Wild & Rise · Canadian Kindergarten
This is one complete week from the Wild & Rise Kindergarten year, free for you to explore. The real thing, exactly as a family would use it. Take your time.
What this is
Wild & Rise is a full year of Kindergarten, made for Canadian families teaching at home. This page is one week of it, free, so you can see how it really works before deciding anything.
This is a complete week, the same as any in the paid year, not a trimmed-down preview. The full year holds thirty-two weeks like it, along with the supply and book lists, the parent guide, and the companion pieces that hold a year together.
How a week works
Every week begins with a single idea. In this sample week, that idea is your child's name. From there the week branches. The same idea becomes letters and sounds, becomes numbers, becomes a family story, becomes art, becomes the way a body moves through space. By Friday your child has met one idea from five directions and never once felt like they studied the same thing twice.
Underneath it all runs a daily rhythm. The day opens with a Morning Meeting and closes with a reflective circle. In between there are the lessons, time to move, and a long unhurried stretch of Wild Time, which is child-led play that does more for a five-year-old than a stack of worksheets ever could. And once a week the learning turns outward into a small act of care for someone else. That part is called Rise Together, and it is often the part a child remembers.
Built for real days
Real weeks are not tidy, and there is no single right way to run one. To make starting easy, each week comes with ready-made versions and a planner of your own. There is a full week, for when you would rather not plan and simply follow it. There is a lighter week for the stretches when life is loud. And there is a planner you build yourself, for once you have the rhythm and want full control. You will find them all under The Week.
A Kindergarten day is short. An hour or two of gentle, real learning is a full day at this age, and on a hard day far less is still plenty. You cannot fall behind here, because the week bends to your family instead of the other way around. And you do not need a teaching background. Every lesson is written to be opened and taught as it is, with what you need already in it.
For every child at your table
Most families teaching at home have more than one age in the room. Every lesson opens wide enough for all of them, with simple ways to bring a younger one along and ways to stretch an older one further. A three-year-old and a nine-year-old can sit at the same table and both find their place in the same lesson. Your Wildlings learn together, each at their own edge.
Made in Canada
Wild & Rise is built on the Alberta Programs of Study and designed to align with kindergarten learning across Canadian provinces. The alignment lives quietly in the background, ready when you want it for your records and out of the way when you are simply learning together.
What is coming
The full year is thirty-two weeks like this one. Each opens on one anchor idea, with the subjects branching from it, the daily rhythm running underneath, and a Rise Together to close the week outward. Every theme begins with a supply list and a book list, so one trip to the library and one afternoon of gathering can set you up for weeks.
It comes two ways: an interactive version for daily use on a screen, and a clean printable version for the binder. A parent guide walks beside you through the how and the why, so you are never left guessing.
Who made this
I'm Kimberly. I've spent close to twenty years teaching, leading, and learning, advocating for every learner to find their own path to success.
Wild & Rise was built from a place of love, wonder, and years of experience supporting developing minds. It is an extension of my family, here to walk alongside yours through the ups and downs, the crazy weeks and the calm ones, and the beautiful joy of watching our littles light up with the curiosity of the world. I hope you like it.
When you are ready, here is the week.
Wild & Rise · Week 1
How a Wild & Rise day flows. A shape, not a schedule.
The shape of the day
Morning Meeting opens it. Closing Circle closes it. Everything in between finds its own order.
A Wild & Rise day has a shape, not a schedule. Some days the anchor lesson comes first and movement breaks it up later. Some days you start with a walk because everyone needs air. The rhythm is what stays the same. The order is yours. Here is what happens every day, in whatever order fits your real life.
Calendar, counting, a rhyme, a little movement. The same predictable start every morning. It settles a child into the day and tells them learning has begun.
The anchor and its branches. On the first day of the week you will usually do the anchor lesson, the rich one everything grows from. The rest of the week is the shorter branches and the wander days, one or two on any given day. Never all at once, never the same shape twice.
Daily physical activity your child chooses. Not a structured lesson, a body break. At least fifteen to twenty minutes, more on a wiggly day, and it can happen more than once. Your child picks from the menu below. This is where the day makes room for their voice.
Unstructured, child-led play. Indoor or outdoor, whatever the season allows. Not scheduled, not guided. This is where children consolidate everything they are learning and become themselves. Protect it like any other part of the day. It is often the first thing dropped because it can look like nothing is happening. At this age, it is everything.
Reading happens every day. Sometimes inside the anchor lesson, sometimes in Closing Circle, sometimes at bedtime. If a book has not found its way into your day anywhere, find a few minutes to read together before the day ends. Bedtime stories count.
A short reflection and a moment of drawing or writing your child can keep. It tells a child the day had a shape, and that today's shape is complete.
The Move Menu
A daily body break your child gets to choose. Pick what fits the day. Some options wake the body up, some settle it down. Mix them, repeat favourites, follow your child. A ✦ marks the moves that connect to this week's physical education lesson.
To wake the body up
To settle the body down
On a hard day
Morning Meeting, one anchor lesson or one focused activity, Wild Time, a Move Menu pick, and reading together. That is a complete learning day. Give yourself that floor and stop measuring your homeschool against its best days.
The goal this week
Same thing, every day, all week. Routine before skills.
The goal this week is not learning. It's routine. By Friday, your child will know exactly what Morning Meeting is, what comes next, and feel settled in it. Skills come later. This week: the same sequence every day until it feels like home.
What Morning Meeting is
A short, predictable opening. 12–18 minutes every learning day. Calendar, then counting, then a rhyme, then a little movement. The same order every time. By Week 3 it runs on autopilot. That's the whole point.
You need: a simple calendar showing the current month, a weather chart (a whiteboard or piece of paper on the wall works), and your ten frame set-up. Two laminated ten frames and a small container of counters.
The same four steps every morning, in this order:
① Point to today's date. Say it together: "Today is Tuesday, September 9th." ② "What day was yesterday? What will tomorrow be?" ③ Look outside. "What's the weather?" Mark it on the chart. ④ Add today's counter to the ten frame. Count all counters together aloud.
How it builds across the week
"We say the same rhyme every day this week until you know it by heart."
Hickory dickory dock,
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory dickory dock.
Day by day
Nursery rhymes appear in Morning Meeting all year. This one comes back. Learning it now means it's available as a tool later.
"No rules yet. Just move your arm as big as you can."
Day by day
No specific strokes this week. Week 2 introduces tall lines. This week trains the awareness that the arm moves on purpose. That's enough.
Closing Circle mirrors Morning Meeting. It gives the day a shape and tells your child that today is complete. One prompt. A little quiet drawing. A moment to name something good. The same each day until it's a ritual.
Day 1
Draw a self-portrait. This is you on Day 1 of your learning journey. Tell one story about your name. Parent scribes.
Day 2
Draw one letter from your name. Make it big and beautiful. Tell one thing you noticed about names today.
Day 3
Draw something that starts with the first letter of your name. Write that letter next to it.
Day 4
Draw your family. Write (or dictate) how many people. Label each person with their first initial.
Friday
Draw one thing you learned this week. Complete the sentence: "I am good at ___." Save this page. It is the first keepsake of the year.
Friday's Closing Circle is a keepsake. Keep it. It is what this first week looked like, and it will mean something in June when you can see how far your child has come. Reflections like this are made to live in the Learning Journey Journal, the part of Wild & Rise you keep rather than submit.
The Prompt
One question or one invitation. Read it aloud. Let your child sit with it for a moment before responding.
The Drawing
5–7 minutes of quiet drawing in response to the prompt. Parent scribes words if the child wants to add them.
Something Good
Name one good thing from today. The child shares first. It can be tiny. It just has to be real.
Wild & Rise · Week 1 · September
One idea, your child's name, explored from every direction. Three ways to run it.
Reading Together is part of every day. If it does not fit in the day, read before bed or whenever suits you. On a day whose lesson already has a read-aloud, it is folded into that lesson.
For when you would rather not plan. The whole week, laid out and ready to follow, with the anchor opening Monday.
For weeks with commitments. Every branch lesson stays and so does the daily rhythm, with most wander days set aside.
Full control, for once you have the rhythm and want to build the week yourself.
The daily rhythm is a gentle backbone, not a rule
Morning Meeting, a Move Menu pick, Wild Time, Reading Together, and Closing Circle. Each day starts with them, but nothing is locked. Reorder them, move them between lessons, or take a piece out if it does not fit your day. The anchor opens the week, so it starts on Monday. And Reading Together can move to bedtime or any time that works.
Tap a block, then tap a day to drop it in. On a computer you can drag instead.
Wild & Rise · Week 1 · Anchor Lesson
ELA · Phonological Awareness · Writing · Oral Language · 30–40 min · Start here this week
Learning Intention
Today we discover that your name is made of sounds, and that every name carries a story worth telling.
What is phonological awareness? The ability to hear and play with the sounds in spoken language. In the ear, not on the page. Research consistently shows it's one of the strongest predictors of early reading success. The best way to build it is through play, song, and conversation.
What are syllables? The beats inside words. Kim-ber-ly = 3 beats. Ro = 1 beat. Feeling those beats physically. By clapping, tapping, or pushing a counter forward. Is more powerful than any worksheet. The body learns it before the mind can name it.
A note on fine motor: When your child manipulates small letter cards, picks up counters, or traces letters in a tray, they're building the hand strength and finger control that pencil grip depends on.
What You'll Need
Your Wildlings
The Lesson
Read or watch Alma and How She Got Her Name together.
After reading: "Alma has so many names and every one carries a story. Does YOUR name have a story? Who chose it? What does it mean? Does it belong to someone in our family?"
Take your time. Tell the stories together. Some families have rich name stories. Others are discovering them for the first time. Both are exactly the lesson.
"How many names did Alma have? Let's count." (Six.) "How many names do YOU have?" Count first, middle (if any), last.
Write your child's name in large, clear letters on the whiteboard or large paper. Leave it visible for Steps 3 and 4.
Count the letters in your child's first name. Point to each one together. Ask: "Which letter comes first? Last? Do any letters repeat?"
This is letter recognition. Different from the sound work coming in Step 5.
Your child chooses how to work with the letters. Magnet letters, tiles, blocks, or index cards.
Build the name in order. Mix them up. Put them back. Try from memory. Can they do it without looking at the reference?
The free name tracing sheet (linked above) works well here. Trace each letter before building it with materials.
Set up your tray: sand, flour, shaving cream, or use a chalkboard. Child traces their name through the medium with one finger, using the whiteboard name as reference. Repeat 2–3 times if they're willing.
Then invite. Don't require. A first attempt on paper. Any paper today. No lined paper yet.
"You wrote that. Those marks are YOU."
Watch the syllables video first if you have a few minutes (linked above).
"Names are made of sounds and the sounds come in beats. Let's find the beats in your name."
Clap your child's name: "Kim-ber-ly. How many claps? Three!" Use counters: push one forward for each syllable as you say the name slowly. Count what you pushed.
Try your name, siblings, grandparents, pets. Follow their lead.
What to Watch For
We know the story, the letters, and the sounds of our name. Today we go further with new tools.
Name Writing, a New Tool Each Session
Letters and Names
Syllables
Going deeper?
Wild & Rise · Week 1
Five subjects, all growing from this week's anchor. Choose a branch to open its lesson. Each one carries its own Wander Days right below it.
Choose a branch
How Many Letters?
Learning Intention
Numbers are everywhere. Even in our names. Your name has a number, and today we find it.
One-to-one correspondence is the ability to touch one object while saying one number. Many children this age count from memory without matching the count to actual objects. This lesson makes counting physical and meaningful.
Comparing quantities. More than, fewer than, the same as. Is the language of mathematics. We're building it naturally through names your child already knows and cares about.
Numeral formation is separate from letter formation and equally important. Practising the specific numeral that represents your child's name length gives the writing practice meaning.
What You'll Need
Your Wildlings
The Lesson
Point to each letter in your child's name and count together. One touch per letter. "How many letters? Let's write that number." Write the numeral large on paper.
Place a counter under each letter as you count. One counter, one letter.
Write 3–4 family names (or names from Alma). Count the letters in each and write the numeral beside it.
Ask: "Does anyone have MORE letters than you? FEWER? THE SAME?"
Use the words: more than, fewer than, the same as. Say them out loud together.
Arrange the name cards from the name with the fewest letters to the most.
"We put them in ORDER. Shortest to longest, least to most."
Can your child predict where their name will sit before counting?
Practise writing the numeral that matches your name length. Just that one numeral. Parent models formation first. Write it big, small, in different colours.
Optional: write it in the sand tray from the anchor lesson.
What to Watch For
Counting and Comparing
Numbers in the World
Ordering
Going deeper?
Learning Intention
A name isn't just a word. It can be a beautiful object. Today we make our names into art.
Letters are visual objects. This lesson asks your child to look at the shapes inside their own name. The curves, straight lines, diagonals, and open spaces, then turn those shapes into art. It's a different kind of looking than reading or writing.
Process over product. A name filled with dots and stripes is as successful as one with elaborate drawings. The goal is engagement with the letters as visual objects, and making something worth displaying.
What You'll Need
Your Wildlings
The Lesson
Look at the name written on the whiteboard from the anchor lesson.
"What shapes do you see inside the letters? Any curves? Straight lines? Circles? Diagonals?"
Just noticing. Building visual observation before creating.
On large paper, draw each letter very large. At least palm-sized, filling the page. Use a thick marker or dark crayon. Refer to the anchor whiteboard name as a reference.
Leave the insides of each letter empty. That's the canvas for the next step. Parent can guide letter formation if needed, or draw the outlines for younger children.
Fill each letter. The inside spaces. With colour, pattern, or design. Each letter can be different, or all can match. There is no wrong way to do this.
Prompt gently if they get stuck: "What if this letter was full of dots? Or stripes? Or your favourite colour?"
Try different tools if you have them. A marker for bold lines, watercolour washed over crayon, or coloured pencil for detail work.
Find a place on the wall and put it up together. This is their first piece in their learning space.
"That is YOUR name. You made it beautiful."
What to Watch For
New Surfaces and Tools
Letters in the Environment
Going deeper?
Learning Intention
Today we discover where our body is in space, and that it can make any shape we imagine.
Body awareness is knowing where your body parts are and how they move in space. Without having to look at them. It's the foundation of coordination, balance, and eventually handwriting. Body awareness is what lets a child settle into their seat, hold a pencil with ease, and move confidently through a busy room.
Personal space. The invisible "bubble" around your body. Is not just a social skill. Understanding where your body ends and space begins is a spatial concept that supports letter formation and reading direction.
All three FMS domains are present this week: Stability (body shapes, personal space), Locomotor (walking through space without collisions), and Object Control foundations (spatial awareness for future tracking skills).
The name connection is real: Asking a child to make their body into a letter shape requires them to hold a mental image of the letter and translate it into physical form. That cross-domain connection strengthens both movement literacy and early reading.
What You'll Need
Your Wildlings
The Lesson
"Imagine you have a big bubble all around you. Stretching from your fingertips to your toes to the top of your head. That bubble is YOUR space. Move around the room without popping anyone else's bubble."
Walk slowly at first, then a little faster. Can they navigate the space without bumping into furniture, walls, or each other?
Freeze on your signal. "Is your bubble still whole? Good. Your body knows where it is."
Move through the space freely. When you call out a body part, they freeze and point to it, or touch it as fast as they can.
Start easy: "Freeze. Show me your elbow. Your knee. Your shoulder." Then get harder: "Show me the back of your knee. Your collarbone. Your heel."
Follow their lead. If they ask to be the caller, let them. That's the whole game working at its best.
Call out shape words. They make their body into that shape. No wrong answers.
"Wide! Narrow! Tall! Small! Twisted! Round! Flat! Pointy!"
Try combinations: "Wide AND low. Twisted AND tall." Can their body do both at once?
Move between shapes quickly. The transition IS the movement challenge.
"We've been making shapes with our bodies. Now let's make the shapes of the letters in your name."
Start with the first letter. Look at the whiteboard name (from the anchor lesson) if needed. Can they make that shape with just their arms? Their whole body? On the floor?
Work through as many letters as they're interested in. Some will be easy (I, O, L). Some will be wonderfully silly (S, K, Z). All of it counts.
Laugh together. Silly is the point. Silliness lowers the stakes and raises engagement.
What to Watch For
Body Awareness Games
Shapes and Space
Going deeper?
How to use Wander Days
Wander Days aren't assigned. They're available. Drop them into gaps in the week. After lunch, during quiet time, on an afternoon when the anchor lesson didn't happen. Nothing on this list has a prerequisite except interest.
If a Wander Day turns into an hour-long deep dive, let it. That's the whole point. If it gets one sentence of interest and then nothing, that's fine too. The curriculum doesn't penalise curiosity that doesn't pan out.
Wild & Rise · Week 1
The week's learning, turned outward into a small act of care.
What it is
Every week, what we learn turns outward. Knowing something is the beginning. Doing something with it is the point.
Rise Together is the part of every Wild & Rise week where learning leaves the table and reaches someone else. It is small on purpose. A note left for a neighbour, a kindness for a sibling, a gift made by hand. The point is not the size of it. The point is that a child learns, from the very beginning, that what they know is meant to be shared, and that they have something to give.
It takes a few minutes. It happens once across the week, whenever it fits. There is no checklist and no right way to do it. Some weeks it grows naturally out of the anchor lesson. Some weeks you will simply notice a moment and take it. Either way, it is how Wild & Rise quietly builds a child who looks outward.
✦ Rise Together this week
This week everything grew from your child's own name. So this week, the learning turns outward through someone else's. Write another person's name beautifully and leave it somewhere they will find it. A sibling, a grandparent, a neighbour, a friend. Let your child decorate it, colour it, make it special. A name is the first gift any of us is given. This week, your child gives one back.
How it connects
The anchor taught your child that a name is made of sounds and letters worth knowing. Rise Together takes that same care and points it at someone they love. Same learning, turned outward.
You've seen one week
Thirty-two weeks like this one. Six subjects woven around one anchor concept each week. Built on the Alberta Programs of Study and designed to align with kindergarten learning across Canadian provinces. Wild Wanderers hear first and get the early-bird discount on the Full Homeschool Year Bundle.
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