Spears 1st Grade - Homework and Resources at home

Homework in 1st Grade

In 1st grade, we offer a few different homework opportunities. Homework is optional but strongly encouraged to reinforce student learning. Homework is not graded and there is no penalty for not completing. Frisco ISD recommends no more than 15 minutes of homework per day for 1st grade students. Here are ways to support your student at home:

Reading Strategies

Reading Bingo

In your student's red folder is a monthly reading bingo. students have the entire month to complete all the squares. At the end of the month, your student's teacher will check to see who has completed the bingo.

Reading tips:

Comprehension is an essential part of your student's reading growth. Here are some reading comprehension thinking stems and responses you can discuss with your student after your nightly 10 minutes of reading. Encourage your student to answer or respond to one or two of the prompts below.

Set a Purpose for Reading

I’m reading this because…
When I open a fiction/non-fiction text I can expect____.
I will be looking for…
This helped me as a reader…
I learned ____ about myself as a fiction reader…
This strategy helped me as a reader…

Access and Use Prior Knowledge

This makes me think of ____ because ____.
This reminds me of ____ because ____.
Now I know …
Read to find text to text connections…
How did your schema help you as a reader?

Visualize

The word ____ tells me ____.
The movie in my mind looks like…
The picture in my mind was ____ now it is ____.
I’m visualizing ____ because ____.
This picture makes me think ____ because ____.

Text Structure

The author included ____ because ____.
My prediction is…
I can infer the author used ____ because ____.
My prediction was right/wrong and I learned…

Summarize

I can summarize my thinking by…
The main idea is…
The most important thing is ____ because ____.
I can retell the story in my own words…

Synthesizing

I used to think ____. Now I think ____.
My thinking has changed because…
The facts helped me to learn…
When I put my thinking together I learned…

Guided Reading:

Your child will bring home their guided reading folder during the week. The books should be read nightly and needs to be brought back to school every day. If books are lost, there is a $10 lost/damaged fee. The books your child brings home in this baggie will be at his/her instructional level. This means that your child should be able to read the book and apply reading strategies independently. Your child may not bring home a different book every night. They will reread books for fluency when they bring home a repeat book.

These books will not be too challenging for your child as they have read the book in class with guidance from us. We conquer the difficult reading, and the appropriate skills and strategies, in their small guided reading group at school, and the books are then sent home for extra practice. Re-reading these books will not only promote fluency, expression and rate of reading, but confidence in your young reader as well.

Your child is learning reading strategies that they can use independently. The children learn a variety of strategies to use while reading to figure out unfamiliar words. From time to time, your child may need help; however, when helping, please do not “give” your child the word. Instead, prompt your child to use the strategies by saying one of the prompts below. In this manner, your child will learn to apply the strategies and will develop into an independent, fluent reader who reads for understanding.

What to Say When Your Child Gets Stuck

1) Say: “What strategy can you try?” Child should:

*see if something in the picture can help them, then re-read

*reread and think about the story (prompt them if they do not)

*re-read and say the first sound of the tricky word – this often results in the correct word “popping out of their mouth” (again, prompt them if they do not)

2) If your child tries all of the above without getting the unknown word, say “Do you know something about that word that can help you?” Your child will often find a part in the word that she knows, and this can help her get meaning back into her reading.

What to Say When Your Child Makes an Error

Say: “Does that look right? “Does that sound right?” or “Does that make sense? Go back and check again.”

*After reading, please talk with your child about what was read. Ask questions, encourage retellings, discuss a favorite character or the problem of the story and how it was solved. Remember - the ultimate goal of reading is understanding!

Be sure to read EVERY DAY with your child – it pays off!

Praise your child’s reading and enjoy your time together!

First Grade Math:

Zearn is a resource we use at school to build math foundational skills. This program is researched based and FREE for us to use at school & at home! Your student's teacher will provide you your student's QR code to keep at home. To log on, go to https://www.zearn.org/ and click 'Sign in with Clever' and scan the QR Code.

Click the link to see how you can support your student's math at home! This gives you a glimpse of what they are learning in the classroom.

At Home Parent Letters

First Grade Sight Words:

You can access the first grade sight words to practice at home at this link: 1st grade Sight Words

Handwriting Practice:

Your student can access the Handwriting Without Tears App Through Clever at home. Additionally, you can have them practice using a whiteboard or pencil and paper.