Recently, a list of Kindergarten Sight Words came home. These are the words which the students are expected to know how to read quickly, or "on sight" by the end of Kindergarten. You can help your child to begin learning them at home by making flashcards with the words and playing fun games with them, like Memory Match or Go Fish. You can help your child sort the word cards, i.e. put all the words that start with the same letter together. Right now in class, we are reviewing/reteaching the names of alphabet letters, but we will be starting on sight words very soon.
Environmental Print is another topic we have been learning in class. Its a fancy term that just means "words all around". This week as you are in your home or out and about with your child, look for words that your child may alread know how to read. Good examples are names of cereals, stores, or restaurants; or common signs, such as Exit, Stop, or One Way. For even more learning fun, check out the Environmental Print video that I created for the kids. It's under the Fun Stuff tab above. Over the school year, we will be creating lots of class books and videos and sharing them in Fun Stuff so that you can watch at home too.
In Math, we are learning all kinds of ways to sort as well as how to figure out the sorting rule ("How did we sort?"). There are so many ways your child can practice sorting at home, including helping with the laundry, picking up toys and putting clean dishes away. Our Chapter 1 test on sorting is coming up this week, so help your child get in all the practice you can.
Here are some homework tips for you:
--Restrict work sessions to 15-20 minutes at a time.
--Sit with your child at homework time and be available to help, but don't do the work for them!!! If your child has difficulty holding a pencil to form letters, you may want to have her tell you the answers and write down her words for now. However, all drawings must be completed by the students for full credit.
--Keep work sessions fun if you can--I know homework time can be really tough, especially for little ones. Maybe offer an incentive for working hard on homework, like getting to go out and play.
That's all for now! Have a great week everyone,