Reading - We are reading and writing letters and talking about the purposes and structure to letters. Share some letters that you receive in the mail with your child (even if it's just junk mail!) Show the format of the letter (date, salutation, body, closing, signature) and talk about the purpose of that letter. Perhaps write your student a letter this week and tuck in into his/her lunchbox or under his/her pillow!
Math - We are beginning a unit in math learning about time (and money). Time is a difficult concept for students, especially lengths of time. Start using time in your conversations. "It's 6 o'clock! I'd better get dinner ready! How long do you think it will take me to cook dinner?" Help your child to make reasonable predictions about lengths of time (will it take an hour? a day? a week?) Help your child become increasingly aware of the time that various activities are done. ("I wake up at 7 o'clock." "We get to school at 8:15 in the morning." "I go to bed at 7:30 at night.")
Money - I mention this additional idea because it takes awhile, but I think it's a really great learning experience. To learn money, children need to see it, touch it, handle it, count it, etc. While we have plastic look-alike coins at school, nothing beats the real thing! And nothing motivates a child to learn how to identify or count money like earning money!! Start by giving your child opportunities to identify coins. Perhaps the change you receive at the grocery store, or the coins you have in your pocket at the end of a day - hold out your hand and ask your child to name each coin. If s/he gets it right, they get to keep the change!! When s/he is able to correctly identify each coin quickly, start asking how much each coin is worth (and let him/her keep the change if they get it right!) When your child has mastered naming coins and knowing their values, start having him/her count up the change. You can start easy and build it up to harder combinations. If your child gets it correct - you guessed it, they get to keep it! Finally, when your child is able to all those steps see if s/he can tell you how much change you will RECEIVE from the cashier. For instance, if your total is $4.37 and you hand the cashier a $5 bill, how much change will you receive? Being able to keep the change is a very strong motivator! I always asked my son, "Are you sure of your answer?" prompting him to double check before giving me his final answer. If he was correct, he lit up and was thrilled to add 37 cents to his piggy bank. If he was wrong, we talked about what was wrong and he learned fast!! It's only spare change to you, but it's a tremendous real-life learning experience for your child!
Math - We are beginning a unit in math learning about time (and money). Time is a difficult concept for students, especially lengths of time. Start using time in your conversations. "It's 6 o'clock! I'd better get dinner ready! How long do you think it will take me to cook dinner?" Help your child to make reasonable predictions about lengths of time (will it take an hour? a day? a week?) Help your child become increasingly aware of the time that various activities are done. ("I wake up at 7 o'clock." "We get to school at 8:15 in the morning." "I go to bed at 7:30 at night.")
Money - I mention this additional idea because it takes awhile, but I think it's a really great learning experience. To learn money, children need to see it, touch it, handle it, count it, etc. While we have plastic look-alike coins at school, nothing beats the real thing! And nothing motivates a child to learn how to identify or count money like earning money!! Start by giving your child opportunities to identify coins. Perhaps the change you receive at the grocery store, or the coins you have in your pocket at the end of a day - hold out your hand and ask your child to name each coin. If s/he gets it right, they get to keep the change!! When s/he is able to correctly identify each coin quickly, start asking how much each coin is worth (and let him/her keep the change if they get it right!) When your child has mastered naming coins and knowing their values, start having him/her count up the change. You can start easy and build it up to harder combinations. If your child gets it correct - you guessed it, they get to keep it! Finally, when your child is able to all those steps see if s/he can tell you how much change you will RECEIVE from the cashier. For instance, if your total is $4.37 and you hand the cashier a $5 bill, how much change will you receive? Being able to keep the change is a very strong motivator! I always asked my son, "Are you sure of your answer?" prompting him to double check before giving me his final answer. If he was correct, he lit up and was thrilled to add 37 cents to his piggy bank. If he was wrong, we talked about what was wrong and he learned fast!! It's only spare change to you, but it's a tremendous real-life learning experience for your child!
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