This year's "homework program" will consist of ...a focus on reading and printing/writing. Although I am not tracking homework progress, the expectation is that students read at home regularly (which includes any of the following: practising letter sounds, practising heart words learned in class, being read to) and practise printing with proper pencil grip.
When your child is writing at home, please remind them to print from top to bottom (e.g. for an"l", your pencil starts at the top and you draw going down). Also encourage them to apply the sounds represented by letters that they were taught in class. Some examples of purposeful writing are: making the family shopping list, his/her Saturday chore list, printing rhyming words like cat, sat, mat, hat, etc., keep a journal of important events, make a comic with speech bubbles.
When your child is writing at home, please remind them to print from top to bottom (e.g. for an"l", your pencil starts at the top and you draw going down). Also encourage them to apply the sounds represented by letters that they were taught in class. Some examples of purposeful writing are: making the family shopping list, his/her Saturday chore list, printing rhyming words like cat, sat, mat, hat, etc., keep a journal of important events, make a comic with speech bubbles.
Your child is on an incredible journey right now and one of the adventures is learning to read. With new studies/research coming out in the science of reading and a new language curriculum, St. James is adding a stronger focus on the "sounds" when we speak which is represented by letters in writing/reading of writing. As I introduce new sounds in class, I will be updating parents on a weekly basis of what they are. There will also be words that don't follow the rules that we will be calling "heart words", because students just have to know them by heart. Those will be communicated to parents as well as they come up.
Click the button to go to read up on the new language expectations for you child.
Need "just right" books for your child?
You will soon be able to access your child's RAZ-Kids account. I will send home password info the first week of school.
Raz-Kids offers many "just right" leveled readers that will support the practise of your child's reading skills.
Each night your child may choose one of the following ways to read a book with you:
1. Listen to you read the book aloud.
2. Help you read the book.
3. Read the book to you.
Early in the school year, children may have you read and then move towards reading with assistance with a chosen book. If a parent is reading the selection, you may ask your child to identify particular letters or words on the page, to anticipate what comes next, or to comment on the story.
* Please read the following page for guidelines and tips when reading with your child.
Reading is meant to be a fun reading activity. Before you or your child reads a book, some pre-reading strategies are useful. The following guidelines will help your young reader feel happy and successful:
1) Choose a quiet time and place to read.
2) Read the title and look at the cover together. Talk about what the book could be about, based on the information.
3) Take a ‘picture walk’ through the book. Flip through the pages of the book and look at the illustrations to gain information about the story.
4) The ‘picture walk’ is the perfect time to introduce tricky names and vocabulary. You need not point out the challenging word, but instead use it in a sentence about the picture. For example, “Look at the crane in the picture. It is used to lift heavy things when building”.
5) Go back to the beginning and help your child to read the book, allowing him/her as much assistance or independence as he/she needs. Try these ideas when your child gets stuck on a word:
* Wait for a while so the child can think about it.
* Remind the child to look at the letter, make the sounds (stretch it) and then blend the sounds together.
* Encourage the child to go back and reread the line again.
*Ask the child if he/she can recognize any smaller words within a longer word.
6) If the child becomes tired or frustrated offer to finish reading the book yourself so that the remainder of the book can be enjoyed.
7) Praise and encourage your child for his/her efforts and successes.
A Note to Parents Regarding Reading With Your Child -Advice for later on in Grade One as reading ability develops :
Reference: Priscilla Lynch, Ph.D. New York University, Educational Consultant
The support of your attention and praise is absolutely crucial to your child’s continuing efforts to learn to read.
Raz-Kids offers many "just right" leveled readers that will support the practise of your child's reading skills.
Each night your child may choose one of the following ways to read a book with you:
1. Listen to you read the book aloud.
2. Help you read the book.
3. Read the book to you.
Early in the school year, children may have you read and then move towards reading with assistance with a chosen book. If a parent is reading the selection, you may ask your child to identify particular letters or words on the page, to anticipate what comes next, or to comment on the story.
* Please read the following page for guidelines and tips when reading with your child.
Reading is meant to be a fun reading activity. Before you or your child reads a book, some pre-reading strategies are useful. The following guidelines will help your young reader feel happy and successful:
1) Choose a quiet time and place to read.
2) Read the title and look at the cover together. Talk about what the book could be about, based on the information.
3) Take a ‘picture walk’ through the book. Flip through the pages of the book and look at the illustrations to gain information about the story.
4) The ‘picture walk’ is the perfect time to introduce tricky names and vocabulary. You need not point out the challenging word, but instead use it in a sentence about the picture. For example, “Look at the crane in the picture. It is used to lift heavy things when building”.
5) Go back to the beginning and help your child to read the book, allowing him/her as much assistance or independence as he/she needs. Try these ideas when your child gets stuck on a word:
* Wait for a while so the child can think about it.
* Remind the child to look at the letter, make the sounds (stretch it) and then blend the sounds together.
* Encourage the child to go back and reread the line again.
*Ask the child if he/she can recognize any smaller words within a longer word.
6) If the child becomes tired or frustrated offer to finish reading the book yourself so that the remainder of the book can be enjoyed.
7) Praise and encourage your child for his/her efforts and successes.
A Note to Parents Regarding Reading With Your Child -Advice for later on in Grade One as reading ability develops :
Reference: Priscilla Lynch, Ph.D. New York University, Educational Consultant
The support of your attention and praise is absolutely crucial to your child’s continuing efforts to learn to read.
- If your child is learning to read and asks for a word, give it immediately so that the meaning of the story is not interrupted. After the story is completed, take time to go back and look at the letters and sounds that make up the word that he/she was stuck on .
- On the other hand, if your child initiates the act of sounding out, do not intervene.
- If your child is reading along and makes what is called a miscue, listen for the sense of the miscue. Ex. If the word ‘road’ is substituted for the word ‘street’, for instance no meaning is lost. Don’t stop the reading for a correction. After the reading is done, go back and show your child that they did a wonderful job of predicting the word because they were making sense of the story as the reading happened. Then draw attention to the letters and sounds of the miscued word to reinforce looking at sounds and letters are an important next step.
- If the miscue makes no sense (for ex. ‘horse’ for ‘house’) ask your child to reread the sentence because you are not sure you understand what has just been read.
- Above all else, enjoy your child’s growing command of print and make sure you give lots of praise. You are your child’s first teacher- and the most important one. Praise from you is critical for further risk-taking and learning.