Kindergarten - Learning Resources

The activities provided offer a variety of suggestions for parents and students to work through while away from school.

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)

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

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

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!

Listen to a story on tumblebooks which is available online through your local public library

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!

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.

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