Stepping Stone School
Supporting Families & Learning at Home
April 10th
At Stepping Stone School, our mission is to offer not only exceptional nurturing and education for our students, but also 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 FOR YOU!
Community & Cultural Awareness
Eggs and Renewal
Learning Experience + Supplies and Equipment
  • Explain eggs are laid by birds reptiles. fish etc.
  • Children touch, hold and observe chicken eggs, and describe the shells, shape, and smell. 
  • Crack one of the eggs onto a saucer. Discuss the parts of the egg – the membrane, yolk, albumin (white) and the white string that is attached to the yolk. Then have each crack an egg into individual saucers, and explore and discuss their own egg.
Possible/Expected Discoveries
  • Some animals that lay eggs are birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, insects and spiders. We are exploring a chicken’s egg. A chicken is a bird.
  • Can you find some similarities and differences between the uncracked eggs; the cracked eggs?
  • Do you think that other birds lay eggs? Where might they lay them? Have you ever seen a bird’s egg that was not laid by a chicken? (show photos or a real nest)
Art & Creative Expression
As a way for children to express their creativity in a different way you can use plastic eggs as a fun tool to paint with! This plastic egg painting activity makes circles on paper.
You will need:
  • Paper
  • Paint
  • Plastic eggs
  • Paper plate or other surface to hold paint.
Children can dip the eggs in the paint and get creative! Toddlers can learn more about circles while preschool children can talk about colors!
You can also expand your creativity and use other items to paint with like toy cars or toy animals!
Writing and Literacy Readiness
Are You My Mother?
Written and Illustrated by P. D. Eastman
When a baby bird hatches early and finds that his mother is gone, he goes looking for her. He asks everyone—a kitten, a hen, a dog, and a cow—if they are his mother. He then moves on to a car, a boat, a plane, and finally, a power shovel, which helps him find his mother.
Show your child the cover of the book, tell her the title, author and illustrator. Ask your child what she sees and what she thinks the story will be about. Look at the front cover of this book. What do you see? What do you think the bird is saying to the dog? What do you think this story will be about?
Read the story with expression or give the characters voices. For example, when  reading the baby bird’s voice sound like a baby bird.
Language Development
Try to ask questions that require more than yes or no answers.   For example:
  • Why didn’t the baby bird see his mother? How do you think he felt when he couldn’t find his mother?
  • What did the baby bird think the Snort was going to do? How did the baby bird feel when his mother came back? 
You can ask the questions, wait several seconds to see if your child responds, and then provide the answer. You are modeling for your child what a question and answer dialogue sounds like. Over time, as your child hears more questions and answers, she will begin to answer questions spontaneously. 
Beginning Writing
Create your own book using a mixture of photographs, pictures of faces from magazines, or computer-generated images .  Create a four- to five-page book using images of other family members or unfamiliar faces. On the last page, place the picture of Mommy, Daddy or another family member. As you look through the book, ask your child, “Is this your Mother?” or “is this your Daddy?” See what happens when she gets to the last page.
Leveled Reading Passages
After reading Are You My Mother? choose from three leveled reading passages that relate in some way to the book's themes, concepts, characters, settings, or subject matter.
Mathematical & Scientific Concepts
Eggs-Periments: Squishy Egg
It only takes three ingredients to make a hard egg shell squishy!
YOU WILL NEED
  • One raw egg
  • Vinegar
  • Large bowl
STEP 1
Put a raw egg (in its shell) into a bowl and cover it completely with vinegar.

STEP 2
Wait two days, then drain off the vinegar. When you touch the egg, it will feel rubbery. Be careful not to break the membrane, and wash your hands after you touch the egg. (Throw it away after a few days.)
WHY?
Vinegar, an acid, dissolves the calcium in the eggshell. It's calcium that makes the shell hard. But a thin, flexible membrane just under the shell still holds the egg's shape.
Get outside! Here are some great ideas from Tinkergarden!
  • Sponges or towels - It is so engaging to soak up and release water! Children also love to “clean,” simulating adult work and feeling like they can “help” around the house. Give children a small bucket and a rag or sponge and welcome them to “wash” the car, the cabinets or any surface they can reach. On a smaller scale, they can have a ‘toy wash’ too. 
  • Paintbrush - Children can paint for hours using water! Feeling crafty or lacking paint brushes? You can make “nature brushes” from pine limbs or from grasses wrapped around sticks with twine.
  • Things that float/sink - Have you ever wondered what would happen if you put different objects in a bin of water. Be sure to provide them with a range of objects that float and sink. Ask things like, What do you notice?, and give children time to express in their own words what it means to float and sink as they describe what they are seeing!
  • Glasses or jars - You have the makings for a xylophone! Put out some jars, a pitcher of water and some spoons. Tap on the empty glasses, then pour a little water into one of the glasses. Bang again, and notice the difference?  Welcome children to pour, tap and experiment with sound. 
Character Development
How We Can Teach Respectful Behavior

Making Eye Contact
By giving other adults your full attention, they will see that this is a respectful behavior and will eventually do the same. Model this by making eye contact with your children over meals and any time they ask you a question.
Talk about looking each other in the eye – make it a fun game for little ones. You can say things like, “I love it when I can see your pretty blue eyes when we’re talking!”
Engaging in polite conversation
Conversation is hard for little ones with few words, but a simple, “how are you” warrants a response.
An activity I learned a few years ago is “The Ball is in Your Court”. You can play this at home as a learning exercise. It’s really simple: You toss a ball back and forth with your child (preschool age) and when you have the ball, you ask a question. Then you toss it to them, which is the prompt that it’s their turn to say something.
It’s a fun way to model the art of conversation and also being inquisitive about others in a respectful way.
Saying please and thank you
At home, it’s easy to gently remind our children to ask for things in a nice manner, and to acknowledge kindness from others with a “thank you”.
Physical Development
Egg Races!
You will need
  • Plastic spoons
  • Plastic Easter egg
  • Starting point/line
  • Destination point/end line

  1. Place all of the eggs in a basket at the starting point.
  2. Place the egg on the spoon ( the challenge is to hold the spoon and race to the finish line without dropping the egg.)
  3. Begin the race to the Destination point.
  4. Place a basket at the destination point to drop the eggs in.

This activity will work on balance, Hand eye coordination, movement, and of course fun!
Healthy screentime 
for 21st Century kids!
More than a million kids do yoga, mindfulness and relaxation with Jaime on  the Cosmic Kids YouTube Channel .
Parents and teachers report significant improvements in self-regulation, focus and empathy.
The videos are FUN so children love doing them!
Cognitive & Phonological Development
Try this number recognition game with your eggs!
What you need:  
plastic eggs ~ sharpie ~ paper
Start with 10 eggs, on the outside of each egg write a number. 1, 2, 3, 4. . .10. Also, write the numbers on a sheet of white paper, then cut the paper into small squares.
  • Lay out all 10 eggs.
  • Then lay out the papers in front of the eggs. Do NOT match the numbers up! For example, the number 6 paper was placed in front of the number 3 egg. Place the numbered papers inside the eggs.
  • Hide the eggs around the yard or house.
  • Have the children hunt for the eggs. Once they find an egg they open it to find the number, now they will look for the number egg that matches the number they just found.
  • For younger children they can carry the number with them. It is a great opportunity to practice number recognition.
You can ask your child, “Have we seen the number 5 before?” 

Tips  (to maximize learning): 
1 . If your children have already mastered 1-10, add in 11-20. If you have older children make it more challenging. Wouldn’t it be fun to try 1- 50? 
2.  Use this game as a memory sharpener. When your child comes to an egg that doesn’t match the one they are looking for, say the number out loud. Then encourage them to think about where they might have seen the number. By the end they should have seen all of the numbers at least once. 
3 . This one works for fine motor too! Have your children help stuff the eggs, putting plastic eggs together takes quite a bit of concentration!
Smart Phone Easter Egg Hunt for Older Kids
To receive your clues using the QR codes, you will need a device (iPhone, iPod, Android, etc…) that you can put apps on. There are several free apps you can use to scan your QR codes very easily. The one that I use is simply called “Scan.” When the QR code is scanned, it takes you to an image on a blog that has the clue on it. Simple as that!
All the clues are numbered. The QR codes are numbered to match the corresponding clue. Print all the QR codes and only use the ones that work for your yard!
Emotional & Social Development
5 Ways to Play & Learn With Emotions Cards
1. Making Faces
Place a set of cards face down on a stack. Turn over the top card. Have your child name the emotion and make a face to match.
2. Guess the Emotion
Spread out a set of cards face up. Take turns to choose a card but don’t tell the other players which you have chosen. Make a face and see if the other players can guess which card you chose.
3. The Way I Feel Story Game 
Spread out a set of cards face up. Take turns to choose a card but don’t tell the other players which you have chosen. Tell a short story about a time you felt like that and see if the other players can guess which card you chose.
4. Matching Emotions
Print two sets of the cards (complete with the backing pattern on the reverse side) to make your own Concentration style matching game. To play, spread out all cards face down. Take turns turning over two cards at a time. If you find a match, you keep that pair of cards.
5. Story Emotions
Lay out 3-4 cards. Using a small figurine, tell a short story about the toy. For example – “Peppa’s balloon popped.” Ask your child to put the figurine on the card that shows how Peppa would feel if this happened.
Ingredients
·     1  lb.  Strawberries
·     8 oz. Soft Cream Cheese
·     1/2  cup  Powdered Sugar
·     1/2  Tablespoon  Vanilla Extract
·     2 cups  Honey Bunny Grahams
 
Instructions
  • Cut off the strawberry stems. Remove the inside of the strawberry with a small knife or strawberry corer tool to create a cup for the filling.
  • Trim the pointed strawberry tip with your knife so the strawberry will stand upright. Place on a cookie sheet.
  • In a bowl, beat softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla with a mixer until fluffy.
  • Place the cream cheese mixture in a pastry bag and pipe into the strawberries.
  • Refrigerate the cheesecake stuffed strawberries until ready to serve. Make them 3-4 hours before serving or your strawberries will get soggy.
  • Right before serving, garnish with a bunny graham. The grahams will get soggy if you add these too early.
LEGO STEAM CHALLENGES - EGGS

Start with a 2×4 basic LEGO brick, then increase by one more brick for the first four rows. The next two rows match the 5th row. Then reduce by one brick for two rows and then reduce by one again for the next two rows.
Reduce by one for another row and then reduce by one more for the last row. Check out the LEGO eggs for the configuration!
  • How about a rainbow egg?
  • Can you build a dozen LEGO eggs?
  • Make mini versions and add them to an egg crate?