Number 1: Read, Read, Read
PAKRAT - Parents and Kids Reading Together
Please read a minimum of one picture or one chapter of a book to your child everyday! Reading together increases your child's vocabulary. Vocabulary is key to learning to read, write, and excel in all academic areas! It is the single most helpful homework item you can do with your child! This should happen seven days a week, 365 days per year! Next to shelter, food, and water this is your child's most basic academic need! If it is all you can accomplish, which for many working parents (including me) is reality, do this!
Number 2: Have Your Child Read
Your child can read to you, a stuffed animal, a sibling, a pet or themselves. The book should be fairly easy for them, so there success is far greater than their challenges. They should rarely struggle with a word or comprehension. Rereading the same books over and over is OKAY! It builds fluency. If your child selects a more challenging book and get stuck on words, try encouraging them to:
Number 3: Make High Frequency Flash Cards
You were asked to purchase index/notecards. Use the notecards to make flashcards. Your child can read the words. Then orally spell the words. Finally, write the words. Start with the 1st 100 words (attached). Add one word per day. Watch for a weekly newsletter. The newsletter will tell you which words your child’s group is learning at school. If these words are not already in your deck, add them. Writing words can, but does not need to be completed with paper and pencil. Chalk on the driveway, a finger in the sand, paint, shaving cream on the shower wall, magnets on the fridge, a Magna Doodle in the car, etc. By changing the ways your child studies, we increase engagement and make learning developmentally appropriate. Research shows that by connecting learning to different colors, sounds, and feelings, our brain develops additional connections to the learning. The more connections, the higher the retention (Carey, 2014). Retaining a large number of high frequency words increases your child’s fluency and comprehension.
Number 4: My Homework Math Worksheet!
There is worksheet for each lesson we complete at school). This will be random, varying from 0 to 5 worksheets per week depending on whether we are working on a national standard, MN standard, or fact fluency. Your child should be able to complete the worksheet with just a little support from you, as we will have completed a similar sheet in school that day! If the week days get too busy, catch up on the weekend! Complete as soon as your child can. Then return.
Phonics Words!
A sheet will come home with the newsletter most weeks. It will look like spelling words, but there is not a Friday test. The program builds your child’s ability to group words based on their rules. Remembering the rules, not memorizing the words, helps increase retention of the spellings. Read, sort, recite, and /or write. Similar to number two. Tests happen at the end of rule clusters. With daily work at school, and your support at home, your child’s spelling should improve in a developmentally appropriate rate / pattern.
Addition and Subtraction Facts!
The newsletter will update you on the skills we are working on. Making your own flashcards with notecards/index cards, purchasing flashcards, buying a workbook, finding worksheets online, or finding an online tool/app is encouraged.
PAKRAT - Parents and Kids Reading Together
Please read a minimum of one picture or one chapter of a book to your child everyday! Reading together increases your child's vocabulary. Vocabulary is key to learning to read, write, and excel in all academic areas! It is the single most helpful homework item you can do with your child! This should happen seven days a week, 365 days per year! Next to shelter, food, and water this is your child's most basic academic need! If it is all you can accomplish, which for many working parents (including me) is reality, do this!
Number 2: Have Your Child Read
Your child can read to you, a stuffed animal, a sibling, a pet or themselves. The book should be fairly easy for them, so there success is far greater than their challenges. They should rarely struggle with a word or comprehension. Rereading the same books over and over is OKAY! It builds fluency. If your child selects a more challenging book and get stuck on words, try encouraging them to:
- Go back and reread
- Think about what word would make sense
- Get their mouth ready, make the beginning sound (not sound out the entire word), and match the picture to the sound
- Look for word parts / chunks they know (many words include shorter words at, am, it, etc.)
- Skip the word, read on, then go back to reread.
- Sound out the entire word
Number 3: Make High Frequency Flash Cards
You were asked to purchase index/notecards. Use the notecards to make flashcards. Your child can read the words. Then orally spell the words. Finally, write the words. Start with the 1st 100 words (attached). Add one word per day. Watch for a weekly newsletter. The newsletter will tell you which words your child’s group is learning at school. If these words are not already in your deck, add them. Writing words can, but does not need to be completed with paper and pencil. Chalk on the driveway, a finger in the sand, paint, shaving cream on the shower wall, magnets on the fridge, a Magna Doodle in the car, etc. By changing the ways your child studies, we increase engagement and make learning developmentally appropriate. Research shows that by connecting learning to different colors, sounds, and feelings, our brain develops additional connections to the learning. The more connections, the higher the retention (Carey, 2014). Retaining a large number of high frequency words increases your child’s fluency and comprehension.
Number 4: My Homework Math Worksheet!
There is worksheet for each lesson we complete at school). This will be random, varying from 0 to 5 worksheets per week depending on whether we are working on a national standard, MN standard, or fact fluency. Your child should be able to complete the worksheet with just a little support from you, as we will have completed a similar sheet in school that day! If the week days get too busy, catch up on the weekend! Complete as soon as your child can. Then return.
Phonics Words!
A sheet will come home with the newsletter most weeks. It will look like spelling words, but there is not a Friday test. The program builds your child’s ability to group words based on their rules. Remembering the rules, not memorizing the words, helps increase retention of the spellings. Read, sort, recite, and /or write. Similar to number two. Tests happen at the end of rule clusters. With daily work at school, and your support at home, your child’s spelling should improve in a developmentally appropriate rate / pattern.
Addition and Subtraction Facts!
The newsletter will update you on the skills we are working on. Making your own flashcards with notecards/index cards, purchasing flashcards, buying a workbook, finding worksheets online, or finding an online tool/app is encouraged.