Parent University Resources

     Thank you so much for coming to our Literacy Night for Parent University!  We hope you had a nice time reading with your child, working on character traits, and seeing some of the projects that some kindergarten, first grade, and accelerated learning are working on!

     As promised, here are some resources to help you while you read with your child at home.  As we discussed today, there are incredible benefits to reading for 20 minutes at home each night.  Here is the graphic that we showed:

     The Common Core standards have set some new expectations for our students.  The standards combine reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language skills to really challenge the students and help them go deeper than ever before.  We shared a tip sheet for parents to help incorporate the Common Core at home.  The best thing that you can is talk more with your child at home about everything...  Reading, writing, cleaning their room, choosing a type of cereal at the store... Everything!      The more that our children use language and vocabulary to express themselves, the more they will be able to do the same things with books in the classroom.  Here are some more suggestions about incorporating the Common Core.

English Common Core Tips
Spanish Common Core Tips

     Finally, our reading teachers compiled some resources to give you idea about what you can do at home with their child while reading.  Take a moment to read them and get some new strategies to practice while reading at home.

Reading at Home Handouts

     Thanks for coming and reading with your child!

Winter Books for a Snowy Day

     Here we are, in 2014, and it occurred to me that I never posted about the Polar Express happenings at Hiawatha the week before break.  A bunch of grade levels used the classic children's book by Chris Van Allsburg to ring in the holiday season.  They did a variety of different things using the text, including reading aloud, visualizing images, close reading excerpts, and discussing some important themes.  They also had a little fun with the book, including turning 1izfa into the Polar Express for the day!

     I was reminded of this today as all the winter storm warnings came rolling in.  I thought to myself that the Polar Express might be the perfect way to travel in Chicago over the next few days.  That, or we should all just stay home and read some great books with our families.  Here are some suggestions!

    If you are looking for a book to read that has to do with snow, I would highly suggest the book Snowflakes Fall by Patricia MacLachlan and Steven Kellogg.  It is a book that is about snowflakes, but it really a tribute to the children of Sandy Hook.  

"A Snowflake.

A Child.
No two the same--all beautiful."

The book has the most beautiful illustrations, including the final page where there's a line of snow angels that begins to fly.  The kids listening the the story have no idea the touching significance that the authors really intended.  Just beautiful.  

     If I am talking about great winter books, another favorite (also by Steven Kellogg) is The Missing Mitten Mystery.  It is about a little girl who loses a mitten while building a snowman.  It is, in fact, the 5th mitten that she has lost.  Once again, the illustrations are amazing, and the story is very relevant to our young students who love winter fun.

     Because of our 1:1 program, many families have their devices at home with them.  Try myON!  A few nights ago, I was reading to my kids with the fairy tales that we found on myON.  The kids really liked listening to the books with me (my kids are only 5 and 3, so we listened to them read aloud) and we talked about the books as we listened.  On a side note, I quickly learned that my kids are very trusting and that they did indeed think that the sky was falling.  Login and see if your family finds a book to discuss together.  

Here is a link to login:

http://www.myon.com/

**If your child doesn't know their login, please ask their teacher when they return to school in a few days.  It is a great resource to use at home!

     We will see you in a few days!  Stay warm until we see you on Tuesday!