So this week I tried something new---Google Slides! Instead of posting different things throughout the day, I created a daily Google Slide that contained all the activities, videos, and links! It definitely help me keep everything organized and since I prerecorded it, it gave me more time with my girls at home!
Below are the slides for each day!
April 20,2020
April 21,2020
April 22, 2020
April 23, 2020
Each day the slides contain the same pages: Stay Connected, Pledge, Circle Time, Story Time, Bible Time, and Extras!
Thursday, April 23, 2020
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Stay Connected
Blogspot https://mrsduncanclass.blogspot.com/
I started this blog as a place to record the activities I was doing in my classroom but with the COVID-19 quarantine this have grown into a Facebook group and YouTube Channel!
Stay connected through following me and my classroom through all three!
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Ocean Week
This week is our ocean week through Digital Learning----man I miss my kids and my classroom! Leading lessons online is so much harder and its just not the same!
But enough of the pity party! It is a beautiful day and we are having lots of fun with our online class! Here are some of the videos I have done so far!
Monday April 13, 2020
Circle Time Each day I create a video (prerecorded) that attempts to recreate what my class would do during our circle time. We sings songs to help us go through our calendar, we work on the letter and weekly skill, and read stories!
Bible Time This week we are learning about Jonah. I decided to break up the story into 4 separate parts to keep the videos short.
Ocean Song Here is a silly little ocean song.
Ocean Art: Invitation to Create My class does activities like this in our art center at school. There are a variety of colored shapes cut from paper and they are invited to create their own ocean scene or creature. They really get to showcase their creativity and imaginations in this!
I also post different read alouds and educational videos to go along with our weekly theme!
Ocean Facts 101
Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan and Mark Astrella
Tuesday April 14, 2020
Circle Time Today we worked on simple addition and the un family .
Bible Time Part 2 of the story of Jonah.
Rainbow Fish read aloud I do not have this book at my house (it is somewhere in my classroom) so I found a read aloud on Youtube.
Story/Art extension activity This is a fun hands-on activity that parents can do with their children after reading or listening to the story Rainbowfish.
Un Family Music video I love using music and movement to help students learn! Jack Hartman is probably one of my favorites!
Greg and Steve Number Rock Again, using music to help students connect to the topics is just fun!
Read Aloud--Rainbow Fish and Friends: Sea of I did a read aloud of another story from Rainbowfish.
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Circle Time Today we played a ABC game with Mr. Munch the shark! We also looked at some fun ways to use play to learn through playdough and pretend!
Bible Time Today was part 3 of Jonah.
Read Aloud Pout Pout Fish promised to help his friend Ms. Clam find her lost pearl. Can he overcome his fear of the dark to keep his promise?
Sing Along Waves in the Sea is a fun song about some of the things you might find in the sea. Can you think of other things we could add to our song?
Wave Bottle We may not be able to visit the ocean right now, but we can explore the waves at home with this fun activity.
Counting Collections Here is a fun hands-on math activity you can do to help your child with their math skills.
Sink or Float Experiement What sinks and what floats? See if you can figure it out !
My Big World with Clifford: What Should He Wear? Learn with Clifford about what we wear in different seasons and types of weather.
My Big World with Clifford: A Teeny Tiny Nest Learn with Clifford about a teeny tiny bird and its nest!
But enough of the pity party! It is a beautiful day and we are having lots of fun with our online class! Here are some of the videos I have done so far!
Monday April 13, 2020
Circle Time Each day I create a video (prerecorded) that attempts to recreate what my class would do during our circle time. We sings songs to help us go through our calendar, we work on the letter and weekly skill, and read stories!
Bible Time This week we are learning about Jonah. I decided to break up the story into 4 separate parts to keep the videos short.
Ocean Song Here is a silly little ocean song.
Ocean Art: Invitation to Create My class does activities like this in our art center at school. There are a variety of colored shapes cut from paper and they are invited to create their own ocean scene or creature. They really get to showcase their creativity and imaginations in this!
I also post different read alouds and educational videos to go along with our weekly theme!
Ocean Facts 101
Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan and Mark Astrella
Tuesday April 14, 2020
Circle Time Today we worked on simple addition and the un family .
Bible Time Part 2 of the story of Jonah.
Rainbow Fish read aloud I do not have this book at my house (it is somewhere in my classroom) so I found a read aloud on Youtube.
Story/Art extension activity This is a fun hands-on activity that parents can do with their children after reading or listening to the story Rainbowfish.
Un Family Music video I love using music and movement to help students learn! Jack Hartman is probably one of my favorites!
Greg and Steve Number Rock Again, using music to help students connect to the topics is just fun!
Read Aloud--Rainbow Fish and Friends: Sea of I did a read aloud of another story from Rainbowfish.
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Circle Time Today we played a ABC game with Mr. Munch the shark! We also looked at some fun ways to use play to learn through playdough and pretend!
Bible Time Today was part 3 of Jonah.
Read Aloud Pout Pout Fish promised to help his friend Ms. Clam find her lost pearl. Can he overcome his fear of the dark to keep his promise?
Sing Along Waves in the Sea is a fun song about some of the things you might find in the sea. Can you think of other things we could add to our song?
Wave Bottle We may not be able to visit the ocean right now, but we can explore the waves at home with this fun activity.
Counting Collections Here is a fun hands-on math activity you can do to help your child with their math skills.
Sink or Float Experiement What sinks and what floats? See if you can figure it out !
My Big World with Clifford: What Should He Wear? Learn with Clifford about what we wear in different seasons and types of weather.
My Big World with Clifford: A Teeny Tiny Nest Learn with Clifford about a teeny tiny bird and its nest!
Friday, April 10, 2020
Looking ahead to next week
This next week we will be learning all about the ocean and the animals that live there!
I am trying to add movement and games into my circle time video---which is not as easy as it may sound. So many of the great games and activities that we normally do at school are if nothing else very difficult to replicate on a video recording BUT I am going to do my best to make it work. Stay tuned for new pictures and blog posts as we continue this strange journey of Distance Learning!
April 6-10 Lesson plans
So since we are not all participating in Distance Learning, I thought I'd upload what we did this week in my Facebook group "Mrs. Duncan's Class".
I have been keeping Fridays open for my personal students---we did a Zoom meeting today with a directed drawing! They seem to really enjoy it and it helps keep us connected during this trying time. I am praying we can somehow meet again, even if it is to meet for popsicles one day this summer.
Here is the plan for this past week---I tried to keep it as "normal" as I could but with it all being digital that is not always the case. My classroom normally has lots of hands-on learning centers to reinforce the weekly skills---but I tried to add lots of activities into the week.
This week was a bit harder since my 2nd grader officially started her "home" school things---it was not bad but has taken some getting used to and it get better each day. We try to get our school work done early so we have the rest of the day to play!
Since our regular egg hunt at church and in our neighborhood have been canceled due to social distancing, we thought we would create our own drive-by version!
One thing we did this week online, was a poll for our favorite Easter candy. I made a video of me creating a graph to see our data.
I have been keeping Fridays open for my personal students---we did a Zoom meeting today with a directed drawing! They seem to really enjoy it and it helps keep us connected during this trying time. I am praying we can somehow meet again, even if it is to meet for popsicles one day this summer.
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Our new "normal"
Life in quarantine in many ways is far from normal but we are all adjusting and getting into new routines and a new "normal".
Online Circle Time has really taken off! My Facebook group has over 350 members and keeps growing! I never imagined that this would take off like it has! It still feels a bit strange to be teaching to myself and I sometimes feel a bit like Dora the Explore talking to an invisible audience LOL!
Distance learning has its pros and cons but it is definitely a new adventure---it can be quite challenging at times because there are so many things that we do in our classroom that you just can't really replicate talking to a computer camera.
I miss my students from school and church so much---they really become part of your little family and not being able to see them and interact with them really stinks. My preschoolers have done two Zoom meetings (with the safety protocols and passwords) so that has been fun. The first meeting we did a little show and tell and this past Friday we played a Spring Time BINGO :D. We plan to meet weekly through Zoom on Fridays--this week we are going to try to do a directed drawing. My class has always enjoyed those so hopefully it will go well.
Online Circle Time has really taken off! My Facebook group has over 350 members and keeps growing! I never imagined that this would take off like it has! It still feels a bit strange to be teaching to myself and I sometimes feel a bit like Dora the Explore talking to an invisible audience LOL!
Distance learning has its pros and cons but it is definitely a new adventure---it can be quite challenging at times because there are so many things that we do in our classroom that you just can't really replicate talking to a computer camera.
I miss my students from school and church so much---they really become part of your little family and not being able to see them and interact with them really stinks. My preschoolers have done two Zoom meetings (with the safety protocols and passwords) so that has been fun. The first meeting we did a little show and tell and this past Friday we played a Spring Time BINGO :D. We plan to meet weekly through Zoom on Fridays--this week we are going to try to do a directed drawing. My class has always enjoyed those so hopefully it will go well.
Start of week 3 of Social Distancing
Today starts our 3rd week of social distancing and truthfully, so far so good. I have found I have extrovert tenancies at school and church, but once home my family and I are pretty much homebodies LOL. Only 2 big differences-- not being able to see my extended family and eating inside restaurants. Luckily, we live in a day and time that I can video chat with my family and have done some drive by's to say hello.
I am very glad that I have been able to keep up with my twin sister---she works in a dental office and is deemed essential and I watch her daughter while she is gone---so she is in my quarantine circle. I don't think I could do this without her!
My girls have been doing well playing together. The weather has been amazing and I feel our family has truly grown closer together over these last 3 weeks. I know God has a plan for all this and that He is with us through this storm. I honestly have felt very much at peace through all this chaos---and I can only point to Jesus as the source of that peace.
I ended up created an online Facebook group to stream my Facebook Live Circle time videos---I am shocked to have over 160 members!! I am glad to be able to reach out to our community (both my school kiddos and neighbors and others in our community).
I am trying to keep our circle time as "normal" as possible---we do a weekly letter and number, word families, memory verse/Bible lesson. I tried to add extra videos of read alouds and directed drawings too! This is definitely a first in our nation to have distance learning on such a huge scale. I haven't yet received any updates on what my oldest daughter (2nd grade) should be doing so I have made our own "schedule" or list of activities.
School at home is very different than in the normal classroom. One major difference is your class size. Instead of 16 four year olds, I have 2 (my youngest and my niece) and instead of a class with 20+ second graders, I have one. Having mixed age groups brings its only challenges but we are making the most out of it.
I created two activity jars: one for my 2nd grader, and one for the younger two. Inside each jar are many slips of paper---on each paper I have written different activities. For my oldest some of the slip have things like reading, art projects, American Heritage Girls badge requirements, online learning apps, Google Classroom assignments, journaling/writing, Brain Breaks/dancing ,etc For my younger ones, ABC Mouse, coloring, pretend play, legos, playdoh, etc. I tried to create a variety of things for them to do, both academic and just fun. They get to pick a slip out of their jar (gives them a choice) and then I set a timer. For most its between 20-30 minutes but if they are enjoying the activity I let them go until they loose interest (except for TV time. This seems to be working well for them but we will see how it goes this week (our first real week of using our activity jars ).
You can follow my Facebook Online group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/241372353677500
I am also working to upload the videos onto Youtube.
I am very glad that I have been able to keep up with my twin sister---she works in a dental office and is deemed essential and I watch her daughter while she is gone---so she is in my quarantine circle. I don't think I could do this without her!
My girls have been doing well playing together. The weather has been amazing and I feel our family has truly grown closer together over these last 3 weeks. I know God has a plan for all this and that He is with us through this storm. I honestly have felt very much at peace through all this chaos---and I can only point to Jesus as the source of that peace.
I ended up created an online Facebook group to stream my Facebook Live Circle time videos---I am shocked to have over 160 members!! I am glad to be able to reach out to our community (both my school kiddos and neighbors and others in our community).
I am trying to keep our circle time as "normal" as possible---we do a weekly letter and number, word families, memory verse/Bible lesson. I tried to add extra videos of read alouds and directed drawings too! This is definitely a first in our nation to have distance learning on such a huge scale. I haven't yet received any updates on what my oldest daughter (2nd grade) should be doing so I have made our own "schedule" or list of activities.
School at home is very different than in the normal classroom. One major difference is your class size. Instead of 16 four year olds, I have 2 (my youngest and my niece) and instead of a class with 20+ second graders, I have one. Having mixed age groups brings its only challenges but we are making the most out of it.
I created two activity jars: one for my 2nd grader, and one for the younger two. Inside each jar are many slips of paper---on each paper I have written different activities. For my oldest some of the slip have things like reading, art projects, American Heritage Girls badge requirements, online learning apps, Google Classroom assignments, journaling/writing, Brain Breaks/dancing ,etc For my younger ones, ABC Mouse, coloring, pretend play, legos, playdoh, etc. I tried to create a variety of things for them to do, both academic and just fun. They get to pick a slip out of their jar (gives them a choice) and then I set a timer. For most its between 20-30 minutes but if they are enjoying the activity I let them go until they loose interest (except for TV time. This seems to be working well for them but we will see how it goes this week (our first real week of using our activity jars ).
You can follow my Facebook Online group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/241372353677500
I am also working to upload the videos onto Youtube.
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Youtube Channel
I can say one positive to come out of this quarantine is that my understanding and use of technology has greatly grown!!
I was having some issues with the Facebook live video feeds (sound kept going in and out) so I decided to switch things up a little bit. I have been using the camera feature on my laptop to record myself and then upload the videos to my Youtube channel. My 7 year old thinks I'm "way cool" since I'm actually on Youtube (hope she thinks that still in a few years haha!) .
Here is the link! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbx3D9A0U3cphLDHrtvQkyA/
Here is the link! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbx3D9A0U3cphLDHrtvQkyA/
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