I wonder if anyone might like to collaborate with me in designing a weeks worth of kindergarten curriculum to be used by students on Snow Days. The very nature of snow days means we should include winter and snow related activities that need little or no materials for caregivers to gather. We should have work that will give instruction and or practice in math, literacy, science, social studies, and community building. And the tone of the lessons should celebrate the day away from school while keeping those little brains thinking critically.
So why would we want to do this? Imagine…
- that we might still be able count this as time on learning so the day could count toward the yearly total (For Mass. it’s 180 days.)
- that students would find it rather cool
- that the work could be meaningful and rewarding
- that this takes the learning out of the classroom and into the home or caregivers program for a new perspective
Okay, a weeks worth might be stretching it, but since we can and often do have 5 snow days (or whatever weather distractions), it isn’t outrageous to think that we could use a weeks worth of activities.
Let’s consider some of the necessities.
- We need a teacher online to give guidance and support for students.
- We need to be sure that students have access to computers in their homes or have hard copies of the assignments in advance.
- We need to lay the ground rules before school gets too far along so parents will understand the alternate curriculum is there and will have the needed supplies readily available.
- The curriculum should go in a fresh direction while using some tried and true practices so the work needs little explaining.
- There should be agreement on committing “X” amount of time in the effort to do the work
Can we expect that parents will sign on to this? Will there be a rebellion, and if even one person refuses, does that make the process worthless? I am drawing on some real world examples here. There are places in our world where students can’t reach school. Some communicate on-line, others use ham radios to meet with their teachers. Still others never set foot in a school except for athletics practice with community teams because they are home-schooled.
Maybe this is just another Snow Day-Dream but I would still like to think that I can teach my students online as well as face to face. What do you think? Does this sound like an idea whose time has come? Care to explore the possibilities?
After Some Reflection 
What a cool idea! Let me know what I can do to help
Bonnie
Will do Bonnie. The seeds are sprouting but then they’ve had plenty of time for that since we only had one and a half days of school this week.
That’s right! You already wrote and reflected on this, so maybe we are thinking along similar lines. Thanks for reminding me of your post.
Kevin
Well I’ve never had to worry about snow day curriculum in Oz, but I guess last year when we had bad bush fires and the kids were safer at home, it would of been a great idea.
That’s a great point Collette. There are any number of reasons for a school closure. We haven’t even discussed fire in the structure or electrical outages. These would call for different home school connections. I do think it would be cool to have some sort of plan than can work for students with access to tech as well as those who don’t. I use Skype but haven’t experimented much with conference calls and something like that would be needed to work with a big number of students.
I would love to see this! Following the snow theme, you could include an activity where instead of “Read the Room” they could “Read the Home” for words starting with S, N, O and W. You could record yourself reading a story and send a link via e-mail for students to watch. Include an extension activity for the story like a journal entry or a creative project. I would love to brainstorm some ideas on this!
Excellent suggestions all, especially since we are using that kind of activity already. I am thinking that 5 activities per day would be sufficient with several other links for them to enjoy just for the experience of viewing them, things like nature webcams that stream on UStream.