DRIVING QUESTION:
How can we design and share a set of activities for kids to do at home while their parents are working?
DAY 4: Building Knowledge
Overview
After discovering how germs spread and why it is important to stay home (or keep our distance from others), your children will be ready to answer some of their other need-know-questions about what we can do when we aren’t in school. Children will revisit the driving question and their need-to-know list. They will brainstorm and sort a list of fun, engaging activities that they themselves can do independently.
Key Questions
What kinds of activities do I most like to do at home?
What kinds of activities do other kids like to do when they are at home?
What kinds of activities can kids do independently (i.e. without too much help from a grown-up or older sibling)?
Project Work Time: Writing/Critical Thinking
Kids make a list of all their favorite activities and draw pictures/label them (adults may help label the cards to make sure it is clear what they are) individual index cards or individual sheets of paper. They consider their favorite things to do. (I.e. what’s already out there - coloring books, online games, board games, make your own game, building a zoo for stuffed animals, making inventions out of cardboard).
Project Work Time: Math/Critical Thinking
Consider how the ideas can be sorted/organized. Ask your child/ren to think about whether or not the activities fall into the following categories:
Activities I can do this with an adult or sibling helping me
Activities I can do this with some help
Activities I can do myself
*Help children see that while their parents are working, the activities they create really need to fall into categories 2 and 3. Remove all of the activities that need significant adult or sibling help. For example, if a child made a card for “baking cookies,” ask: is this something you can do without help from an adult or older sibling? If the answer is “No,” remove it from the list of possible options.
See if children can revise/add to their selection of cards to come up with more ideas of things kids can do independently or with minimal help.
If you are a teacher, your students may be able to survey one another to find out what types of activities they’ve done at home and could graph the results.
Checking for Understanding
Look at the final collection of index cards. Are there a minimum of ten total cards that are able to be done with minimal or no help?
Share Your Progress
Share a photo of children’s sorted cards. Or share a few of the cards close-up so we can see a few of their ideas!