Assignments

The books beginning at level E will be selected by the student and sent home 4 or 5 at a time.

Night 1: read through one of the books with your child. encourage smoothness and rereading until  the book begins to sound natural.

Night 2: reread the book from Night 1 and use the same process to read the second book 3 times stressing smoothness and natural tones.

Night 3: reread books from Night 1 and 2 and add book 3 (3 times)

Night 4: reread all books and read the last book.  If you need to read only half of the books then slow down introducing new books until each book is smooth and naturally paced.  Encourage appropriate expression.

Return the books on Friday morning if you have read the 4 nights.  Return them Monday if you believe your child needs the extra practice or needs another night to read the books.

Our reading minutes goal works out to be an average of 12 minutes every school night.  If you want Friday night "off", then increase the Monday through Thursday reading to 16 minutes. *remember that practicing the sight words also counts in these minutes.


Messages

Our first graders are doing more writing at school now.  We are using our word wall words and stretching out any other words recording the sounds in them.  If your child asks you to spell a word, please use your best judgement as to how to help them write it.  If they are focused on getting down ideas and a story, please feel free to simply spell the word out. This may help them stay focused and get the idea/story down in print.  If they are writing a short idea or using a format write. (I like.... I like..... I like....) then please encourage them to tell you the letters that make the sounds and give them any unusual or non-phonetic sounds. 

Remember that making lists, labeling things, writing speech bubbles, and notes are all ways we share information using print.

Many students have returned and shared a story that was written during the Christmas holiday.  Please feel free to send back a short story about an adventure that you may have together. It is wonderful practice to share a written memory with classmates.

We are beginning to work on our first grade hard bound books. During this writing experience your child may ask you to share stories about their earlier childhood.  Please feel free to share memories about this special time.

 


Parent Notes

We are working on fluency at school now with our E and above books.  Beginning at this level we encourage our students need to be able to read with smoothness, expression and at a natural speaking rate. It is important that the books that are sent home are read until they are smooth and natural.  If you only practice part of the book baggie and get them smooth and natural it is more important than struggling to read all the books each week.  If you find that the books are consistently too difficult for home reading please contact me as soon as possible. 

Thanks!