Work at Home

GREAT JOB families in supporting your child with his/her number homework over the last week and a half!  Each day, we have been learning about a new number and the extra practice at home helps support the learning we did in school that day.  Every child has brought back his/her homework the very next day!  WOW-WEE!  During morning meeting, we go through all the papers and each child stands up when I check off his/her homework.  Then we do a quick celebration.  What responsible learners we have!

On Friday, I sent home a note regarding the poetry we learn in the classroom, attached to your child's first poem.

In this nursery rhyme, we discussed rhyming words.  First, we read the poem together, discussing its meaning, pointing to each word, and listening to the sounds in the poem.  We also practiced clapping on the rhyming words in our next few readings.  As each Kindergartner illustrated his/her own copy of the poem, I walked around to each table to help them find and highlight the rhyming words in the poem.

We will do many shared reading poems like this throughout the school year.  We often read the poem multiple times throughout a week.

When your child comes home with all this hard work, here is what you can do to support his/her reading habits:

1. Read and enjoy the poem together! :)  Model to your child how to point to each word as you read it together.  Then, help your child read it by pointing to each word (guide his/her hand or have him/her follow your finger).  Talk about the poem and its meaning!
2. Look at special words in the poem.  This may include rhyming words, sight words (we will get into more soon), or word family words (later in the year).
3. Keep all of the poems he/she collects throughout the school year in a special folder or binder that you can return to often to read together.  By the end of the school year, your child will have a collection of poems he/she can "read" by memory.  Remember, the important part is pointing to each word!  This will also help your child begin to recognize and read sight words (or commonly read words).

Enjoy this process and please let me know if you have any questions!