During Unit 1 of this module, your child will begin studying aspects of school through text. By the end of the module, your child will be able to participate in a discussion around the module guiding question: “What is school, and why are schools important?” I am writing today to explain what your child will be learning, describe the activities that will support this learning, and suggest how to support this learning at home. At the end of our deep study, we will celebrate all of your child’s learning!
WHAT will your child learn?
Your child will begin the study of schools by considering what makes a place a school and why schools are important. The learning will focus on these ideas:
Schools are places that build knowledge and skills, foster character and relationships, and help students create high-quality work.
Schools are different, but they all serve an important purpose for the community.
During the Reading Foundations Skills Block, your child will review foundational reading skills from first grade (e.g., common vowel teams and open and closed syllables). The learning for Unit 1 will focus on:
A vowel sound can be made by different common vowel teams (e.g., ai, oa, ay, etc.)
A closed syllable ends with a consonant making the vowel sound short (e.g., men, not, shell)
An open syllable ends with a vowel making the vowel sound long (e.g., go, she, hi)
Throughout the unit, your child will read, think, listen, talk, write, and ask questions about what school is and why schools are important. Your child will participate in these activities, among others, to build his/her literacy skills:
Listening to read-alouds of a variety of texts about school
Singing songs about school
Engaging in conversations with classmates
Writing and drawing about why schools are important
Vocabulary activities with words from texts
Here are a few activities that you can do at home with your child to support his or her learning:
Ask your child to talk with you about the following question: Why are schools important?
Read books and sing songs about schools around the world from home or at the library.
Tell your child about your experiences in school as you were growing up.
Encourage your child to read the weekly Decodable Student Reader or a letter book to you every night.
Write the high-frequency words on cards and practice reading them fluently (live, walk, two, new).
Make up sentences with the common vowel teams -ay (play, stay) and -ai (maid, braid) and have your child write the sentence down.
During Unit 2 of this module, your child will continue to study aspects of school. By the end of the module, your child will be able to participate in a discussion around the module guiding question: “What is school, and why are schools important?” I am writing today to explain what your child will be learning, describe the activities that will support this learning, and suggest how to support this learning at home. At the end of our deep study, we will celebrate all of your child’s learning!
WHAT will your child learn?
Your child will study schools around the world, the problems their communities face in getting students to school, and how those communities overcome their problems because school is so important. This learning will be focused on these ideas:
Things like weather and location can make it difficult for children to go to school.
Communities think of solutions to make sure students have a place to go to school.
During the Reading Foundations Skills Block, your child will continue reviewing foundational reading skills from first grade (e.g., common vowel teams, open and closed syllables, high-frequency words). Understanding and practicing high-frequency words is important to help your child develop automaticity when reading words that “don’t play fair.” The learning for Unit 2 will focus on:
Practicing high-frequency words helps me read books fluently and write words quickly
Multisyllabic words can be separated into syllables to help me read and write
HOW will your child learn?
Throughout the unit, your child will read, think, listen, talk, write, and ask questions about the topic of challenges of going to school. Your child will participate in these activities, among others, to build literacy skills:
Participating in a close read-aloud of Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools around the World
Taking notes using textual evidence during the close read-alouds
Singing songs about school
Engaging in conversations with classmates
Writing informative paragraphs using information from class research
Writing and drawing about challenges some communities face in sending students to school and how they overcome these challenges
Engaging in a Reader’s Theater
What can you do to SUPPORT your child’s learning at home?
Here are a few activities that you can do at home with your child to support his or her learning:
Ask your child to talk with you about the following question: How have some communities solved the problems they had with getting students to school?
Use the Internet to research schools around the world.
Walk or drive by the schools around your community.
Write the high-frequency words on cards and practice reading them fluently (our, down, been, before, boy, tree, once, open).
Create a board or poster with common vowel teams -ee and -ea at the top. Say a word spelled with one of the common vowel teams (e.g., seen, teen, clean, team). Invite your child to write the word in the appropriate column, spelling it correctly.
During the last unit of this module, your child will conclude his or her study of school by reading about schools around the world and comparing and contrasting those schools to his or her own. At the end of this unit, your child will be sharing his or her work and we will celebrate all of the learning our class has done throughout Module 1!
WHAT will your child learn?
Your child will conclude the study of schools by creating his or her own "The Most Important Thing about Schools" book. He or she will then present this book to a class of kindergarteners. The learning will focus on this idea:
Schools around the world may be different or they may be similar, but they are all places designed for learning.
During the Reading Foundations Skills block, your child will complete a review of first grade foundational reading skills (e.g., common vowel teams, open and closed syllables, and high-frequency words). Your child will learn how to identify a syllable and how knowing the type of syllable will help with reading and writing. The learning for Unit 3 will focus on:
Knowing a syllable is closed or open helps me read it and write it correctly.
The type of syllable helps me know what vowel sound to say.
HOW will your child learn?
Throughout the unit, your child will read, think, listen, talk, write, and ask questions about the topic of why we need tools. Your child will participate in these activities, among others, to build literacy skills:
Participating in a close read-aloud of Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools around the World
Researching one of three schools from Off to Class in a research group
Creating a book that describes the similarities and differences between my school and my research group school
Engaging in collaborative conversations with classmates
Closely viewing pictures and videos about schools
What can you do to SUPPORT your child's learning at home?
Here are a few activities that you can do at home with your child to support his or her learning:
Ask your child to talk with you about the following questions: How are schools around the world different? How are they similar?
Use objects around the house to help your child practice comparing and contrasting two items.
Write the high-frequency words on cards and practice reading them fluently (school, sure, none, friends, ready, anybody, will, for, know).
Books to check out or you can type in their name and the word read aloud to see if it a read aloud on YouTube or sora.
The Important Book
Brown, Margaret Wise
The Dot
Reynolds, Peter H.
The Invisible Boy
Ludwig, Trudy
Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools around the World
Hughes, Susan
Crow Boy
Yashima, Taro
Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan
Winter, Jeannette
School in Many Cultures
Adamson, Heather
Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s
Tonatiuh, Duncan
The Girl Who Buried Her Dreams in a Can
Trent, Tererai
This Is the Way We Go to School: A Book About Children
Baer, Edith
School's First Day of School
Rex. Adam
The Barefoot Book of Children
Strickland, Tessa & Kate
This Is My Home, This Is My School
Bean, Jonathan
Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a
Campoy, F. Isabel & Theresa
This is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids
Lamothe, Matt