Second quarter will be over at the end of January. During Winter Break, when
your children are home a little more than usual, would be a great time to
practice some of those skills targeted for the next reporting period. Kids
learn best when the learning is attached in a meaningful way to every day
activities. Practicing at home or when running errands is a great way to
reinforce skills. To guide your practice I have included some of those
targets and suggested activities. These activities are only suggestions. I
am sure you have many wonderful ideas yourself..
Numbers and Counting
Rote Counting to 50 – By the end of the year kids are expected to count to 100
without skipping any numbers. So, by the end of this quarter they should be
able to count to 50. Counting how long it takes to get from one destination
to another while traveling in a car is one way to work on this skill.
Writing and Identifying Numerals 0-20 – By the end of January kids should be
able to write and identify the numerals 0-20. A variation from printing them
with writing tools is to use a finger to draw in salt, flour, pudding or
shaving cream. By then end of the year, they need to write and identify to
31.
Letters and Sounds
Identifying Upper and Lower Case Letters – By the end of third quarter kids
should know 100% of both upper and lower case letters. By this reporting
period your child should know at least 75%. It is fun to do letter searches
while driving in the car. You can also walk around the house searching for
letters. Of course there is also the old stand by flash cards.
Letter Sounds – By the end of the year students are expected to know all 26
letter sounds and use that knowledge to sound out simple words and short
nonsense words. We concentrate on the short vowel sounds this year. Letter
sounds are easily reinforced while reading books. It can also be fun to
choose a letter and walk around the house searching for objects that start
with that letter. Cutting out letters from newspapers and magazines and
putting them together to make simple words is a great activity for kids who
know most of there phonetic sounds.
Sight Words – I have attached a list of our sight words. Feel free to cut
them apart and use them as flash cards. A variation would be to look for
some of these words when reading with your child. If your child knows all 23
sight words and you would like a more extensive list, let me know. Reading
color words is another useful skill.
Writing
Name Writing – Name should start with an upper case letter and the remainder
of the letters should be lower case. It spices practice up when you pretend
you are signing checks or autographs.
Drawing Shapes – The six shapes that we target are circle, square, triangle,
rectangle and diamond.
Writing Letters – We don’t expect letters to be perfect but at least
legible. Kids enjoy “taking orders” and making “grocery lists” in play
situations.
Enjoy Your Break!
