Guidance: Encourage your child to read by themselves and out loud to you. Your child should work to use the punctuation to guide their phrasing and fluency. This means including pauses and changing their voice as the punctuation guides so it sounds like the character who is talking in the book. We often tell the students “Read it like you are talking.” Focus on students reading phrases and not reading in a way that is word-by-word and choppy.

To support 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. Have your child read from it for about 20 minutes each day. All 3rd graders left for Spring Break with at least 3 books to read over break. Encourage your child to spend time reading those books. Reading a familiar text (a text that has been read many times) is a great way to build fluency. Another recommendation is to read a chapter book to or with your child.

Guidance: Make writing a fun and engaging part of your day! Encourage your child to write independently and alongside you. Parents and students can write stories together. For example, have your child start the story, you write the next sentence. Continue taking turns adding to the story. 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 the student finds the note, they can write a note back to you. Get creative together!

Start a daily journal with your student. You and your child can write back-and-forth to one another. You may want to write a letter each day or start with a question to your child. Your student can write the answer back to you. Consider asking questions about their day, about a book that they are reading, about some of their favorite/least favorite things, etc. In the resources below you will find a link to writing prompts (Journal Buddies) that can provide some additional ideas for writing.

Guidance: Fact fluency is important for students. Encourage your child to practice their basic math facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division using Reflex Math. Student login information and passwords have been shared with you via email. Students are familiar with this program, as they use it each week at school.

Prodigy is another online tool that can support learning in the area of math. This program adapts in difficulty to suit your child’s learning style and grade level. You can set up a free account for your child to use.

Additional suggestions for practice at home include: Practice telling time on an analog clock. Help your child to identify the correct hour and support them with counting the minutes correctly. Many students need support with times that are close to the next hour. Pose real life questions such as: if I put this cake in the oven at 10:45 and it needs to bake for 35 minutes, what time will it be done? Or How long will your movie run if it starts at 1:15 and ends at 2:33?

Here are some simple ideas to inspire mathematical thinking using item around your house:

• Measure the area and perimeter of rooms of your house-determine how much carpet or trim to buy. Give your child a price per unit and then have them calculate the total price.

• Go on a neighborhood walk and take notes of observations/things you see. For example, track the number and types of birds that you see. When return, create a graph to reflect the number of items you found. Use this resource to help you.

• Collect leaves from ten different trees/plants. Sort them by size, color, or texture.

• Measure the length of your bed using five different nonstandard units (such as paper clips, forks, etc.)

Guidance: Children are curious by nature. They are full of questions about this world and how things work. In many ways, students are born to be scientists - constantly experimenting with something. Science is everywhere in our world, we simply need to be on the lookout for it. There are many experiments online that you can do at home with your children to satisfy some of their curiosity. Spend some time making slime, testing items that will sink or float, and experimenting with magnets. Additional resources are listed below.

Consider using Mystery Science. Mystery Science has links to 6 Mini-lessons (15-30 minutes) that are all digital. Additionally, it has links to 5 full lessons (45-90 minutes) that include a hands on activity. Some of the activities can be done digitally and others are hand-on. Choose those that work best for you! Access free lessons (at all grade levels) without setting up an account by visiting the link below.

Have you ever done a science experiment and wondered "What would this be like if it were HUGE?" Science Max is an engaging series that takes experiments commonly done at home and pushes it to the MAX. These videos can be found online. They are highly engaging and answer so many questions through problem solving and risk taking. Some of the episodes even include a “mini max” which is an at home version of the experiment that students could do at home. You can access the Science Max videos using the following link via YouTube.

Guidance: Keep your child active! Physical activity provides many health benefits. In addition, physical activity helps to reduce stress and anxiety in children.

Consider the following ways to add physical activity to your day: Take a walk together as a family each evening or as a midday break. Have your child walk up and down the stairs and count them. Count by 2s, 5s, 10s, or any number. Mix it up by not starting at 0 each time.

Your student can test themselves and monitor their progress by tracking how many sit-ups, push ups, jumping jacks, lunges etc. they can complete in one minute. Encourage your child to track how many laps they walk or run around the block while they are home during the entire school closure.

If it is necessary to remain inside, create a competition such as: How many times can you run/walk up and down the stairs in one minute?

Go Noodle (linked below) is a great resource to trick your kids into a remote gym class at home! Perfect for days indoors with no real physical activity, GoNoodle’s suite of funky games — including Flo Yo’s Bubble Pop and Squatchy Berger’s Rock and Roll — gets kids waving their hands and moving their bodies.

Consider using the resources below as additional options to provide students with movement and exercise at home.

Guidance: One of the things we learn about in third grade art is how artists make meaningful art. As budding artists ourselves, we practice making art that sends messages or is meaningful by adding important details to our work. For example, maybe we use certain colors to make our viewers feel a certain way, or use symbols (simple images that reflect a bigger idea) to communicate something that we feel strongly about. Encourage your child to make art that sends a message about themselves and the things they care about. This can be done with any technique or art supply that you have at home.

Part of making meaningful art is sharing it with others! As artists, we think about not just making art but exhibiting it, or presenting it, to others. Even in today’s social distancing, you can help your child find ways to share their art both digitally and in-person. The resource below outlines a variety of methods that you could use to help your child share their personally authentic artwork with others! In addition, the NGAkids Art Zone app allows students to learn about, create, and exhibit their work from a museum perspective.

Guidance: The change to staying at home can be stressful for families. You may notice behavior changes that affect sleeping and eating habits and impulse control. This can all be difficult when the brain is full of worry. During this time, focus on connection and feelings of safety. Your child will benefit from love and support-- there’s not a perfect schedule or perfect parent! Model kindness and patience, and take a break when you need one. Practice mindful activities both together and alone that will help reduce stress- play games together, go on a walk, listen to music, read books, color or draw, and rest when you need to.

Dr. Emily W. King writes, “When you have to pick, because at some point you will, choose connection. Pick playing a game over arguing about an academic assignment. Pick teaching your child to do laundry rather than feeling frustrated that they aren’t helping. Pick laughing, and snuggling, and reminding them that they are safe.” Mental wellness is important for everyone… we are all in this together!

Two resources are provided below. The first resource works similarly to a counseling lesson at school. It starts with a lesson, time for discussion, and ends with some independent practice. Try one activity at the beginning of your day to help build social emotional skills. The CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) website will help provide guidelines for parents related to social emotional learning- with resources for talking to children about the Coronavirus, planning activities at home, and coping with stress and anxiety.

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