| Reading:
Monday & Wednesday: Children will bring home a book on Monday. The children
will select a book based on their reading ability. Please read the book
Monday night & Tuesday night. Bring the book back on Wednesday. The childen
will select a new book. Again, please read the book Wednesday night &
Thursday night. Please return the book on Friday. The children will get a
new book the following Monday.
Beginning in January, there will be a writing assignment each Monday.
"How do we do our homework?" is a good question. Hopefully this will help.
Most importantly, please enjoy this time with your child and enjoy the book.
When you first take the book out of the bag, tell your child or have your
child read the title. Talk about the title and what the story might be
about. Do a picture walk which means that before you read any words, you
look at all the pictures (except the last page or two). Discuss what is going
on in each picture. Doing this gives your reader an idea of what words they
might find in the story. During the picture walk, have your reader think
about the characters and what they are doing.
When reading with your child, please encourage your child to use their
reading strategies when they get to a word they don't know. It may be easier
to just tell them the word but when that happens you don't give them the
needed practice to master their ability to decode a word on their own. I
observe how children tackle words when they read to me and it makes me very
happy when I see that they can help themselves.
After reading you can do many things to extend your child's learning.
1. Ask your child to tell you about the story in their own words. In the
classroom they are encouraged to use the following sentence starters:
The story was about... (characters)
The story took place....(setting)
The problem was.... **
The problem was solved whem...
**When talking about the problem, encourage your reader to tell about the
events in the story. These are the important things the characters did.
2. Have your child make a connection from the story to their life, a book
they have already read or a movie they saw. For example, we read the book
Parade by Donald Crews. I asked the children to make a connection to their
life. Many children wrote about going to a parade or watching one on T.V.
"What does this story remind you of?" is a good question to ask.
3. Have your reader draw a picture of what the story was about. In the
classroom, I encourage the children to draw with pencil first, then color it
in. I also tell the children that I should be able to look at their picture
and have a good idea of what the story is about, who the characters are and
where it takes place. The children are reminded to include details.
Math:
Children may get practice sheets on Tuesday & Thursday. Practice sheets are
meant to be just that. Practice. What is on the worksheet is something that
was already taught in class and the directions were already reviewed.
Spelling:
Children may get spelling practice sheets during the week. The children will
practice writing the words, putting them in ABC order, or eventually writing
sentences for each word.
Sound Journal:
We will work on learning new sounds. This will be a direct lesson in which we work on
recognition, association, discrimination, context and application of each new sound.
There will be a follow-up homework assignment for each sound. Each student will
bring home their sound journal. The directions are on each page. Each direction must
be followed.
1. Draw or glue pictures with the sound. Color
2. Write the word correctly and learn to read it. (Help your child to hear & write the
correct sounds. Please, only spell the word for them after they have worked to hear
each sound.
3. Practice writing each sound at the bottom of the page.
Please draw lines for the words to be written on. We did the first page together as a
sample.
Please send the sound journal back the next day. Thanks!
Homework is not meant to be hard and children should be able to complete it
independently (except for reading). Please be sure to check the work and if there are
any errors, please have your child make the corrections. Talking, playing and having
fun together should be a part of every evening. Conversations are a large part in
helping your child develop language. Keep asking questions. Ask about your child's
day. Ask about their friends. And ask about their learning. Keep them talking. If you
let them, they'll share a lot.
If there are ever any homework problems at home, please let me know. Thanks
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