One of the most important things that you can do to prepare your child for
kindergarten is to read to them. Here are some pointers:
1. When reading to your child, use your finger to point to the words as you
read them.
2. Discuss the characters and setting of the story.
3. Point out common words such as: the, a, go, to, etc and ask your child to
look for the word somewhere else on the page.
4. When reading one of your child's favorite stories, stop and have your
child fill in the next word in the story.
5. Have your child point out environmental print when they see it. Words such
as stop, Cheerios, Target, exit are words that your child will recognize.
6. Have your child summarize the story for you.
All of these skills will help get your child ready to read.
In class in ILA we have begun learning the fundamentals of writing words and
sentences. We have a writing folder in class that we use to write and
illustrate our ideas.
We have also begun using our Words Their Way program. The children are
learning to sort pictures according to different attributes. This teaches
them sounds, rhyming and other pre-reading skills.
We are starting to use our sight word rings. Please review these words each
night with your child. We will review them every few days in class. Please do
not send the word ring back to school each day. When your child masters the
set of ten on the ring, we will send home another set of ten to add to the
ring at home.
