Tips for working with your child at home

We are working on fine motor skills.  These activities can also be done at home!
Spooning beans one at a time into a container.

Putting toothpicks into a salt shaker.

Using tongs to move animals from one bowl to another.

Stringing beads.

Using tongs to fill an ice tray with pom poms.

Stacking tiny blocs and using tongs.

Putting beads on pipe cleaner.

When I introduce letters, we spend time talking about the lines and how to form the letters correctly.
You can refer to the names of the lines as I have marked them on the whiteboard.

I have written some alphabet books to review the letters, sounds and introduce sight words and reading.

We talk about one page at a time. We highlight sight words and use one to one correspondence
by touching the dots under the words as we read.  Practice this at home!

These books are an excellent way to begin reading.  I highly recommend you get a shoe box or container to keep all the books that we do at school.   Have your child practice them at night before bed or part of homework.  Ask about the highlighted words and check for one to one correspondence by touching the dots.

We are working daily on rhyming words.  Say two words and ask your child if they rhyme.  Mix it up, sometimes saying rhyming words and sometimes don't say two words that rhyme. i.e. Does dog rhyme with log?  Does cat rhyme with clock?  Later you can say a word and ask your child to give you a word that rhymes with that word.
i.e.  What rhymes with red?

Another lesson this week, was how to handle a book.

Here are the first day of school pictures!

Thanks for returning your beautiful squares.  We will have them up for a while, then I will put them in a scrap book in the class library.