Stepping Stone School
Supporting Families & Learning at Home
May 29nd
At Stepping Stone School, our mission is to offer exceptional nurturing and education for our students, and extraordinary support and care for all parents and families! Many families are finding new and creative ways to engage and educate their children while at home. We compiled a list of fun and educational activities and resources for you to use with your family.
WE ARE HERE TO SUPPORT YOU!
Experience Rainbow Art with a Mystery Science lesson!
Community & Cultural Awareness
Virtual Art Museum Visits
An art museum is a magical place, filled with ancient and modern wonders from around the world.
A child’s first visit to an art museum can be very exciting and influence their feelings about art for years to come. Parents can facilitate this positive experience by asking questions, playing games and structuring trips in a child-friendly way. Here are a few ways you can turn any (virtual) art museum visit into a fun family adventure.
Make it fun!  Visiting an art museum should be both educational and fun. Playing looking games in the galleries is a great ways to increase the fun factor of your visit.
  • A good museum games is Eye Spy. A parent says, for example, “Eye spy a china cup with pink flowers” and the child then finds the cup. The child in turn says, “Eye spy a man with a red hat” and the parent has to find a painting that contains a man in a red hat.
  • Another good game is to ask, “How are these two things alike and how are they different?” Or bring a sketchbook along and encourage children to draw or sketch what they like.

Put what you see in context.  When walking through a museum, it is often hard to imagine what life was like during the time the artwork was created. You can play a guessing game asking what an object, such as a suit of armor, an umbrella stand or a bed warmer, was used for when it was created. After everyone in your family takes a guess, compare the answers against information on the gallery walls.

Discuss what you see.  An art museum can be an exciting starting point for family discussions, playful games, and imaginative conversations. Don't be afraid to ask your child open-ended questions, even if you don't know the answer yourself.
Tools for discussion.  One of the best things about art is its ability to awaken the imagination. Therefore, the best questions are ones that lead into broader discussions. Ask questions such as these:
  • What do you think the person in the painting liked to do?
  • How would the weather feel if you were inside this landscape?
  • Who do you think used this cabinet and how was it used?
  • Does this armor remind you of anything that we have read in a book or seen in a movie?
  •  If you could spend the day inside of any painting, which one would it be?
Art & Creative Expression
 Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems
Mo Willems invites YOU into his studio every day for his LUNCH DOODLE. Learners worldwide can draw, doodle and explore new ways of writing by visiting Mo’s studio virtually once a day for the next few weeks. Grab some paper and pencils, pens, or crayons and join Mo to explore ways of writing and making together. New episodes will be posted each weekday at noon and then remain online to be streamed afterwards.
MONET ART PROJECT
Claude Monet is well known for his beautiful water scenes! This Monet Art Project for Kids is a fun (and messy) finger painting craft that will leave children with beautiful results. The materials used are simple and you’re sure to have them on hand in your art supply closet. I suggest you try this craft beforehand to get a feel for removing the tape.
MONET ART PROJECT MATERIALS: 
·      Cardstock Paper
·      Fingerpaint
·      Painters Tape or Masking Tape
STEP 1: BUILD YOUR BRIDGE
For this craft, you’ll need some masking tape to make your bridge shape. I cut our tape in half to get thinner strips. You want to form the shape of the bridge using your masking tape. You can do this ahead of time for younger children if needed.Continue building your bridge using small sections of tape for the slats. Try to add five or six of them across the bridge at equal intervals.
STEP 2: MONET FINGER PAINT ART
Time to fingerpaint! Provide students with a rainbow of colors for them to dip their fingers in, then show them how to dab their finger multiple times to start filling in the canvas.
This is a great time to teach children about color blending and using similar colors (hues) together to create depth. Show children how to overlap their fingerprints to blend the different colors together.
Continue to fill in your canvas with a multitude of colors and blends. Don’t worry about painting over the tape. As long as it’s securly fixed to your paper the paint will not seep through.
STEP 4: PEEL TO REVEAL YOUR MASTERPIECE!
Once your art project has dried, carefully peel back the sections of tape to reveal Monet’s bridge! Mount these masterpieces to colored construction paper and hang up in your homeschool classroom or in your classroom 
Writing and Literacy Readiness
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Written by Bill Martin, Jr., and John Archambault and Illustrated by Lois Ehlert
A fun, rhyming book about the alphabet featuring lowercase letters climbing up a coconut tree. The tree gets so heavy with letters that it bends over. The uppercase letters then come to the rescue. Told in rhyme, the book fancifully describes each letter’s injuries.
Leveled Reading Passages A Tree for Two
After reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, choose from three leveled reading passages that relate in some way to the book's themes, concepts, characters, settings, or subject matter. Each passage's Lexile measurement targets readers at the Beginning of Year (Easy), Middle of Year (Medium), or End of Year (Hard). The passages are meant to be used as independent-level texts that students can read on their own with minimal support. Use the Lexile scores to help you determine which level is right for each student. Print or download this passage as a supplementary, independent reading activity to help them develop reading fluency. The three stars on each page indicate the level of reading passage: Easy, Medium, or Hard.
Mathematical & Scientific Concepts
Walking Water
  1. Start by putting water into clear cups and add food coloring to color it red, yellow, or blue. Put an empty cup between each pair of colors.
  2. Next, add paper towel strips to the cups so that one end was in the colored water and one end was in the empty cup. You will notice right away that the colored water will start to move up each paper towel strip!
  3. Once that is done, the experiment is a waiting game. After a few hours, you will start to see water in the empty middle cups. Come back the next day and the middle cup will have green, orange, and purple water in them!
Magic Milk
  • Fill a dish with about an inch of milk Drop food colors in the milk randomly.
  • Dip a Q-tip into dawn dish soap then press it into the milk to watch the colors react!
  •  The dish soap does not mix with the milk. Instead it floats on top and spreads over the surface.
  • As it spreads, it grabs the food coloring.
  • Soap is a “degreaser” so the molecules in it are attacking the fat in the milk, causing motion which creates the swirling of the colors.
Character Development
Building Developmental Skills at Home
Children are constantly noticing and experimenting with the information that comes their way. No matter what they do, they are learning!
The examples below include developmental skills fostered by the activities:
  • Give simple, appropriate tasks – putting crayons back in the box; folding washcloths. (Self-regulation, fine motor)
  • Practice self-help skills such as zipping, buttoning, keeping up with personal items, opening packages of food. (Self-confidence, hand-eye coordination)
  • Establish routines with your child and help him follow them – putting his backpack in a certain spot; setting the table; consistent order of bedtime steps. (Self-control; cooperation)
  • Give opportunities to ask for help. The confidence to speak up and ask a question is a valuable learning skill. (Social competence, language development)
  • Count just to be counting – at bedtime, buckling up, watching it rain. (Counting skills)
  • Measure your child’s and a friend’s height. Compare heights. (Measurements, fractions, greater/smaller, number recognition)
  • Help your child practice patience – to wait for a person to finish speaking before she begins, to say “excuse me.” (Conversation, self-control, vocabulary)
  • Look for ways to develop hand strength and coordination for prewriting and writing. Examples: playdoh, beading with pipe cleaner, scissors cutting, building with Legos, finger drawing on a tray of cornmeal.
  • Read to your child. Point out the title, author and illustrator. Ask open-ended questions about the story. Let your child retell the story. Discuss new vocabulary. (Reading motivation; comprehension; book awareness)
  • Play rhyming games. Sing nursery rhymes or play silly word games in which you change the beginning sounds of word. (Phonological & phonemic awareness)
  • Ask your child to sort the laundry – matching socks, separating clothing by ownership. (Classification, patterns, self-reliance, matching)
  • Encourage your child to describe people, places, things and actions. (Vocabulary & communication skills, self-esteem, self-confidence)
Physical Development
MATISSE ART PROJECT FOR KIDS
Matisse had a very colorful style to his artwork, and in his later years he used paper cut-out arranged on canvas to create beautiful, fluid scenes. Use the templates or your own precut designs to provide younger children with a simple cut and paste activity. Older children can be encouraged to draw with their scissors
·        Colored Construction Paper
·        Glue Stick
·        Scissors
Upside Down Art
This activity will allow the children to practice creating art from a unique perspective while learning about Michelangelo.
  • You can begin by asking your children if they have ever heard of Michelangelo or the Sistine Chapel.
  • Offer younger children a simple explanation with a picture of the Sistine Chapel.
  • Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel while on his back.
  • This made the painting difficult, but he created a beautiful and famous piece of art.
  • Explain that today they can try to create something beautiful while painting like Michelangelo.
Get Started
  • Tape a piece of paper under a table.
  • Have all art supplies at arm’s reach.
  • Allow the children time to create a unique piece of art!
  • Have your children display their art pieces and explain how it was different to paint upside down.
Cognitive & Phonological Development
Coloring Sort!
Want to do an easy, low prep, activity that also cleans your house?
 
This activity is going to get your child moving as they search the house for toys in every color.
You can make it work to your benefit by having them gather all the toys that are hanging around your house. Have them place them on the matching colored paper for a quick and easy cognitive activity!
Focus Skills
Visual Arts
  • Identify basic colors and understand that you can combine colors to make new colors
Gross Motor Skills
  • Use locomotor skills with balance in a variety of directions and changing directions during active play
  • Engage in non-locomotor body movements with balance, coordination, and control (twist and bend)
REQUIRED MATERIALS
  • CONSTRUCTION PAPER
  • COLORFUL TOYS
Supplies List:
  • Refrigerated Sugar Cookies
  • Skittles or M&M's
  • Pretzel Sticks
  • Black Candy Melts
  • Small Round Cookie Cutter
Directions
  1. Place the cookie dough pieces on a pan according to the package instructions or slightly further apart. You may want to line the pan just in case the melted Skittles leak through.
  2. Shape the dough. Do not press down on it too much–if it is too thin, the candies will melt through and make a sticky mess on the pan. Using your finger, add a dent to one side of the dough. This needs to be pretty deep or it will not stay when the cookie flattens. The dent should also be a little off-center, just like an artist palette.
  3. Place 3-4 Skittles on top of the cookie dough across from the dent. These should be very close together–they will spread apart as the dough flattens during cooking. Press down on them very gently just so they stay in place; do not press the candies into the dough or they will melt right through to the pan.
  4. Bake the cookies according to the package instructions. Depending on your oven, you may want to check on these a little early so they don’t over-cook.
  5. Once the cookies have finished baking, you will want to immediately poke out the thumb holes at the small end of the curve using the small cookie cutter. Then use the side of a paper straw to make the curve in the palette more pronounced.You could also try using a paper straw to poke the hole.
  6. 6. Before the cookies are cool, use a flat metal spatula to carefully remove the cookies from the pan and onto a cooling rack.
  7. Dip one end of each pretzel stick into the melted chocolate. Gently spin it and pull out, shaping it into a brush-looking tip. Place the pretzel brush onto a plate covered with wax paper and let the chocolate harden. Repeat with as many more pretzel sticks as you need.
  8. Serve the Artist Palette Sugar Cookies alongside the pretzel paintbrushes. The cookies have a fun, fruity flavor and surprising and fun chewy texture.
Our YouTube Channel features over 60 videos of our beloved teachers reading stories from our Classic Literature Library, Teaching Daily Lessons, ASL and Spanish vocabulary!
Tune in to learn about S.T.E.A.M education, Superhero Movie Reviews, unicorns, and a variety of interesting topics chosen and produced by our School-Age classes!
Emotional & Social Development
All About My Feelings: Identifying Emotions with Self Portraits
Children are identifying and navigating emotions in themselves and others all day every day. As adults we need to give them the patience, support, and advice they need to figure out these feelings!
Identifying emotions is an important milestone for children. Children begin to recognize and name their own anger, excitement, and sadness. Children can practice reading the feelings of those around them based on facial expressions, too. You can work on identifying emotions by using a mirror to draw dramatic self-portraits!

You can use a mirror to see out how your child’s  face changes when they are mad, happy, and sad. You can  discuss the details of what you see. Have your child draw how they look during each feeling, and discuss these feelings. 
Books to Study Great Artists with Children
Great works of art are inspiring to grown-ups and children alike. There are a plethora of authors out there who write about art, famous works of art and the masters. There are even authors who write about it in a context intended for early learners.
What is Art?
These books serve as great introduction to the concept of art, broadly. Everything from color mixing to inspiration and encouragement for your preschool artist, who may still just be mastering using pencils, brushes and crayons. Many also convey lessons of being unique, standing out in the crowd, self-confidence, and that anyone can be an artist.

“Everything starts with a dot” – Wassily Kandinsky
Kandinsky’s Squares with Concentric Circles is perhaps his most popular works. You might be surprised to learn that this piece was never a fully-fledged painting and was used by Kandinsky as a type of colour chart for his work. This simple Kandinsky Inspired Rock Art project is a fun way for children to explore color combinations, with an opportunity to use natural materials as their canvas.
  • Smooth round rocks
  • Acrylic Paint
  • Varnish or Modpodge Sealer 
  1. To begin, take a trip outside and collect smooth round rocks
  2. Next, thoroughly wash the rocks and leave them to dry.
  3. Cover the surface with a base layer of white acrylic paint and let it dry.
  4. Once the base layer has dried, add the circles
  5. Start with a large dot in the middle and then add multiple surrounding circles.
  6. Once the rocks have dried, add a light layer of varnish over each. This will preserve the paint!