Keeping the Beat

While Playing: 
  • Sit with your child on your lap or next to you while you play, Keeping the Beat with Loosey Goosey.
  • Encourage your child to say the rhyme along with Loosey Goosey. The best way to encourage him/her is by saying the words along with the game, too!
  • Take turns choosing a nursery rhyme to listen to.
  • Take turns tapping any key to keep the beat to the rhythm of the rhyme.

 

Ontario Curriculum Connections: 

Playing Keeping the Beat with Loosey Goosey helps your child meet expectations in the Arts and Language areas of the Ontario Kindergarten Program, including:

Language

Explore sounds, rhythms, and language structures with guidance and on their own.

Music

Explore different elements of music- (Extending: To reinforce concepts, a member of the EL-K team asks the children to identify patterns in the words, melody, beat, and rhythm of familiar songs and poems that have been printed on chart paper and hung around the room.)

 

At-Home Activities: 

Exploring with rhythm, beat and rhyme is fun and easy no matter where you are; on a walk, in the car, or at home!

  • If you are on a walk, sing songs with your child while you are walking. Walk and clap to the rhythm while you are singing a song together.
  • If you are in the car, choose a channel with some music, and encourage your child to sing along, clap hands, and slap knees while listening and singing to the music.
  • If you are at home, with your child write a poem together with an easy rhythm. Find instruments around the house, or make your own instruments (shakers) by using empty plastic container filled with rice or beans. Say the poem together, using your instruments to mark out the rhythm and beat of the poehm.

Tooth Time

While Playing: 
  • Set your tablet or phone up in the washroom somewhere safe from getting splashed or stepped on.
  • Get your toothbrushes all ready for brushing.
  • Enter your names into the app.
  • Start listening to the song, and brush along!
  • You should brush too to encourage your child even more!
  • When the brushing song is finished, encourage your child to stick a sticker on the toothbrushing chart!
Ontario Curriculum Connections: 

Oral health is a matter that concerns all of us. There have been more cases reported of poor oral health in young children than ever before. It is our duty, as the adults in young children's lives, to teach them how to brush their teeth properly. The Tooth Time app does exactly that, and helps parents make this sometimes difficult chore not only easier, but way more fun, too!

At-Home Activities: 
  • Use the Tooth Time app twice a day; once in the morning and once at night.
  • Encourage your child to place a sticker on his/her sticker chart after every brush!
  • Encourage your child to send their sticker chart to someone who would be impressed; like Grandpa, an aunt, or even the dentist!
  • Share this app with friends and family!

Tumbleweed's Yard Sale

While Playing: 

Sit with your child while he/she reads the story.

Take turns reading the comic book panels, or take turns touching the panels to hear them read to you.

When the "Help Tumbleweed Make Change" page comes up, take turns dragging the coins into the play-space to make the correct change.

Play through the ebook a few different times, making sure to try different coins to make the correct change!

Ontario Curriculum Connections: 

Playing Tumbleweed's Yard Sale helps kids meet many learning expectations across many grades, including the following:

Math- Number Sense and Numeration

Grade 3

Use concrete materials to represent fractions and money amounts to $10.00

Language- Reading

Grade 2

Read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning.

 

At-Home Activities: 
  • Play "Store" at home!
  • Using real or fake money, set up a store in your house with real items and price tags.
  • Take turns being the shopper and the store-keeper.
  • Take turns making change for various purchases!

Tumbletown Shop Around

While Playing: 

Sit with your child while he/she plays this game

Take turns choosing items to buy, and visiting the stores to purchase the items

While paying in the store, talk about the money denominations that you are using to pay for the item

Play through the game making sure you buy all the items on the list that you need, then play a second time to see what happens when you don't purchase all the items on the list

Ontario Curriculum Connections: 

Playing Tumbletown Shop Around helps kids meet many learning expectations across many grades, including the following:

Math- Number Sense and Numeration

Grade 3

Use concrete materials to represent fractions and money amounts to $10.00

Grade 4

Exploring decimal numbers to tenths, and simple fractions, and represent money amounts to $100.00

Add and subtract money amounts by making simulated purchases and providing changes for amounts up to $100.00, using a variety of tools

At-Home Activities: 
  • Play Tumbletown Shop Around for real!
  • Go shopping with your child, with a certain amount of money.
  • Make a list of the items that you need, and a separate list of the items that you want
  • When you go shopping, tally up the prices of the items that you need, keep subtracting from the money that you have, and have your child figure out if there is any money left over for items on the "wants" list

Mannerific!

While Playing: 

Take turns playing this game with your child, seeing who can score more points! Talk about what you see while you are playing. For example, if you are playing the sneezing game, talk about the difference between sneezing into your sleeve and sneezing into your hands. With your child, discuss other things that can be done around the house and at school that reflect proper hygiene practices.

Ontario Curriculum Connections: 

Playing the Mannerific game helps your child connect with the following expectation of the Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum: Grade 2 Describe how germs are transmitted and how this relates to personal hygiene (e.g. using tissues, washing hands before eating)

At-Home Activities: 

Have fun with hygiene! Help your child make hygiene posters for different rooms of the house. For example, the poster for the kitchen can include proper handwashing techniques, and/or how to keep the kitchen clean, and the poster for the washroom can include proper toothbrushing tips.

Spin-a-Tale

While Playing: 

Play Spin-a-Tale with your child. Take turns clicking around the wheels to view the different verbs, nouns and adjectives. Read the end sentences out loud to each other.

Try all the different options, and discuss which one is the funniest!

Ontario Curriculum Connections: 

Playing Spin-a-Tale helps your child meet many different learning expectations across various grades, including the following: Language Grade One: Use parts of speech appropriately to communicate their meaning clearly, with a focus on the use of: nouns for names of people, places and things; the personal subject pronouns; verbs to tell what they do and feel; some adjectives.

At-Home Activities: 

Have fun with parts of speech! Play the noun guessing game. Think of a person, place or thing in your mind, and ask someone else to guess the item. Give them the chance to ask 20 different questions to try to figure out your item. When your friend figures out your noun, then your friend chooses a noun for you to guess.

Play the "Missing Parts of Speech" game! It's easy! Find a paragraph from your favourite book, and copy it down on a piece of lined paper, making sure to skip lines, and making sure to leave out specific nouns, verbs and adjectives. Write the part of speech under the word that is missing. For example, if you took the word, "tree" out of the paragraph, leave a blank space where the word would go, and write the word "noun" under the missing word. Once you have copied the paragraph onto a piece of paper with the missing words, pass it on to a family or a friend to fill in. Read the paragraph out loud once they have finished, then read the paragraph from the book with the words that are supposed to be in the text.

Gisele and the Letter Tree

While Playing: 

Sit with your child while you play Gisele and the Letter Tree.
Have your child do as many of the interactions as he/she can, and talk about what you see on the screen while playing.
Encourage your child to sing along with Gisele, while she sings the ABCs.
Encourage your child to click on the items that sparkle on the individual pages.
When you feel that your child is ready to start reading on his/her own, encourage him/her to choose that option on the first screen. Remind your child that to touch a word to hear it read out loud.

Ontario Curriculum Connections: 

Playing Gisele and the Letter Tree helps your child practice many different learning skills, one of which is:
The Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten Program
Language
Demonstrate an interest in reading

At-Home Activities: 

There are many different ways for you to explore the joy of reading with your child at home!
Go to your local library. There are so many wonderful resources available for you and your child at your local library. Encourage your child to pick out his/her own books to bring home.
Make a book together! You can use photos, cut out pictures from a magazine, or colour and draw your own to illustrate your story. Encourage your child to tell the story, and help him/her write the words (depending on your child's skill level).
Organize a book club with some neighbourhood friends. Get together once a week for a special reading time program- each week a different member chooses books and hosts the program!

Clip Clop Puzzler

While Playing: 

Play Clip Clop Puzzler with your child, making sure to take turns. Either you can take turns going letter by letter, or you can take turns going word by word- whichever method suits your child's level. Talk about what you are doing while you play. Ask you child questions like, "What do you think that is a picture of?" Or, "Right, that's a picture of a tent. What letter does 'tent' begin with?"

Ontario Curriculum Connections: 

This activity helps your child improve vocabulary skills. This game meets many expectations in multiple grades, some of which are: Language: Writing Spell unfamiliar words using a variety of strategies that involve understanding sound-symbol relationships, word structures, word meanings, and generalizations about spelling

At-Home Activities: 

Encourage your child to make up his/her own crossword puzzle that you will try to solve! Make a crossword puzzle together with your child for another family member to solve.

A Lotta Sports

While Playing: 

Sit with your child while he/she is playing the game.
Count along with Lotta and encourage your child to count along as well.
Take turns clicking on the different items; i.e. balls, pucks to trigger Lotta's counting

Ontario Curriculum Connections: 

Playing A Lotta Sports helps your child meet different learning objectives including the following:
Kindergarten
Demonstrate an understanding of numbers, using concrete materials to explore and investigate counting, quantity and number relationships

At-Home Activities: 

Count, count, count!!
Take the time to count with your child while you are walking or driving to school, helping him/her in the bath, or playing games.
Practice skip counting with your child. This means counting by 2s or 5s or 10s. Make sure to use concrete materials to show the bundles of 2s, 5s and 10s.
Make up your own boardgame! Counting the spots on the board as you move along with markers will help your child understand counting and the concept of numbers.

Keyboard Climber 2

While Playing: 

Studies have shown, that when you play with your child you help to create good, solid connections with your child. Studies have shown, that these connections can help your child be more successful academically. So, take the time, and sit with your child to play a round of Keyboard Climber!

Ontario Curriculum Connections: 

Keyboarding skills are essential to today's day and age. Even though your child will not formally be taught keyboarding until later on in his/her academic career, here at TVOKids, we know your kids are on the computer, and we want to make sure that we give them a headstart on their keyboarding skills!  This game meets many expectations in multiple grades, one of which is:

Language

Communicate in writing, using strategies that are appropriate for beginners

At-Home Activities: 

Practice make perfect!

  • Print a copy of the attached worksheet found in the "View the Guide" area, and practice the list of letters and words with a word processing tool on the computer. Time your child and mark for accuracy for extra fun!
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