How to Do Reading and Writing at Home
On the homework packets you may have noticed that I write what letters and words we have learned so far. Those letters of the alphabet are: Mm, Aa, Ss, Pp. While most of you have children who know many more letter than just these 4 here are a couple of ideas you can do at home to help your child really "get it".
For those children who are struggling with remembering these letters you can have them practice writing the letters in different ways. For example, always writing the letters on a piece of paper is not fun but when you give them a special marker, a glitter pen, a glue pen...or make an ordinary pencil sound exciting (I have a special pencil that I got for being good in the assembly!) then it makes writing so much more fun! Another way to help your child is to get a flat pan and pour some rice or salt in it. Have them use their finger to make letters while you are cooking! So with that in mind here is a quick list of ways to help your child learn the letters:
1. write using a special pen, pencil, marker, etc.
2. Form the letters in rice or salt.
3. Use glue to make the letter and have them glue beans or small squares of paper to the letter.
4. Focus on their name! Kids love to talk about themselves...quite frankly, who doesn't? lol
5. Talk about the letters in their name and have them do all the same activities with their name.
For children who already know all the letters (or most of them) they should be working on letter sounds. They can do this at home by sharing with you the silly songs we sing in class. "A for apple, a, a, a!" Ask your child to tell you what sound do they hear when you say words. Focusing on names is always a great idea! In class we label our pictures. I tell them to write" m" for mom and "d" for dad. Just yesterday Erick wrote "mom" all by himself using the sounds he knows! This WILL help them.
Knowing sounds in the foundation they need to be able to put the letters together to make words. As you've seen in the homework we can now make words such as: am, Sam, Pam, & map. The more letter sounds they know the better they will be at making words!
For the children who know all letters and sounds the best way to help them at home (right now) is to ask them to draw a picture and when they finish have them tell you about it. Sit with them and help them label their picture or write sentences using words and letter sounds they know. For example if your child draws a picture of a day at the park with the family he might tell you, "This is me and you at the park." Ask him to write "me" over himself and to write your name above the picture of you. If he wants to write a sentence such as "I like to go to the park with my mom." You can help him by saying the sounds of the words he doesn't know. If he doesn't know how to write park, then you would say "p" (the sound of p not the letter name), "ar" (sound again), then "k" (sound again). They will most likely not spell it correctly BUT that is OK! That is called inventive spelling and they are well on their way to becoming good writers with this skill!
So a quick overview for children who know letters:
1. Use the sounds of the letters to make words.
2. Draw pictures and label or write sentences.
Have fun and send their pictures to school to show me! I'd love to see what you do at home!
For those children who are struggling with remembering these letters you can have them practice writing the letters in different ways. For example, always writing the letters on a piece of paper is not fun but when you give them a special marker, a glitter pen, a glue pen...or make an ordinary pencil sound exciting (I have a special pencil that I got for being good in the assembly!) then it makes writing so much more fun! Another way to help your child is to get a flat pan and pour some rice or salt in it. Have them use their finger to make letters while you are cooking! So with that in mind here is a quick list of ways to help your child learn the letters:
1. write using a special pen, pencil, marker, etc.
2. Form the letters in rice or salt.
3. Use glue to make the letter and have them glue beans or small squares of paper to the letter.
4. Focus on their name! Kids love to talk about themselves...quite frankly, who doesn't? lol
5. Talk about the letters in their name and have them do all the same activities with their name.
For children who already know all the letters (or most of them) they should be working on letter sounds. They can do this at home by sharing with you the silly songs we sing in class. "A for apple, a, a, a!" Ask your child to tell you what sound do they hear when you say words. Focusing on names is always a great idea! In class we label our pictures. I tell them to write" m" for mom and "d" for dad. Just yesterday Erick wrote "mom" all by himself using the sounds he knows! This WILL help them.
Knowing sounds in the foundation they need to be able to put the letters together to make words. As you've seen in the homework we can now make words such as: am, Sam, Pam, & map. The more letter sounds they know the better they will be at making words!
For the children who know all letters and sounds the best way to help them at home (right now) is to ask them to draw a picture and when they finish have them tell you about it. Sit with them and help them label their picture or write sentences using words and letter sounds they know. For example if your child draws a picture of a day at the park with the family he might tell you, "This is me and you at the park." Ask him to write "me" over himself and to write your name above the picture of you. If he wants to write a sentence such as "I like to go to the park with my mom." You can help him by saying the sounds of the words he doesn't know. If he doesn't know how to write park, then you would say "p" (the sound of p not the letter name), "ar" (sound again), then "k" (sound again). They will most likely not spell it correctly BUT that is OK! That is called inventive spelling and they are well on their way to becoming good writers with this skill!
So a quick overview for children who know letters:
1. Use the sounds of the letters to make words.
2. Draw pictures and label or write sentences.
Have fun and send their pictures to school to show me! I'd love to see what you do at home!