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| Helpful Hints for Parents |
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Many of these suggestions come from workshops, my talented colleagues, or my own experience as a parent. I hope they are beneficial.
Kindergarten may be a huge adjustment for your child. Depending upon the length of their preschool day and the number of children in their previous classroom, it may be a little overwhelming. Expect your child to be tired and maybe a little emotional the first few weeks of school. They may even want to take a nap when they come home from school. This will all even out as they adjust to their new environment.
Help them by keeping as much to a routine as possible. A good night's sleep and a good breakfast is invaluable. Due to our early start time, your child may not want to eat a big breakfast. Please send a nutritional snack they can eat a morning recess. I've added an extra five minutes so they have time to eat. |
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| Establishing Routines |
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Every family and every child is different so you will have to find what works best for you. Here are a couple of ideas that will hopefully make life easier for you.
1. Choose clothing the night before so there are no arguments in the morning.
2. Make sure your child puts everything in their backpack they will need for the next day. This will be especially important with homework.Try to always keep the backpack in the same place for the next day.
3. Decide ahead of time whether they are buying lunch or taking their lunch.If they are buying their lunch and do not have a lunch ticket, be sure to put their money in an envelope clearly marked with their name, amount, and teacher's name.
4. Discuss with them how they will be going home. If there is a change of plans, please send me a note. |
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| Homework |
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Initially,Kindergarteners are usually very excited about Homework. This may or may not change as the year goes on. If you establish guidelines and routines, your life will be much easier.Homework begins with the study of the Letter/Sound of the Week. An Alphabet Book will come home on Monday with die cut upper and lower case letters for the letter that week.Directions are on the inside cover, but basically your child needs to draw and cut out pictures that begin with that letter. Students are encouraged to label the pictures as they are able and evidentually they may write a sentence to go with the pictures. This is due back to following day. They will be shared with the class throughout the week. Homework Briefcases will come home every Thursday. They will include a simple activity and a book to practice reading. Briefcases need to be returned by Monday with the book and homework activity enclosed. The child will then read the book individually to the teacher or parent helper.
In addition, students will have Monthly Reading Logs and AR Reading Sheets.
The Monthly Reading Logs are required. Parents need to read at least ten books to their child during the month and ask questions to reinforce comprehension. These are turned in at the end of each month beginning in September. The time spent reading these books can then be recorded on the AR Reading Sheet. These are turned in whenever they are full. Seven of these sheets are required to earn an AR Reading Medal. Students will be recognized at one of our Spirit Assemblies.
Let's see if our entire class can earn an AR Reading Medal!
Here are some things to think about in regards to good homework practices.
1. Decide when is the best time for your child to do their homework. Some children need some down time after school, others want to get right to it.
2. Find a good location for your child to work.It may be a desk in their room or it may be at the kitchen counter.Sometimes it may even have to be in the car on the way to soccer practice, but this is less than ideal.
3.Homework in Kindergarten is designed to have parent involvement. Your child should do as much on their own as possible, but I need you to be a resource and support them. Some homework requires an adult to be an active participant. Please look over their work and have them correct anything you think necessary.Homework should always be completed in pencil unless directions state otherwise. It should be completed neatly and always have their name on it. Make sure they put it back in their Homework Folder and back in their backpack. Please do not put it in there for them. This will help them be successful in learning responsiblity.
4. Make Homework a priority. This sends your child a message you feel school is important and valued.
4. If for some reason Homework turns into a battle, you can use me as the bad guy. Tell your child, "You can either do your homework with me or miss recess and do your homework at school during recess. Mrs. Dicket knows how smart you are and she will be very disappointed you have to miss recess." I will then follow up at school. If this doesn't work, we do have a Responsiblity Room where children can complete assignments during lunch recess. Hopefully, we won't have to use either tactic.
5. Praise your child often for their hard work and all they are learning. |
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| Reading |
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Learning to read is a top priority in first grade.Every effort possible will be made to ensure your child is a strong reader leaving first grade. Just like being proficient at music, dance, or sports; practice is a key component.
1. Read with your child daily. Reading to your child is still important even though your child is learning to read. By reading out loud you are modeling expression, vocabulary, and fluency.
2. Get excited over books. Talk to your child about some of your childtime favorite books. Introduce them to your child.
3. Value books. Give them as special treats.
4. Before reading the story, look at all the pictures. Have your child predict what the story will be about. Make up your own story to go with the pictures.
5. Help your child sound out the words. Then have them sound out the words.
6. Help them learn their Sight Words. This will aid with fluency and cut down on frustration. |
| Sight Words/Word Wall Words |
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| Sight Words/Word Wall Words |
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Popcorn Words are simply the first 25 Sight Words. We just use that catchy phrase because the these words "pop up" all the time. We will add about two words per week. This doesn't sound like much, but it mounts up quickly.
I will hand out our Popcorn Bags at Parent Conferences. I will then send home the Popcorn Words on Popcorn shapes weekly. Have your child cut them out and add them to their Popcorn Bag to practice.
Some children will surpass this expectation. They will be given additional sets of words. I have had some children learn all 300 in kindergarten!
I will do a quick assessment at the beginning of the year and inform you of the results at Conferences. Children with strong visual memory usually don't have any trouble learning these words. The following suggestions are for children that really have to work at mastering the sight words.
1.Say the letters out loud as you read the word. Then say the word at once. Repeat this several times.
2.Clap, jump, snap as you say the letters of the word. Then say the word at once.The physical activity helps engage the brain to learn the word. We have pom poms at school and often "cheer" the words.
3.Write the words in a salt tray or in shaving cream. Use any tactile medium that will help stimulate the brain.
4. Use magnetic letters to spell the words. Sometimes you can even find special foam letters that cling in the bathtub. |
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| Fine Motor Skills |
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Fine motor skills include cutting, coloring, handwriting, any manipulation of the fingers.
Here are some suggestions to strengthen these fine motor muscles.
1. Purchase a pad of tracing paper and a coloring book of interest to your child. Have your child trace over their favorite pictures. Coloring them is an extra bonus.
2. Silly Putty is great! Make sure they are pinching and molding the putty with their fingers. I even allow children to keep this in their desk to use when work is finished.
3. Use Wikki Sticks (waxed string that is sold commercially)to form letters and make designs.Have them grasp the string by pinching it between the thumb and index finger.
4. Pick up and store five pennies, buttons, etc. in the same hand. Then with the five pennies in the palm of the hand, "squirrel" one penny at a time and move to thumb and index finger and replace onto the table, continue until all pennies are on the table. This helps in developing isolated finger control.
5. Spread pennies or buttons out on a flat surface. Pick them up using your finger and thumb.
6. Coloring is great practice as long as your child uses small motions with their fingers and not large motions using their elbow.
7. Operation is a wonderful game using fine motor, but the noise may drive you crazy. |
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| Math |
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Math is probably one of the easiest and most fun skills to practice.
1. Talk about money and cost when you are the grocery store or restaurant.
2. Play board games as a family.
3. Play War with a deck of cards. (You don't even have to have a full deck!) Shuffle the cards evenly. You lay down a card and your child lays down a card. Whoever has the highest card gets the set. Continue until someone runs out of cards.
4. Sum It Up - Shuffle the cards. Divide them evenly. You lay down a card and your child lays down a card. Whoever adds the two cards together correctly gets the set. Continue until one of you runs out of cards.
5. What's The Difference - Play it the same way as Sum It Up, but subtract.
6. Give math facts in the car. Let them use their fingers to come up with the answer.
7. Beat The Clock - This game is for children who already have a concrete understanding of addition and are ready for something a little more challenging.This is a revised version of the game we play at school. Your child will need some addition or subtraction flash cards. Use whatever you are concentrating on at the time. Sort the cards into groups of +1, +2, +3. Eventually you will mix them all up. Set a timer for one minute. See how many flash cards your child can say in one minute. Do this daily and you will be amazed how fast your child will master the facts.(They are allowed to take the flash cards and study them on their own.) |
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