February 26, 2016

Dear Parents,

Next week our class will study occupations. Talk to your child about where you work, what your job involves, and how you were trained. Then discuss with him/her the types of work other family members do. How were they trained?

_____The homework for this week is writing a book about jobs. Your child should write a sentence on every blank sheet inside the book. (Front and back) Each page should have a sentence about a job and an illustration to go with it. For instance, “A policeman helps people.” Or “A nurse uses a thermometer.” In other words, I want a sentence instead of just one word that names the occupation. Have your child illustrate every sentence. Remind your child to put hair and clothes on their people! Have him/her to use lots of color also. Not just blue. Have your child write his/her name on the book. (Your child should be able to name seven occupations without assistance for the report card. Review this because many of the children have difficulty with this objective.)

____New words “all” and “she.” The book, Rocks, is enclosed. This puts the words back into text.

_____Math Focus: Cut the addition and subtraction flashcards on the lines. Work with your child to solve the problems. Write the answers in pencil on the back of the flashcards. Practice flashing the cards and having your child tell you what the answer is. This is a third nine weeks skill where the children have to add and subtract through 5 fluently (quickly).

_____Thank you for listening to your child read the books I am sending home. This expands your child’s reading vocabulary and allows him/her to use the reading strategies that I have taught him/her to use. These strategies are: 1. Check the picture. (This is very important. Sounding out each letter should not be the first strategy used.) 2. Reread and get your mouth ready. (This is the beginning letter sound.) 3. What makes sense?

4. Check for chunks. This is where your child looks for other letters and letter combinations (sh, ch, th, or, ar, etc.). He/she can run his/her finger under the word and make the sounds as his/her finger slides under the letters. 5. Make a guess. I want the children to be able to figure out an unknown word when an adult is not around to help. This will make him/her independent and more self-confident.

_____ I read the following books with my child this week.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

____My child and I read at least 5 books (50 minutes) this week.

_____Handwriting: During the third nine weeks, I find that many of the children become more comfortable with writing letters; and their handwriting then becomes messy. Please encourage your child to take his/her time and to make his/her handwriting neat.

_____Please have your child read the –ake words. We learned the word “make” last week. That is our known word. Then we worked on taking the known word to the unknown words and even adding an ending to some of them. We talked about dropping the “final e” before adding the “ing.” I have taught them that “e” at the end of a word is usually either a “tag along e” (doesn’t do anything) or a “Bossy e” (jumps over the consonant before it and says to the vowel “Tell me your name!”). After your child reads the words and the sentence, please sign and return the paper to me.

_____Remindyour child that the title is the name of the story or book. The author is the person who writes the words and the illustrator is the person who draws the pictures.

_____Review: letters, letter sounds, chunks (th, sh, ow, ou, ing, oo, ew, ink, ar, igh, oa, ee, ea, er, ir, ur, unk, or, ay, ai, aw, au, ch, oy, oi), words, rhyming words, four seasons, five senses, body parts, writing first and last name neatly, recognizing numbers to 20, counting to 100 by 1’s, 5’s, 10’s, counting to 20 by 2’s, counting sets to 20, writing numbers in order to 30 (without a pattern or reversals), and writing letters without a pattern. Look at your child’s last report card. Any skills for which your child received a “1” or “2” will need to be reviewed.This review section is very important. Some of the children are forgetting things that they knew previously.

Don’t forget to have your child read and write the Fry words and read books on Raz-Kids. First grade is just around the corner and the children need to be reading on a level 4 by the end of kindergarten. Knowing the words and reading a lot will help your child be where he/she needs to be.

Thank you! I sincerely appreciate your continued support. The children are benefiting from our combined efforts!

Your Partner in Education,

Ginger Carter

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