Literacy

Literacy is Fun!!!
Our Goal in Room 13 is to develop children who have a
life long love of

 Reading and Writing.

It is so exciting to start the children off on their paths to be keen, motivated, successful Readers and Writers.

Information For Parents

Home Learning

Everyday when your child comes into the classroom please assist them to place their book bag into the large labelled green bucket. Every Monday they will have new home learning tasks to complete over the week in their home learning book. I will collect these each Friday for marking.  The home learning will be a mixture of Alphabet work, sight words, spelling, basic facts for Math’s and handwriting practice. Monday to Thursday they will have a Reading Book to read at home. Please record the Title of the book, Date and sign their Reading Log. The only home learning for the weekend will be a poem.


Alphabet

Please teach your child the names of all the letters of the Alphabet in both Upper and Lower case forms. They as so need to be able to say the sound that each letter makes. On their first day at school they will be given a laminated sheet of the Letterland characters to help you learn the Alphabet. On the back of this sheet is a sheet to show you the correct way that each letter of the Alphabet needs to be formed. In Year One we focus on the correct formation for the lower case letters.


Sight Words

A copy of the first 50 Reading sight words will be glued into the back of your child's Home Learning book. I suggest you start by teaching them to read two or three words and then slowly build up the number you are working on. You want them to be able to read them instantly and find them and Read them in books. Make it fun!!! Write them on two cards  and play memory with them, make a mini bingo game, write them on wet windows, find them in Library books, Etc.                                                                                                       


Home Readers

Four days a week your child will bring home a book to share with you that they have read at school. Please share the book with them, encourage them to read it to you, praise them when the give things a try, talk about the pictures, the storyline and find words in the text. Get them to finger point to each word as they read it. Don't be concerned if they make it up. Please don't cover the pictures as these give them information to help work out what is written on the page.  


Developing Writing 

Build a climate of words at home. Go places and see things with your child, then talk about what has been seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched. The basis of good writing is good talk, and younger children especially grow into stronger control of language when loving adults -- particularly parents -- share experiences and rich talk about those experiences.
Let children see you write often. You're both a model and a teacher. If children never see adults write, they gain an impression that writing occurs only at school. What you do is as important as what you say. Have children see you writing notes to friends, letters to business firms, perhaps stories to share with the children. From time to time, read aloud what you have written and ask your children their opinion of what you've said. If it's not perfect, so much the better. Making changes in what you write confirms for the child that revision is a natural part of writing -- which it is.
Be as helpful as you can in helping children write. Talk through their ideas with them; help them discover what they want to say. When they ask for help with spelling, punctuation, and usage, supply that help. Your most effective role is not as a critic but as a helper. Rejoice in effort, delight in ideas, and resist the temptation to be critical.
Provide a suitable place for children to write. A quiet corner is best, the child's own place, if possible. If not, any flat surface with elbow room, a comfortable chair, and a good light will do.

Give the child, and encourage others to give, the gifts associated with writing:
pens of several kinds
pencils of appropriate size and hardness
pads of paper, stationery, envelopes -- even stamps
a booklet for a diary or daily journal 
a dictionary appropriate to the child's age and needs. 

Encourage (but do not demand) frequent writing. Be patient with reluctance to write. "I have nothing to say" is a perfect excuse. Recognize that the desire to write is a sometime thing. There will be times when a child "burns" to write; others, when the need is cool. But frequency of writing is important to develop the habit of writing.
Praise the child's efforts at writing. Forget what happened to you in school and resist the tendency to focus on errors of spelling, punctuation, and other mechanical aspects of writing. Emphasize the child's successes. For every error the child makes, there are dozens of things he or she has done well.
Share letters from friends and relatives. Treat such letters as special events. Urge relatives and friends to write notes and letters to the child, no matter how brief. Writing is especially rewarding when the child gets a response. When thank-you notes are in order, after a holiday especially, sit with the child and write your own notes at the same time. Writing ten letters (for ten gifts) is a heavy burden for the child; space the work and be supportive.
Encourage the child to write for information, free samples, and travel brochures.
Be alert to occasions when the child can be involved in writing, for example, helping with grocery lists, adding notes at the end of parents' letters, sending holiday and birthday cards, taking down telephone messages, writing notes to friends, helping plan trips by writing for information, drafting notes to school for parental signature, writing notes to letter carriers and other service persons, and preparing invitations to family get-togethers.
Writing for real purposes is rewarding, and the daily activities of families present many opportunities for purposeful writing. Involving your child may take some coaxing, but it will be worth your patient effort.

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