May 28, 2020
Dear Parents
and Students,
I have
enjoyed working with your child this year in the Learning Center and through
Distance Learning. We have all grown so
much…including me! Many of you have
asked for some tips to help your student retain skills and continue learning
throughout the summer. Here are some
ideas and tips to help you weave some learning into your daily activities this
summer. You can also access my blog
at: http://www.mrsfieldslearningcenter.com
for more resources than are listed here.
Reading: Keep in mind, there are 5
essential components of reading. 1.
Phonics: Sound/Symbol 2. Phonemic Awareness: Blending/Segmenting
etc. 3.
Vocabulary 4. Fluency 5.
Reading Comprehension (For more about reading: http://www.k12reader.com/the-five-essential-components-of-reading/
)
- Read daily for 10 minutes per your child’s grade
level. For example, if they are in
1st grade 10 minutes, 2nd grade 20 minutes, 3rd
grade 30 minutes, etc. Attached are
some reading strategies to try at home.
- Some reading websites (may also be aps):
- Epic: Digital reading library: https://www.getepic.com/
- Learning Ally: https://learningally.org/ A parent
recommended this excellent resource and it is especially good for
students with reading difficulties. Assistive Technology, Audio books,
etc.
- www.bookadventure.com
This is similar to the SRI reading
program we have at school in that students read books and can take a
short quiz on the book. There are
many activities for children to choose from. Great for young readers!
- Scholastic Book Flix: http://auth.grolier.com/login/bookflix/login.php
Username: folsomhills Password: bookflix; Video, audio, read along
books. Great for young readers.
Put on the video then have them read along the book.
- Regular books! There is nothing better than a real
book in your hands and reading with your child. The best!
- The Folsom Public Library is closed due to the
COVID-19 shutdown. They have curbside
check out, are available by appointment, have e-books available, and are
still doing their Summer Reading Challenge. 916-461-6130 Check out their
website: https://www.folsom.ca.us/city_hall/depts/library/
- Get a bridging book for your student and work in it each
day. You can get them from lots of
places. I got mine from Amazon.com,
but you can also find them at Lakeshore Learning, Costco, and other
stores. Here are the some examples:
- Summer Bridge Activities: 3rd to
4th grade ISBN #:781604-18820
- Summer Bridge Activities: K to 1, 2-3, 3-4,
4-5 etc.
- A DOL (Daily Oral Language or Language Review) Book is terrific
practice for capitalization, grammar and punctuation. These books give the
wrong grammar, punctuation, language, and the student makes the
corrections. (I dropped off your
child’s DOL and DLP books to them so they would have hard copy materials.
These are good skill builders to do for about 5 minutes per day). These
activities help you see where your child needs additional instruction.
- School resources: i-ready, Readlive (if you are set up),
Clever (Benchmark, Lexia), All the Write Type, etc. These are available through our school
website. Your child may know their
username and password by heart, but if not, please get it from your
child’s teacher before the last day of school. I’m not sure how long these will be
available through summer especially since we have been distance
learning. They are usually
available through July.
- Practice the sight words!
Make flashcards and play games with the words that don’t look like
they sound. You can find sight word
lists on my blog. I have sent these out many times, but if you need them
again, send me an e-mail and I will send you a list.
Math:
- Learn math facts to automaticity (memorize): addition, subtraction, multiplication
and division. Flash cards, CD’s,
songs, practice in the car when driving on road trips, etc.
- Use “everyday” experiences to practice math. For example, give your child money to
pay for a souvenir on vacation.
Have them figure out the change they should receive. Cook and bake with your child to learn
about measurement. Practice telling time.
- If your child prefers paper/pencil math, like I do, there
are also some great common core workbooks and aps you can find to keep
your child thinking and calculating.
- Some good math websites to reference and to obtain
materials are:
- https://www.khanacademy.org/
Math lessons, materials, videos. The best!!!
- www.math-drills.com
- www.AAAmath.com
- K-2nd Grades
Fun Brain
Math Playground
SWUN
Math
XtraMath
o
3-5th Grades
Math Fact Cafe
Arcademic Skill Builders
https://www.arcademics.com/
Practice your
multiplication!
Math Fact Cafe
Writing:
- Remember writing is a recipe. We always have the same basic
ingredients of topic sentence, details, and concluding sentence. Depending on the genre (opinion, narrative,
informational), there will be other special ingredients and steps needed
to get your story written.
- Have your child keep a journal of daily, weekly or
vacation activities.
- Have your child “retell” or write a summary about stories
or books they have read or even a movie they saw.
- Practice using transition words, expanding their
vocabulary with synonyms.
- Kids Words Smyth
- https://kids.wordsmyth.net/we/
- For Handwriting:
- Handwriting without Tears website http://shopping.hwtears.com/ for
about $10 (or on Amazon and other marketplaces for various prices).
- “All the Right Type” is a typing program
available on our Folsom Hills Website. Keyboarding is becoming an
important component to our curriculum and this is a great way to help
your child learn this valuable skill.
https://www.atrtonline.com/login/index_usacafolso677.php. Again, your child must have their
username and password so please secure that from their teacher before
school ends on May 28th.
Parent enrichment:
- Books: I have a personal
library of books with ideas about learning. Here are a few books and websites to help
you enrich your own knowledge and may give you more ideas about how to
help your children learn.
- Overcoming Dyslexia, Sally Shawitz M.D.
- The Nurtured Heart Approach: Transforming The Difficult Child, Howard Glasser, MA
and Jennifer Easley, MA, Self published by Howard Glasser, e-mail- adhddoc@theriver.com, 1998
- All the Math You’ll Ever Need: A Self-Teaching Guide, Steve Slavin, John
Wiley and Sons, Inc, 1999
- Have You Filled Your Bucket
Today?: A Guide to Daily Happiness
for Kids,
Carol McCloud and David Messing
- Websites:
Research
shows children sharpen memory and improve focus using mind games and tools like
mnemonics (poems, songs, games) or “tie” their new learning with something they
already know (existing knowledge). There
are lots of language arts and math games you can play with your children. Family game night with fun games like UNO,
Pictionary, Yatzee, card games, etc. are a wonderful way to spend time together
and help your children learn. Arts,
crafts, music and movement help children learn so many different skills in a
fun way. Do those things or sign your
kids up for the activities that interest them.
I cannot
copy and duplicate many materials due to our paper shortage and budget
constraints. If there is something in
particular you need, let me know ASAP and I will do my best to get it for
you.
I set up my
blog in response to the COVID-19 shutdown of schools. I have scanned many resources for you to
access as you like. To access the blog: https://www.mrsfieldslearningcenter.com. The best way to contact me is through e-mail
during the school year.
I hope you
enjoy your well deserved summer break.
May it be filled with making lots of new memories. Please keep in touch and let me know how you
are doing. For those of you moving on to
the middle school, I will miss you and hope you will visit sometime. I will see the rest of you in August!
Very warmest
regards,
Teri Fields,
M.A. SpEd
Education
Specialist, Mild/Moderate
Folsom Hills
Elementary School
916-294-9135
ext. 121
*Note: Special thanks to Patty Braun, Empire Oaks
Resource Teacher, Jeanne Cramer, SJ Gallardo Classroom Teacher, and Jenae
Cooper, parent for contributing resources and ideas for this letter.
***Special extra kudos and thanks to Tina Magorian and Jennifer Lim for being the best teaching partners ever.
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