Something that we’re SUPER thankful for at this time is each of our boys teachers. Both our oldest and youngest sons have great educators that have been pouring into them and walking with all of their kids’ families before and during this time. Our oldest sons’ teacher sent him home with a reading and math workbook BEFORE the Stay at Home order was even in place in our city. He has been sending daily academic schedule suggestions for us to work with him on for the last 7.5 weeks now. Not only that—but he sends separate morning AND evening encouraging emails with prayers and funny photos + videos attached. I kid you not EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
He even recently rolled out weekly 30 minute Face Time conversations with each of his students (26 of them) every week to see how they’re doing and to help them with whatever they’re currently struggling on academically. WOW! He seriously has blown our minds in a very good way.
Thank God for our incredible educators who love our babies and us as their parents so very much. Thank you Connor’s teacher for sharing your gifting in such an impeccable way throughout your career and your life with so many blessed littles and their caregivers. You truly are a gift to this world, to everyone around you and I can say that you have GREATLY impacted and marked our home in such a beautiful way. We love you so much!
Although I’ve heard of teachers all over the world creating plans and activities that fit their kids’ needs I felt like it would be great to share some of the things that we’re working on in our home. Both for journaling this time and helpful ideas of what you can do with your littles! I know some kiddos aren’t school age yet so ideas would help—or you just want to add to the activities you’re already doing with your kids! Feel free to take whatever works for you.
With that said, one of the activities that we really enjoyed doing as a family was the Puppet Theater assignment that was suggested for us to do a few weeks ago. There was a Youtube video attached as an example which can be found here:
Theatre, Grades 3-5, 3/27 - Shadow Puppets
MESSY LEVEL: 1
SUPPLIES:
Scissors
Tape
Paper
Light Source (we used a flashlight)
Large Paper
Popsicle Sticks / Skewers
First Connor created an outline of what he wanted his puppet theater to be about by picking his characters and creating a story arc. He chose his beginning, middle and end. You can use this worksheet (download or just draw it on a blank paper) to fill in your story arc/mountain: DOWNLOAD STORY MOUNTAIN HERE
Connor decided he wanted his story to be about police officers and bank robbers. My boys LOVE police officers so I wasn’t surprised at all. He drew out and filled in his story mountain, then he got working on his characters and even made a puppet for the location (the bank).
It was so fun to watch him write out his story and so easily come up with what the story would be about + the characters that would be in the story: 3 police officers and 2 bank robbers. He also decided that his story would end in a cliffhanger which I think is so creative! I didn’t capture the step by step this time but I did get an image of the finished product and we would love to share the finished video with you as well. The video was completely dreamed up and directed by Connor—he chose everything that went into it and we are so very proud of our talented little man. Enjoy! 🎬🍿
