Activities at Home

Language Arts

  • Play games that challenge your child to rhyme, use reasoning and logic and include opportunities to explain their thinking
  • Sing songs that have a repetitive pattern and have lots of rhyming words.
  • Constantly ask your little ones questions that do not have yes or no answers. For example: Did you have fun at school?" VS. "What are some things that you did at school today?"
  • Take your child on walks and ask them what they think about the world around them. Let them touch things...ask them to make connections. For example: "Look at this green plant...Can you think of other things that are green?" or " SSSSSSand starts with what letter? What other words start with a /S/ sound?"
  • Limit screen time and encourage your child draw or write. This will help with development of fine motor skills.
  • Take your child to the library and let them pick out a book to read at bed time.
  • Ask them questions about their books.
  • What do you think will happen next?
  • What character do you like? why?
  • How does this book make you feel?
  • Can you think of a different ending?
  • What do you like about the illustrations? etc.
  • You can also visit the National Institute for Literacy for more ways to help your child succeed in reading and writing.


Math

  • Give your child plenty of opportunities to count
  • Play number games during everyday activities, such as counting the number of steps, the number of trucks you see while driving, or counting the number of items going in the laundry.
  • Read the calendar, and determine the number of days until an upcoming event.
  • Young children can count the number of items that you bought at the store. If you buy multiples of 1 item (such as 10 cans of catfood), practice counting by 2’s, 3’s, or higher numbers
  • Have your child count the change needed to pay for an item.
  • Watch your child play to understand her mathematical knowledge. When your child counts, does she touch each object once? Is his voice in sync with his touch?
  • Have your child distribute cookies or toys to family members, with each person getting an equal number
  • Help your child recognize shapes and size relationships
  • At the grocery store, ask your child to find items that are triangles, circles, rectangles, and other shapes.
  • Ask your child to recognize or stack the groceries you bought by container shape or organize by size.
  • Organize a scavenger hunt where your child has to find objects of different shapes
  • Make snowflakes using symmetry. Fold a square piece of paper in half diagonally to make a triangle, then fold in half 2 more times. Cut out small diamond or circular shapes from the edges, then unfold it. Experiment with different numbers of folds and shapes.
  • Find ways to collect and organize information
  • Look around the house to find groups of 2 objects, like pairs of gloves or socks. Look for groups of 3’s, 4’s, and on up to 10’s.
  • Have your child help sort the laundry by various categories — by color, or by who an item belongs to.
  • Take measurements for a project around the house.
  • Using paper of different colors, make a paper chain with paper strips and tape. Encourage your child to create patterns by repeating colors and numbers of rings in a regular order. This can be done in connection with reading the calendar and counting down days to a special event.
  • Collect objects in nature— leaves, rocks, shells and the like. When you get home, sort them by color, size, or type. How many different categories can you find? How many objects are in more than 1 category?
  • Help your child develop reasoning skills
  • Help your child think about the permanence of a set. Put 6 pennies in a row, then change the arrangement. Ask “did the quantity change?”
  • Kids love repetition and patterning, which fosters mathematical thinking. Clapping patterns help your child discover sequences and predict what comes next.
    • Some family games that use first grade math skills:
  • Many card games require counting and score keeping.
    • Dice games and dominos help kids learn to quickly recognize groups of dots from 2 to 12.
    • Play board games that involves counting squares, such as Chutes and Ladders.
    • Tic Tac Toe and Connect Four build recognition of rows of 3 and 4 counters.
    • Tangrams
    • Mancala