At Home Learning Support & Educational Websites

 Home Assignments/Extra Practice

For ELA extra practice your child will have a labeled bag with their name that will contain usually 2 decodable books focusing on our current phonics skill for you to help your child practice throughout the week. The bag should come back to school each day as we will read the books in class as well. When your child brings home Math worksheets each day there will be a green page at the end of the stapled pages, these green pages will sometimes be completed in school and other days will not so when they have not been done you can have your child complete them at home.
There may be times that I send a Math or ELA assignment home (such as if the majority of the class is struggling with a certain skill and I believe practicing it at home will be beneficial to everyone), but there will be an explanation with it and likely a post on Class Dojo letting you know to expect it.
Also, in addition to the ideas found below on the "ELA Curriculum" tab of my website you will find information for reinforcing what we're learning in ELA class, so please check that out if you'd like to work with your child and have them practice skills consistently at home. Examples of everyday reading can include: reading a recipe and helping to prepare the food, reading a magazine or comic strip for enjoyment, reading a book or chapter of a book of their choosing from the library/library class/their own at-home library, maps and/or road signs while driving. Should your child need books to read I am happy to lend them some from my classroom library. Reading to your child is also incredibly beneficial, they should have practice reading themselves and also being read to so they are hearing fluent reading being modeled to them.

 Your child is always welcome (and encouraged) to use the i-Ready program at home in their free time to complete i-Ready Reading lessons. 

At Home Learning Support

Below are some ideas for how to work with your child at home in order to help them develop and maintain their reading and spelling skills.

• Ways to practice HFWs at home (the list of words can be found under my website tab titled "ELA Curriculum"): 

-arm tap each letter

*for the word the (tap your shoulder and say t, elbow and say h and wrist and say e, then swipe down your entire arm and say the)
-clap out the height of the words
*for the word the (clap above your head for t because it's tall, clap above your head for hand in front of your body for e, then clap and say "the")
-skywrite
*cross your body with your non-dominant hand and touch the bone in your back. Write and spell the words out loud and underline it & say the word
-say, spell, read, write - could be done with chalk or markers or sand to make it more engaging
-put hair gel or finger paint in a ziplock bag and write the word
-use flash cards to quickly read/identify the words
-use flash cards to play memory or swat (using a spatula call out a word and have your child swat the word.)
-use the words in sentences (orally and written)

• Here is a resource to help students with letter reversals.

• Check out this great article on the importance of reading at home with your child! 

• This article provides different activities for reading at home.

• In this article you'll find a list of multi-sensory activities to help your child with spelling. 

• Here is another list of spelling tips. 

• This YouTube channel has great videos to help with building foundational Phonics skills and reinforcing sounds & spelling patterns taught in the classroom. 

• The following includes some spelling activity ideas to help your child practice spelling at home that coincides with the Benchmark Workshop patterns they are learning in school. Using the example words that are given within a link on the tab of my website titled "Benchmark Workshop Information" with the current week's pattern(s), you can either have your child use paper and pencil to write the words or you can utilize different multi-sensory approaches.
  *If using pencil and paper when your child spells a word incorrectly I would suggest that you write the correct spelling with a highlighter next to their word and have them trace the highlighted letters in order to practice writing the word correctly.
  *With any of the activities, please have your child try writing the word on their own first prior to correcting them. We learn from our mistakes!
  -When your child is reading any book or text, have them look for words that follow the same pattern(s) that we are working on in class and record the words.
  -Pour salt/sand/flour or squirt shaving cream/whipped cream on a table or any flat surface that is large enough and have your child 'write' the word with their finger.
  -Take learning outside and write the words with finger paint or chalk.
  -Form the letters and create the word out of Play-Doh, Lego pieces, Wikki Stix, or pipe cleaners. (In school we use whiteboards and dry erase markers on a daily basis which is an activity they enjoy.)
  -Use magnetic letters to build the words on a cookie sheet or on a refrigerator.
  *After writing words with any of the above activities it would be a good idea to have your child highlight/circle/underline or verbally point out the pattern in the word then explain the pattern to you.
  -Mystery word game: using the weekly list as a guide, give your child a clue such as "it is the opposite of in" if the word is "out" then have them read and spell the word (have them use the word list to assist with spelling so that it is spelled correctly).
  -Word sort: have your child create columns to sort the words by different spellings for one pattern (for example, a column for ow which would include words like "cow" and "now" and a column for ou which would include words like "out" and "mouth").

• Keep scrolling further down this page for reading comprehension questions.

Websites your Child can Use at Home

*Simply click on the title and the website will open in a new tab on your device*

Use this Scholastic Book Clubs link to shop for books. Please use our class code so that our classroom can earn free books! The code is QG42Y. 

i-Ready- ELA and Math program used throughout the district that provides individualized lessons for your child...i-Ready is completed in the classroom but the website can also be accessed at home and lessons can be done there
*Clever log in

BrainPOPJr.- educational videos with accompanying quizzes
(username: mfjanvier
password: poplearning)
*Clever log in

Tumblebooks- a plethora of books to listen to

(username: janvier

password: books)
*Clever log in

IntotheBook- practice reading strategies

Storyline- stories read aloud by movie stars

Abcya- fun, educational games related to each grade level 

FunBrain- fun, educational games 

PBSKids- fun games and videos

Starfall- read-along stories

Seussville- activities related to Dr. Seuss and his books

YouTube- this Nessy YouTube channel has great videos for reading strategies and phonics skills

HighlightsKids- books, games, and science experiments

Scholastic Animals- a list provided by Scholastic is given of the top eight online resources for learning about animals 

National Geographic- lots of cool information about animals 

RangerRick- animal information and games 

SwitchZoo- animal games 

Below you will find various images with questions to ask children either before, during, and/or after reading. Some questions are geared specifically toward fiction (fake/made-up) texts, some toward non-fiction (real/factual) texts, some are general for any text, and others are more open-ended and require deeper thinking. Any of the questions are beneficial as they will assist your child in thinking about and truly engaging in what they are reading.
You can have your child answer these questions verbally or have them complete a written response to practice their writing as well.