Innovations Academy - An Inquiry Based K-8 Public Charter School

Learning at Home

Learning at Home

Independent Study Plan (for all absences, quarantines and isolations)
Innovations Academy provides an Independent Study Plan that can be found here.

Our “No Meaningless Homework Policy” allows for connection at home…

At Innovations Academy we have a “No Meaningless Homework Policy.” This policy is designed so that parents, who are the primary educators of their children, can utilize family time in a way that works for their individual families. We recognize that human beings, by nature, learn all of the time. Productive learning resulting in academic gains is best supported by a variety of activities.  Here is a list of ways that families can use evening time to support academic learning.

English Language Arts
Have fun reading with your children. A child is never to old to be read to (or with).  It doesn’t matter who reads; read aloud, discuss what is happening, the nuances in personality and behavior of the characters, and how events impact the characters. Predict what you think is going to happen and share why you are making this prediction. Read books to your children that are too hard for them to read but are interesting due to their content or message.

Have your child facetime with a relative to read a story with them.

When your child asks questions, do the research together. This will get the answer and model how you think and how you get answers. It also shows your child how important their thinking is to you.

Write letters to people of interest. These people can be the owners of a local business to thank them for their service, the CEO of a large corporation that has impacted your family in some way, relatives of your family that live near or far, neighbors and family friends.

Enter writing contests. You can search for contests and enter them.

Watch a foreign movie with subtitles and read them together.

Play board games that have instructions/cards/clues that must be read during play.

Go to the Public Library.

Mathematics

Take your child to the store with you. Have them weigh items at the grocery store, predict the total, calculate the taxes, compare prices of items and hypothesize why one item may be more expensive than another.

Take your child to the bank and have a conversation with them about the purpose of your visit.

Estimate the distances of the trips you take in the car and compare with the actual mileage.

Do STMATH at home. Sit with your child and ask good questions. Have fun with it.

Make up story problems and solve them. Add humor and crazy twists to your stories. Invite your child to do the same for you.

Play card games.

Cook together following a recipe with measurement.

Learn a musical instrument.

Social Studies

Invite a friend from school over to your house. When children play with others, they learn the give and take of a democracy, they practice social skills and often learn about different ways of doing things and other cultures, perspectives and ways of making decisions.

Have a globe and/or map on display in your home at all times. When places are mentioned on TV, the radio or internet, find them on the globe/map.

Play a quiz game for locating countries, rivers, continents etc. on the globe/map.

Do a google search for a current event. Discuss or debate with your child about this event.

Think of a famous person and do a mini-research about their life. Read it with your child.

Trace your ancestry with your child.

Have your child speak on the phone or Facetime with their grandparents to ask a question about the past.

Science

Go outside.

Go for a walk in a park. Visit a canyon and take a stroll. Go down to the beach for one hour. Play in a park.

Find snails in your yard and mark their back with a Sharpie. Find them another day.

Find an ant trail and watch them.

Play with water in the back or front yard.

Use dirt, leaves and sticks to create meals in a fake restaurant in your backyard.

Do kitchen science.

Physical Education

Play ball, race, climb a tree, stretch, jump rope, pogo stick, ride bikes, go for walks, try a new sport, visit a local park.

Some Internet Resources for Learning

General

  • Open Culture: free cultural and educational media on the web
  • Brain Highways: A fun, educational program to improve learning, focus and behavior

Reading

Remember that a child is never too old to be read to.

  • Reading Eggs – students can sign-in with their class ID
  • Check out ReadKiddoRead, a website designed to help parents select books for their children to read and to read to and with their children.
  • Audio Books
  • Magazines

Math

  • The Khan Academy is a free learning resource that offers videos and lessons for instruction. K-12 Math and biology, physics and chemistry with some finance and history
  • Open Source Math a free interactive math textbook on the web. It is designed for high school but is great for middle school level as well.
  • Open Ed Math is a free middle school math curriculum
  • Math Goodies is a free math help portal featuring interactive lessons, worksheets, and homework help

Social Studies

Positive Discipline

At Innovations Academy we use the philosophy and tools of Positive Discipline in our interactions.
Have you ever realized the impact your response to your child has in the quality of the relationships you have with them?

ParentThink

Parent Education

It is of utmost importance that a profession like parenting be taken seriously. It is the most important job a human adult will do and we deserve to be educated and supported in this role. Just because you don’t get paid for it, doesn’t mean it isn’t important. A parent will change the world of a child and can alter their own with the right information.

Resources for Special Education

For Our 3 day K-2 Student Learning Plans

Parents

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