Practice at home should be a fun task for your child to complete at home. The practice is a great way to make a school/home connection. Monday through Friday your child will have literacy and/or math practice. Monday-Friday your child will have to keep a reading log. The homework should only take around 18 minutes for everything. You may want to set a timer. If your child struggles with the practice stop and write me a note in the communication folder. The practice at home should be a review item that is not difficulty. For the reading log, please remember to use the books that I send home and/or their library book.
NAFCS uses the Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) as the handwriting curriculum K-2nd grade. You can see more information about the handwriting formation from the HWT website. www.hwtears.com
Please have your child practice proper letter formation. Reference to the HWT curriculum. Research suggest that if a child learns how to properly make letters it will increase the speed in which they can write them. For example: it may take a child 15 seconds to make the letter e from the bottom and 5 seconds to make it HWT from the top. If a child is taking a state test and it is timed, it may take them longer to write the information if he/she does not know how to properly form letters.
Please make sure that your child is holding his/her pen, crayon, etc. correctly. Refer to the HWT proper pencil grip. If your child is having difficulty holding a pencil correctly, place a small marble in the palm of his/her hand. The child will hold the marble with his/her ring finger and pinky, the rest of the fingers will be holding the pencil correctly. You can purchase pencil grips, (from www.reallygoodstuff.com, key word “writing claws”) to put on your child’s pencil to help him/her properly hold a pencil.
Your child is expected to write all letters and numbers 0-20 correctly by the end of the year.. That means..... NO Reversals/Backwards letters or numbers
Please practice proper formation at home. If your child makes a letter or number backwards please have him/her correct it.
Ways to practice making letters and numbers:
- Read a different book each night
- Have your child practice fluency, reading with speed and voice
- Take out a book and color the pages
- Take out a book and add on to the story (on the blank page of a letter book, draw something else that starts with that letter and try to sound out the word)
- Name all letters on each page
- Trace the pictures in a book
- In the colored books talk about the background of the pictures (what all do you see in the picture)
- Track the text left to right (model this for your child every time you read to him/her)
- Count the number of words on a page, count the number of letters on a page
- Talk about periods and question marks
- Talk about spacing between words, (meatball spaces between the words, spaghetti spaces between letters in a word)
NAFCS uses the Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) as the handwriting curriculum K-2nd grade. You can see more information about the handwriting formation from the HWT website. www.hwtears.com
Please have your child practice proper letter formation. Reference to the HWT curriculum. Research suggest that if a child learns how to properly make letters it will increase the speed in which they can write them. For example: it may take a child 15 seconds to make the letter e from the bottom and 5 seconds to make it HWT from the top. If a child is taking a state test and it is timed, it may take them longer to write the information if he/she does not know how to properly form letters.
Please make sure that your child is holding his/her pen, crayon, etc. correctly. Refer to the HWT proper pencil grip. If your child is having difficulty holding a pencil correctly, place a small marble in the palm of his/her hand. The child will hold the marble with his/her ring finger and pinky, the rest of the fingers will be holding the pencil correctly. You can purchase pencil grips, (from www.reallygoodstuff.com, key word “writing claws”) to put on your child’s pencil to help him/her properly hold a pencil.
Your child is expected to write all letters and numbers 0-20 correctly by the end of the year.. That means..... NO Reversals/Backwards letters or numbers
Please practice proper formation at home. If your child makes a letter or number backwards please have him/her correct it.
Ways to practice making letters and numbers:
- Using shaving cream- write the letters/numbers on a table or in the bathtub
- Using sand- put some sand in a shoebox, use your finger to make the letters/numbers
- HWT practice sheets
- Rainbow Writing– trace over a letter/ number using as many colors as possible
- Side Walk Chalk– use chalk and write letters/numbers on pavement
- Finger Paint– use finger paint and make the letters/numbers on construction paper
- Wet Sponge– use a wet sponge and form the letters/numbers on a table
- Paint Brush– use water and a paint brush and make the letters/numbers on the side of the house or pavement