MSP - Measurement of Student Progress is Washington State's testing of all 3rd - 10th graders. 3rd graders are tested in Math and Reading. 4th graders in Math, Reading and Writing. 5th graders in Math, Reading, and Science. We want to do our best to show all we have learned since Kindergarten on the MSP. The best way parents can help students succeed is to make sure your student get lots of sleep each night, and eats healthy foods. Encouraging your child to do his or her best is also important. We provide snacks each testing day and gum to chew while testing. This is something special for MSP test takers!
Factoid: Kindergarten-First-Second Grade students can access "Ticket to Read" from home to practice reading skill! Students in grades 1-5 have access to IXL.com to practice math skills for their grade level.
Ways to practice school skills at home:
Cooking : have students help measure and count for you. Work on fractions while cooking, double a recipe (or cut a recipe in half) and have students figure out the new amount of ingredients.
Writing: have students make lists for you, write thank you notes for gifts, write letters to grandparents, write goals and dreams and steps to achieve them
Reading : have students read to younger siblings, or older siblings, or to their favorite teddy bear. Get some recorded books from the Lakewood Library and have child follow along in the book.
Counting: spoons in the kitchen, socks in the laundry basket, shoes in the house, anything you can count can give your child extra practice. Also make a game for in the car - driver says a number and child must tell you the number before it and the number after it (example 39 --child should say 38 comes before 39, and 40 comes after 39) Goes into the hundreds in first and second grade.
Money: students should begin to identify coins and values in first grade, work with counting change in second grade and be fluent with money for the rest of their lives. Hand your child a few coins and have them tell you the value (or identify the coins.) Have older students figure out how much change they should get back for purchases (I give a $5 bill, but the items cost $3.85, how much change should I get back?)
Time: Kindergarten and First graders should be aware of time, what clocks are and why we keep track of time. Second graders and older should be able to tell time on an anolog clock (a clock with hands). Fourth and Fifth graders should also work on schedules and elapsed time. Show them bus schedules, or movie times and have them figure out when you would need to leave home to catch the bus or get to the movie on time. Have them figure out how much time it takes to do things so they can plan backwards to get places on time. (It takes me 30 minutes to get ready for school, it takes me 5 minutes to walk to the bus stop, if I want to get to the bus on time, I should get up at what time?)
Math Facts: when children memorize their math facts, it opens up their working memory to learn new things. Once math facts become automatic, it helps when solving multi-step problems, and learning new math skills.
Kindergarten
-- work on reading numerals so they are automatic. (Your child sees 76 and automatically says seventy-six). Work on counting to 100.
1st grade begin working on basic addition and subtractions facts up to 10 ( 5 + 4 = 9, 8 - 3=5)
2nd grade
- work on basic addition and subtraction facts to 20. Knowing that 7 + 8 is always going to be 15, or that 13 - 5 is 8, will help with math in future years (2 digit multiplication, long division)
3rd grade memorize all multiplication facts for one digit numbers ( 1 x 1 = 1 all the way to 9 x 9 = 81)
4th & 5th grade -
Multiplication facts to 10 X 10, and the related division facts should be memorized. This helps with multi-digit multiplication and long division, fractions, decimals, and algebra!