Guidance: Encourage your child to read by themselves and out loud to you. Your child should work to read the punctuation including pauses and changing their voice so it sounds like the character who is talking in the book. Focus on students reading phrases and not in a way that is word-by-word or choppy.

To encourage independent reading, children can create their own "fluency box", a box that holds 4-5 books that your child can read fluently without help from you, and have your child read from it for about 15 minutes each day. Don't underestimate the power of reading to and with your child!

Guidance: Encourage your child to write independently and with you. Parents and children can write stories together. For example, your child can start the story, you write the next sentence, your child writes another sentence, then you, etc. Another fun way to encourage writing each day is to write a note to your child on a sticky note and place it somewhere around the house. When your child finds the note, he/she can write a note back to you.

Keep children writing by providing a journal to write back-and-forth with your child--the parent can write a question to the child and the student can write the answer back to the parent. Please keep in mind that it is ok for your child to write what they hear when writing new or unknown words. Words to help them fix-up are words from our kindergarten and first-grade core word list.

Students can research topics of interest to create non-fiction writing. Consider using EPIC! Books linked below for students to research topics of interest and then ask them to complete non-fiction writing about what they learned.

Guidance: Take every opportunity that presents itself to encourage your child to count! Count the goldfish. Count the fruit snacks. Compare who has more or less and how many more or less. How many will you have after you eat 2? What if I gave you 5 more? Count by 1s and 10s forwards and backwards from any number within 120. Ask what is 10 more or 10 less than a number.

Play games – lots of games – that encourage adding and subtracting within 10 and 20. Play dice games that encourage your child to see a quantity instantly like Tenzi, Yahtzee or Farkle (parents can easily google directions and how to play these games). Play card games like Trash or WAR or Solitaire.

Solve story problems – but with a twist. Provide your child with the information and context portion of a story problem, but don't provide the question. Ask THEM to come up with the questions. For example, tell your child that there are 36 dogs and 20 cats at the shelter. Ask them to come up with the questions that could be asked. The questions could force the student to figure out how many cats and dogs are in the shelter altogether, how many more dogs there are than cats, how many less cats there are than dogs, how many animals would be left if 10 were adopted, etc. Math is fun! MAKE IT FUN!

Guidance: Science is all around us! With flowers popping up and buds on trees growing bigger, spring is a wonderful time to make observations, record data, and analyze results. Consider observing the habits of animals out your window or outside in your yard, at the parks, or on walks.

Don’t forget to conduct some experiments right inside your kitchens, as well! Mystery Science and Brain Pop Science Projects are two websites that explain awesome phenomena that happen in our world around us each day and provide ideas for science projects at home. These sites provide many related activities and can be great resources to support science at home!

Guidance: Consider using the following cards and exercise video to get your kids moving at home. Anything can be modified to work in your home. Encourage 30-60 minutes of movement each day.

Guidance: Encourage your child to use and strengthen their creative thinking skills by finding and solving art “problems” in their environment! A book titled “Not a Box” is included as a link below, which might spark you and your child to think about the things in your home that could be reenvisioned and redesigned. This could be something as simple as a popsicle stick or a broken pencil. As you talk to your child about the approaches they might take in such a challenge, encourage them to think outside of the box and develop multiple approaches or solutions. An artist is someone who uses their creativity to come up with more than just one solution, so work together and see how many ideas you can come up with!

In addition to encouraging your student to look creatively at the world around them, help them engage with the creativity of past and present artists by utilizing the Google Arts and Culture site/app. Find an artwork that interests you by searching for a museum such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the National Gallery, or by searching for a specific artist or medium. In first grade we often talk about interpreting art, or making guesses about the meaning of art, through conversations about mood. You might ask your child to think about the mood of an artwork and how the artist conveyed that mood. For example, maybe your child shares that the artwork looks happy because of the bright colors that are used. You might be surprised at their insightful interpretations! Remember, you don’t have to be an art history expert to talk to your child about art! Take time to look slowly and carefully as you both pick out details that give insight into what you think the artist might be saying.

Guidance: This time in our lives can be stressful, we understand! Try to model happiness and a positive attitude as much as you can. As a family, participate in stress-reducing activities like exercising, coloring, playing games, and listening to music. Encourage children to spend some time with your family and alone each day. Alone time can look like reading or listening to music in a quiet spot or taking a rest. Alone time and mindfulness can help all of us cope with our unusual circumstances.

The resources below are optional ideas that could be supportive to your family that mirror what students are used to experiencing from a guidance lesson at school.

Notice: The purpose of this website is to provide parents and students with optional resources that could be used during the current school closure due to COVID-19. Students are not required to use the resources and information found on this site. Information and resources on this site do not constitue "educational services & opportunities" being provided by the ADM Community School District. Please use the following link for more information about why ADM is not providing distance learning educational services and opportunities: ADM COVID-19 FAQ