• What can you do at home to help your child?
    1)  The number one thing you can do to help your child is to read with them!  Studies show that reading at least 20 minutes a day will drastically increase your child's success throughout their academic career.   Don't just tell them to read, make it an activity you can do together!  Here are some tips:

    • Struggling readers: Use the "I read a page, you read a page" approach.  This provides a struggling reader the opportunity to read more interesting texts and creates a wonderful bonding opportunity with the adult.  It also allows you to ask comprehension questions as you go to make sure they understand what's going on in the story.
    • Reluctant readers:  Go to the bookstore together and find a series that will interest your child.  Get your child hooked into their interests!!  I recommend  I Survived Series, The Boxcar Children series, Big Nate Series, Percy Jackson Series, Bad Kitty Series, among many more!!!  Ask if you'd like to hear more recommendations.

    2) Ask questions about what they're reading.
    Helping your Child Comprehend What They Read
    "Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement" 
    by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, suggests these questions for parents:

    Make Connections
    "This reminds me of a time when I ______."
    "I know about this topic because I ______."
    Ask Questions
    "Before I read this text, I wondered about ______."
    "What is going to happen next?"
    Visualize
    "The author gives me a picture in my mind when he or she describes ______."
    Draw a picture of what the author describes.
    Determine Text Importance
    "I think the author's opinion about ______ is ______ because ______.
    "Identify important and interesting parts."
    Make Inferences
    "From the clues or information the author gives, I can conclude that ______."
    "I think that ______ will happen next because the author says ______."
    Synthesize
    "My opinion of ______ is ______."
    "I first thought ______ about the topic. Now I think ______."
    - See more question stems here 

    3) There are so many programs available that it's impossible to include them all, but one is called Education Galaxy.  Your child's teacher MAY already use this, but if not there is a parent option for $5.99 a month.  It's very has purchased iReady this year that they can access from home that will work on literacy skills.  Please contact me for more information. 

    4)  Your child has their ConnectEd login information already where they can practice vocabulary, explore the weekly texts, as well as several other things!  The students love this site!  Several of the review options are in game format!
    ​5)   Know the skills your child needs to be successful for that grade.  Although we teach several, these are some of the stressed skills:

    4th Grade

    • Summarizing
    • Determining main idea and details
    • Using text evidence to support a statement.
    • Determining word meaning AND the context clue that supports it
    • Similes and metaphors (figurative language)

    5th Grade 

    • Using text evidence to support a statement.
    • Choosing the best summary of a text
    • Finding the context clue for a word
    • Poetry