Homework

My homework philosophy is as follows...while at-home practice can be beneficial, especially when done alongside a supportive adult, the majority of the time kids spend away from school should be spent on other things (i.e. playing, being creative, enjoying family time, recharging, participating in sports, etc.)!  Charging your iPad every night is a must, and I strongly suggest building in at least 15 minutes of reading. You'll also want to prepare for our weekly spelling test by practicing the spelling pattern or rule that we learn each week.  Below, you'll find a sample daily routine as well as additional ideas for how and what to practice at home if you're looking for more!

Must-Do Homework Every Night: CHARGE YOUR IPAD 😉

Mrs. Gay's Daily Routine Sample:

• Wake up, and make your bed! 🛏️ 😊

• Check your backpack before coming to school. Do you have your iPad and folder?? 🎒📱📁

• Come to school, work hard, and have fun! 🏫 🥳

• Plug in your iPad as soon as you get home. (Tip: I have my sons leave their backpacks unzipped, so they remember to put their device back in before school!)

• Take your mail out of your folder to show your family.

• Have a snack, and talk about your school day! 

  • • Show and explain your math papers. 

    • Show and explain our new spelling pattern. 

    • Talk about what we read at school.

    • What are we learning about in science or social studies?

    • Which related arts class did you have, and what did you do?

• Play, rest, have fun, and recharge!

• At dinner time, help set the table and clean up. 😍

• Read books with your family before bed. 📚

• Sleep and repeat. 😴

Reading practice ideas:

• Read for 15 minutes each night before bed.

• Listen to someone else read.

• Read aloud to a younger brother or sister or your stuffed animals.

• Talk to someone about the books you're reading. Tell them about the characters, setting, and plot in your literary texts, or tell about interesting or surprising facts you've learned from an informative text.

• Use Exact Path on your iPad to practice reading skills.

Math practice ideas:

• Fact Fluency - The faster you can recall your basic addition and subtraction facts the better! Later in the year, we'll work on this with multiplication and division too! You can practice with flashcards, apps, and made-up games.

• Talk to your family about what you learned in math each day. Show them some of the problems from your math book and maybe do a few of the ones we didn't get to in class.

• Use Exact Path on your iPad to practice math skills.

Spelling practice ideas:

• You'll learn a new spelling pattern in class at the beginning of the week and take a test at the end of the week.

• Throughout the week, you can practice that pattern in different ways. Here are some ideas...

  • • Write a word and draw a line to divide it into syllables.

    • Use one color to write the vowels and a different color to write the consonants.

    • Build your words out of Play-Doh or Legos.

    • Sort your words into spelling patterns.

    • Think of different words that fit the pattern and write them.

Thank you for everything you do at home to support what we do at school!