Showing posts with label parent involvement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parent involvement. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Helping Your Child Learn at Home

One of the questions I get from parents of my students is "What can I do to support my child's learning at school?"  They may ask this because their child is struggling in a subject, because they need acceleration opportunities, or because they will be missing school for illness, vacation or family emergencies.




This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

Here are a few fun learning activities for kids you can do at home:

1. Read. Read. Read some more.

The number one thing I tell parents to have their child do if they are going to be absent for any reason is to read.


Studies have shown time and time again, that students who read more become better readers and students!  If you are looking for some book suggestions for 3rd-5th graders, you can find some great ones here.

2. Play Games

I have found in the classroom that the more I have my students play games to learn, the more they love learning!  You can play just about any traditional board game to practice social skills such as turn taking and cooperation, but my students also love playing academic games like the ones below.








You can also just have your child throw a pair of dice to practice a variety of skills from basic math facts (rolling two dice) or long division (using multiple dice). 

3. Provide Daily Spiral Review Practice

One of the reasons why students fall behind when they miss school, is because they miss concepts that may or may not ever be introduced or practiced again.  I like to give my students spiral review practice throughout the year so that not only will the students who are absent will not miss instruction, but also, so that ALL students will have repeated opportunities to practice skills throughout the year.

I use these workbooks in my class as daily homework.  You can also purchase them to use at home with your child as well. If your child is behind, you may want to order the grade level one year below as well.  If your child needs acceleration, get a grade level ahead.








4. Provide Practice For Essential Skills

When students know essential skills such as math facts, letter sounds, spelling, etc. it makes it so much easier for them to learn new skills in class.  

I encourage my parents to practice math facts with their students using games like the ones above or with color by number math fact worksheets.  My students LOVE these!


I have these available for most of the holidays of the year on Teachers pay Teachers or Amazon.




Bonus FREEBIE

You can grab an addition and multiplication sample of my Unicorn math facts sets free here.


The full unicorn math facts sets are listed below:


There are also a lot of great apps on cell phones to practice facts as well!

Practice spelling using the things around you.  Ask your child to spell microwave, refrigerator, cell phone, etc.  As they are spelling focus on the sounds they hear in each word.  Are their any other words that use those patterns?  For example, what other words have a ph that make the "f" sound they hear in phone.  They might say, "photograph,  nephew, or dolphin."

When your child asks you how to spell a word, don't just tell them, but see what sounds they can figure out on their own.

5. Write!

When I was a child, I loved carrying around notebooks and writing to my heart's content!  Many of my students do too, but many really struggle with writing. One way to encourage those students to write more is by keeping a journal that you and your child each write notes to each other.  Start with smaller notes and gradually increase the length of your own responses to your child.  You will see theirs grow as well.

Another way to get them writing is to ask them to write a story about their favorite tv show or video game.  My reluctant writers really love writing about Minecraft or Pokemon!

You could also write interactive stories with your child with each of you taking turns writing sentences for the same story.

Some of my other Teacher friends have shared some ideas for learning at home as well!  Head on over to read their ideas!





Melissa from Peas in a Pod (Resources for K-6)










Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Origami - Learning So Much More Than Paper Folding

Have you ever used origami in your classroom?  I have been amazed at the lessons my students have learned!  So much more than just paper folding!



This year, we have been blessed to have a mom of one of my students come in to teach origami.  If it were not for her, my class would not be learning origami because I am definitely not blessed with the talent of being able to intricately fold paper.



She and I have both joked about how we could "justify" the origami lessons - the students are learning about symmetry, angles, following directions, etc.  But, truthfully, the students and I have learned some important life lessons.

I have always been blessed to be "book smart".  School was easy to me and I have easily scored in the top 10% of just about every standardized test I have ever taken.  However, back in high school when I took the ASVAB, I scored at least two standard deviations below the lowest possible score on the spatial reasoning section ( well, not seriously, but I was definitely in the bottom ten percent).  Origami lessons are the time when I REALLY identify with my struggling learners! I have to have the directions repeated OVER and OVER again.  Often another student has to take my project to re-do the errant folds I have made.  They love being able to teach the teacher.

But, I am not the only one with this experience.  Most of my higher students have learned that they also struggle.  But... just like me they persevere!  They try it again and again until they get it.




My struggling learners have also learned what it feels like to be GOOD at something!  Many of these students are naturals at hands on learning.  Some of them don't even need to hear the directions, they just know how to do it!


The origami lessons have even inspired my students to become teachers!  A few of my boys have been reading the Origami Yoda series and taught us all how to make Origami Yodas!


And... even though I struggled and needed after school tutoring - I FINALLY made my own spinners!


 Updated: Since this post was originally written a few years ago, I obviously no longer have this parent coming into my classroom.  Luckily for me, and for you, I just found these amazing videos that teach kids how to make origami animals. You can find them at Art for Kids Hub. They also have lots of other great art projects as well! I can't wait to try them with my students this year!





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