Here are some tips for extra practice at home:
Tools to help with math:
- Practice math facts!!! Math facts are the foundations of math. When a student is solid in their math facts, new learning will become easier because they do not have to struggle through the computation part.
- Practice counting money. Take the change out of your pocket and have your child count it. If they are unsure, do this together.
- Make math a game. If you are at the grocery store have your child estimate how much money you will need for two or three grocery items. This will help your child work on their estimation skills.
- Work on math vocabulary (i.e. in all means add, sum, product, difference, who has more means subtract, etc.) this will help your child to work through word problems. When they know the key words, it will help them to figure out what operation to use to solve the problem.
Tools to help with writing:
- Have your child keep a journal, they do not need to write in it daily, but they can keep track of exciting things that are happening.
- Have your child write a letter to a family member, or to mom and/or dad.
- Do shared writing, have them tell you their ideas and you write for them.
- Give them sentence starters, you start the sentence, they finish it. (i.e. I couldn't believe it when I woke up.....)
- Have students write a summary of what they have read. (use the format one topic sentence, three detail sentences, and a wrap up sentence) This will also help to increase comprehension and picking out what the main ideas of the passage that they have just read.
Tools to promote reading at home:
- Do shared reading with your child, you read some, and then your child reads some.
- Make different voices for each of the characters.
- Pick high interest books at your child's level.
- Read to your child.
- Make time for reading. Set a time that works in your schedule.
- Ask questions throughout the book. Have your child predict what's going to happen next, and then check back to see if they were right.
- While you are reading, stop and ask your child to make a picture in their mind of what is happening in the story, and have your child describe what they are seeing.