Encourage your child to talk about each day of school. Instead of asking "What did you do today?", which often gets a shrug of the shoulders and a "Nothing"....ask "Which friends did you play with today or what story did Mrs. Wells read to you today?" Ask which centers he/she played in and what was his/her favorite part of the day. These are often questions we ask each other at the end of our day in our Class Meeting. Your child may want to draw a picture of something he/she did that day in school and dictate to you what he/she wants to say about the picture. Write the words as he/she says it. Then your child can begin to see his/her words in print. To develop skills in identifying and comparing shapes: have your child draw a circle, square, triangle, rectangle. How many sides does a square have? How many angles? How many points? What can you tell me about all the sides of a square? How many sides does a triangle have? Compare a triangle and a square....how are they alike? How are they different? Make different sizes towers from blocks....line them up from shortest to tallest....how much taller is one than the other? Count and compare. *******Ideas to help your child learn sight words**************************** Make flash cards of sight words or letters and pictures that begin with those sounds. Play memory or concentration with the flash cards. Play sight word bingo!! Use magnetic letters on the refrigerator and have your child put them in ABC order, spell his/her name, family members' and friends' names, Learn to read sight words: he she me I you it is in on and a the go to not will my we am for that of was for are as with his at be this have from see like We call these words our "No Excuse" words. Once they have been introduced to the class and put up on the Word Wall, there is no excure for us not to spell them correctly!!! red yellow blue green brown orange black purple pink white sunny cloudy rainy windy snowy hot warm chilly Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday We will be putting all of our names up on our Word Wall, to help us learn to read and write our friends' names. I will send a list home for you to help your child learn these names. Listen to your child say the days of the week, months of the year, seasons of the year!!!! How is winter different from summer? From fall? From spring? What season are we having now? How do you know? Create a "Writing Box" for your child. Include the "tools" for writing: a variety of paper, markers, crayons, gel pens, pencils, scissors, glue sticks, hole punch, stapler, stickers, stencils and let them make pictures, stories, books. Bring their creations to school to share. You will be amazed at their progress in reading and writing this year!! Make regular weekly trips to the public library...allow your child to have his/her own library card. A good guide...allow your child to check out as many books as years they are old!! Have a special place to keep the books and return them each week!! Your child will also bring home a library book from Highcroft each week. Please make a special time to read this book to and with your child. Then return the book in order for your child to get another book on our next trip to the Library. READ...READ....READ....READ....READ....READ....every night!!!