Kindergarten - Learning Resources
Kindergarten - Learning Resources
The activities provided offer a variety of suggestions for parents and students to work through while away from school.
At Home
At Home
- Make everyday objects, such as plastic food containers, paper tubes, blocks and boxes, available for your child to play with
- Give your child time and space to draw, paint, create and build
- Do household jobs together (fold laundry, sort socks, wash and put away dishes, cook together, etc.)
- Check out over 40 amazing activities that help young children learn through play: Connect, Play and Learn EveryDay! Activity Cards
- Have fun using your large muscles skills (balance, dance, throw, jump, march, hop, run, etc.)
- Practice using your small muscles skills (cut with scissors, roll, pinch and flatten playdough, weave, thread beads, etc.)
- Use your imagination and play with your child (follow their lead, dress up, role-play and improvise)
In the Community
In the Community
- Play outside and explore the natural environment (e.g., a small patch of grass or garden allows your child to search for bugs and worms and observe the life cycle of plant)
- When you are out in the neighbourhood, share your observations, ask your child questions, and listen to what they are saying about what they see, hear, feel or smell
- Gather natural objects to design and create things and encourage your child to consider areas for change and improvement
Conversations with your Child
Conversations with your Child
- Notice and name your child’s thinking and learning, such as, “You stopped when you were tired and got a snack. You are learning to listen to your body when it tells you it needs to rest.”
- Identify your child’s emotions and help name them accurately. For example, identifying emotions such as sadness, happiness and anger are a starting point, but identifying frustration, excitement and boredom are more challenging. “I notice that you are frustrated. Is there something I can do to help?”
- Ask open-ended questions that allow your child to share his or her thoughts, opinions and ideas. For instance, “How did you make that work?” or “What makes you say that?”
- Have conversations together about the world around you. What do you see? What do you notice? What do you wonder?
- Give your child time to respond to your questions
- Share your heritage with your child and encourage questioning to learn more
- Engage your child in conversations around their interests and experiences
- Talk about the important role your child plays in your family and the community
- Encourage your child to try different approaches to solving a problem after making a mistake or trying something that doesn’t work
Literacy Ideas
Literacy Ideas
Supports for Parents/Guardians
Supports for Parents/Guardians
- Reading and Writing with Your Child: A Parent Guide
- When reading to your child, ask questions like “What is the book about?” Look at a page and ask “Why is this happening? What might happen next?”
- Think about everyday events, and have a conversation about what happened. Have your child write and draw a picture about the event and then read together what your child recorded. This process helps your child learn that “What I say, I can write” and “What I write, I can read.”
- Support your child in their writing by encouraging them to write letters, words or a sentence using letters and sounds they know. Have your child share their writing by reading it back to someone in their family.
- Play with letters!
Online Resources
Online Resources
Listen to a story on tumblebooks which is available online through your local public library
- Burlington Public Library: tumblebooks Collection
- Halton Hills Public Library: tumblebooks Collection
- Milton Public Library: Just for Kids
- Oakville Public Library: Kids
- Scholastic: Learn at Home
Mathematics Ideas
Mathematics Ideas
Supports for Parents/Guardians
Supports for Parents/Guardians
Online Tasks/Activities
Online Tasks/Activities
Sign up for a free 90-day trial until April 30, 2020 using your child’s @hdsb account.
- If you are a new user, DreamBox will take some time to get to know your child. It is important that they answer honestly - and remember we all make mistakes when we are learning but these are also the times when we grow our brains!
- WINS - Working in Number Sense Activities Counting and Whole Numbers to 10
- Games (Representation Match Whole Numbers, 0 to 5 and 0 to 10)
- Learning Tools (Colour Tiles, Pattern Blocks, Rekenrek, Set Tool)
Look at an image. Which one doesn’t belong? Can you find a reason why each one doesn’t belong?
Visuals and prompts to spark great math discussion.
Videos, games and content that supports the Ontario curriculum.
Other Suggestions
Other Suggestions
- Read together. Look for math in books (e.g., counting, patterns)
- Ask, “How many do you see...how do you know?”
- Find math in everyday life - at home and outside (e.g., How many blocks long is our kitchen table?, look for and make patterns, find and sort objects)
- Play games with cards and dice and do puzzles
Other Resources for Families
Other Resources for Families