (and don’t use up valuable real estate inside your home!).

 

• I also like classdojo.com videos and Flocabulary.com videos (some free ones are on youtube).

 

• NOTE: many of these resources are free, some can be used as a free trial, and a few are available as only as paid services. Please know that there is NO expectation that families spend money on this!

 

Some of these may not feel useful or applicable to your family, and that is perfectly fine. There is no one-size-fits-all! The real target is for you to continue to build awareness and vocabulary around social and behavioral habits as a family, while we all await the reopening of our school.