How You Can Help at Home
Every-Day Habits
Hugs help your child's self-esteem!
A good breakfast assures alertness and energy.
A good night of sleep helps with behavior, performance, a clear mind, and leaves your child less susceptible to germs.
Good grooming helps your child feel better socially, which promotes good mental health.
Have your child do homework in the afternoon or early evening while he/she is more alert.
Spelling
Vocabulary
Read!
Talk to your child often.
Work on crossword puzzle books.
Play Scrabble together.
Create a new "Word of the Day" to use each day.
Watch educational programming.
Writing
Write your child notes that require a reply.
Have your child make grocery lists.
Write a letter to a relative or friend.
Create cartoons and write captions.
Keep a parent/child journal each day.
Tear pictures from a magazine and write descriptions.
Start with a short sentence such as, "This is a rose." Then keep adding descriptive words to make the sentence more interesting.
Reading
Read aloud together, taking turns.
Read silently, then retell the story in your own words.
Pay attention to clues in the pictures.
Look for context clues (clue words in the sentence).
Discuss characters, plot, and setting.
Talk about your favorite parts of the story.
Discuss what happened at the beginning, middle and end.
Talk about cause and effect that happens in the story.
Make connections: It reminds me of...
Ask questions about the story.
Visualize the story in your mind, making your own pictures.
Make comparisons between stories.
Decide if it is realism or fiction.
Put groups of sentences from a story in the correct order to practice sequence.
Grammar
Practice writing complete sentences that have a naming part (subject) and a telling part (predicate).
Add details/describing words to sentences.
Create commands, statements, exclamations, and questions, then determine which is which.
Talk about singular and plural.
Practice using apostrophes to show possession or to make contractions.
Make a list common and proper nouns.
Make up stories or talk about things from past, present, and future.
Practice thinking of "better" words for action verbs. (Ex. Instead of saying, "I went to the store." you might say, "I quickly sprinted to the store.")
Make a list of compound words.
Make contractions flash cards.
Practice using commas and correct punctuation.
Practice the correct way to use quotation marks.
Math
Practice counting coins. When making simple purchases, ask your child to help.
Practice identifying coins.
Flash cards! Practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division (later in the year).
Have your child pick three items he/she would like from a catalog. Add them up to find out how much money would be needed.
Use a calendar to mark off special days. Ask questions about the calendar so that your child can count how many days from now, how many weeks ago, etc. Also ask the month, date, and year as often as possible.
Sort and classify different items in your home by size, shape, color, and other properties.
Practice measuring things in centimeters, inches, feet, and yards.
Estimate! Practice estimating things such as distance, speed, number of items, measurements in the kitchen, etc.
Cook! When making brownies, ask your child for help measuring the ingredients.
Make up story problems and solve them for addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Our method in class is to underline the question so we know what to solve, put ( ) around the important information, and cross out the extra information.
Practice the back side of the math papers that come home, even if it is not assigned as homework.
Have your child add up the number of minutes he/she watches television each day. Change the minutes to hours and add up how many hours he/she watches in a week.
Practice adding groups of three or more numbers together, both single-digit and double-digit numbers.
Practice telling and showing time.
Count by odd and even numbers.
Count by 5's, 10's, 3's, 7's, 12's, 25's, and 100's.
Practice fractions by dividing food items into halves, thirds, fourths, and eighths.
Make up patterns.
Practice reading a thermometer to the nearest two degrees.
Round numbers to the nearest ten.
Use the comparison symbols <, > and =.
Identify pint, quart, liter, half-gallon, and gallon containers.
Draw vertical, horizontal, and oblique line segments and have your child identify each.
Weigh objects using ounces and pounds.
Science
Catch an insect in a jar and observe it. Talk about what you see, then let it go.
Observe everyday items under a magnifying glass. What do you see that is ordinarily hidden from view?
Have your child learn to see, touch, smell, taste, and touch to gather information.
Give your child various rocks, seeds, etc. Ask him/her to sort them by size, texture, color, or weight.
Grow mold on a piece of bread and watch the process daily. Take note of what you see!
Test different items to see if they float or sink. Make predictions first, then talk about the outcome.
Take two socks. Get them wet and hang them out to dry. Hang one in the sun and one in the shade. Which will dry faster? Why?
Grow plants together and talk about the process. What do you need to help it grow? Identify the parts of a plant.
Put a carnation in a glass of water with food coloring. The flower will turn that color. Discuss how water travels through the plant's roots.
Observe the differences between animals, both tame and wild. Classify them into amphibians, mammals, anthropods, birds, fish, reptiles, etc.
Discuss habitats by creating a habitat in a large jar for spiders, butterflies, etc.
Observe clouds. How do they form and what is inside them?
Build models of the planets.
Experiment with magnets.
Discuss the different seasons. Compare temperatures, humidity, precipitation, and other observations.
Name different types of bodies of water.
Talk about recycling and pollution. Think of ways to help our environment.
Look at examples of solids, liquids, and gases.
Social Studies
Ask your child to give you directions of how to get home when you leave the grocery store. Have them use words such as left, right, north, south, east, west. (Use cardinal and intermediate directions.)
Look at a map or globe. Locate places where your friends, relatives, etc. live.
Use a map key to measure distances.
Discuss the differences between you and people who live in different cities or countries. What are the similarities? (Example: weather, transportation, housing, etc.)
Make a map of your home or neighborhood. Use symbols for houses, trees, parks, roads, etc.
Discuss modes of transportation.
Talk about your neighborhood or city. What do good neighbors do to help each other?
Compare the differences between living in the city and living in the country.
Discuss different jobs and what each one involves.
Talk about rules and laws.
What makes your family a good family?
Look for different types of landforms such as plains, hills, mountains, valleys, islands, plateaus, etc.
Learn about different cultures.
Keep up on current events. Read parts of the newspaper together or watch a portion of the news and discuss it.
Discuss the reasons for celebrating holidays. What is Independence Day? Who is Columbus? What is Arbor Day?
Visit with different community workers such as firemen, police, postal workers, doctors, garbage collectors, teachers, etc.
Create graphs and timelines.
Talk about the cost of living and being responsible. Show examples of cancelled checks, advertisements, receipts for household bills, etc. Share about all of the things we need to pay for that your child might now realize.
Talk about politicians. What do they do? Who are they?
Find the names of the states and their capitols.
What should we do in order to be good citizens?