| WELCOME!
Thank you for reinforcing skills at home--positive parental involvement
helps children get excited about learning! Keep up the good work! Be on the
lookout for nightly purple folders Monday through Thursday. Each folder has
students' nightly bookbag and weekly practice packet. Here are some
additional skills to reinforce:
Phonemic Awareness Fitness: We are practicing phoneme segmentation-breaking
words apart into their sounds. For example, "frog" has four sounds- /f/-/r/-
/o/-/g/, while "fish" has three sounds-/f/-/i/-/sh/. We will practice with
words having 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 sounds! We sometimes break apart words "like
a robot would talk", very s-l-ow-l-y, focusing on stopping briefly after
each sound. We are also working hard on deleting and substituting sounds in
words. For example, "What is 'cup' without the /c/? Up!" and "Replace /c/
in 'cup' with /p/--what is the new word? Pup!"
Phonics Focus: Students should be familiar with all letters and their
sounds. We are currently practicing sounding out words with 3-4 letters,
such as mask, web, fog, trap, etc.
Reading Readiness: Reading with your child nightly is one of the most
important things you can do to improve his/her reading abilities. Parents
can also use this read-aloud time to model skills such as tracking (placing
finger under letters/words as you read) or identifying words/letters. Also,
practice reading phrases using sight words such as a, my, the, I, see, that,
they, said, have, for, of, we, has, was, here, what, are.
HELP STUDENTS RE-READ CLASS BOOKS EVERY NIGHT! These rhyming, decodable, or
predictable books will help students develop reading skills, and they are an
integral part of our daily literacy routine. Don't forget to focus on those
sight words! Remind students that these are words we "just have to know"
rather than sounding out!
Writing: Our writing time focuses both on the Writer's Workshop and
handwriting. It is very important to help your child write their thoughts
down on paper in sequence while stopping to sound out each word.
Handwriting practice can now move forward from letters in isolation to
practicing "shadow writing" (copying correctly written text) new sight words
and decodable sentences.
Math Mania: Practice identifying #1-30, counting 1-100, identifying shapes,
and continuing a pattern ( * * ^ * * ^ * * ___). You can help your child
review telling time to the hour. We are now practicing simple addition and
subtraction with objects in our classroom.
You can reinforce this at home by asking children to help count/add plates
to the table, vegetables to a bowl, etc. These simple at-home activities
will leave a lasting impact on your child's path to acquiring fundamental
math skills.
My World and Me: Help your child learn to tie his/her shoes, recognize and
write his/her name (first and last), and practice saying home phone number
and address. We have practiced calling 9-1-1 in class, and it was wonderful
to hear students speaking with confidence to the "operator" (Ms. Hays) about
how to find their homes/who their parents are in the event of an emergency.
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