Helping Out at Home

The following are Helpful Hints in Each Subject Area which you can use at home to reinforce material learned at school.  I hope they are useful to you and your child.  As new skills are introduced, please practice at home.

Math Facts

 Your child should be practicing their addition and subtraction math facts every night.  This can be done in many ways, examples are with flashcards, minute timed tests, games on the computer, or verbally asking them in the car. On Wednesdays, your child is to practice for 15 minutes, and write down (in the Homework Notebook) how practice was completed. If interested, the online link for the Math Program is: www.sadlierconnect.com, then click on the Student and Family Resouces tab.  Our book is Progress in Mathematics Grade 2.  There are many activities to do at home!
 

Reading
 Take time everyday to read for pleasure. Let your child see you reading.  Also, take the time to read with or to your child.  Reading is the key to everything.  Almost all new learning comes from reading.  If your child does not enjoy reading, find a subject he/she is interested in and get books on that subject.  Also, eBooks are good additions to the hard copies of a book.  The most important thing is to READ!!!
 
A fun way to help your child with reading comprehension is for you and your child to read the same book (at his /her level) and to quiz each other while reading the book. This way you can know about the books your child is reading and help them out at the same time.

 Spelling

 Every Friday (or the end of the week) your child will receive a spelling list of the following week's spelling words.  On Monday, your child will be given a pre-test page to be completed and returned on Tuesday. Also, on Monday, your child will bring home a "Spelling Activity Sheet", where s/he wil choose two activities, complete them, and return them by Friday.  The parent is required to initial the line next to the activity description to note they have seen its completion.
 
Practice spelling these words each night.  Also, practice using these words in sentences. This sentence practice will be a big help in building a vocabulary, improve sentence formation and writing, as well as, story and journal writing.  
 
Also. when writing new words, do not tell your child how to spell the word right away.  Ask them how they think it is spelled.  Or, use a dictionary to see how it is spelled.  We use this strategy at school all the time.  This promotes learning and self confidence; I CAN figure things out myself (or with a LITTLE help!).

Phonics

 When learning to pronounce new words, try sounding them out using the strategies/rules learned in phonics. Review using phonics pages sent home.
 
Play "Fill in the Blank".  You say a word and your child has to provide the vowel, first letter, last letter, middle letter, blend etc. which you have left out.
 
Provide opportunities for your child to rhyme; making up silly rhymes or just rhyming words.
 
Give them a riddle and they have to provide the correct word for answering that riddle.  For example, "I know something that is very hot and has a short u in the middle."  The answer is: SUN. The online link for the Phonics program is www.sadlierconnect.com, and click on the Student and Family Resources tab for The Grade 2 Phonics book. 

Grammar

Remember to always use the correct grammar when speaking and writing.  You are your child's first teacher.
 
Each day I provide my students with a language activity on the board where they have to correct the grammar in sentences, whether it be grammatical speaking errors or capitalization and punctuation. 
 
Some units in the Grammar book may be difficult for child at first. Do not worry.  We review grammar concepts continuously throughout the year.  If your child has difficulty with the concept when it is first introduced, go over the work, as I will in school, and it will become easier after more review. 

Religion

 This is a VERY exciting year for child!  If your child is Catholic, he/she will be receiving the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist for the first time! The best way to prepare your child for these important milestones is to attend weekly Mass together and pray with them; in the morning, mealtime, when they go to bed or any other time during the day. (When I hear/see an ambulance or police car in an emergency situation, I say a quick prayer for the people involved .)  By doing this together with your child, he/she will know how important it is to have God in their lives.
 
Most Fridays, the students will have a Chapter Test on the lessons they learned throughout the week.  To prepare for this, your child will bring the book home on Thursday. Please review the chapter with them (we will have highlighted the most important parts). If you find your child is having difficulty, you may bring the book home more often.  Just remember we use the book everyday, so it needs to be returned to school. The online link for the Religion program is www.sadlierconnect.com . 

Science and Social Studies

Science and Social Studies units usually will be taught at opposite times (when we are learning Science we will not be doing Social Studies.) Both of these may involve completing projects at home or bringing materials to school to complete a project.  Notes/information will be sent home at the time.
 
The students will be keeping a Science/Social Studies notebook, which will include vocabulary practice, experiments or other extra activity pages for the chapter.  The children will bring them home to study with or sometimes just to show you what they are doing in class.
 
At the time of the Science Chapter/Social Studies Unit test, I will usually give the children a week to start bringing their book home for review.  Going over the chapter a few pages each night is much easier than going over the whole chapter the night before the test. Good study habits for life are best learned early!   Do not be scared by the amount of pages per Science Chapter or Social Studies Unit.  Many of the pages have pictures, experiments, or projects, and/or very little writing on them.
 
A way to help at home would be to make flash cards for the vocabulary words; one for the word, the other for the definition.  We do this at school and play MEMORY or CONCENTRATION.  Anyway to make it fun is helpful for learning/studying at this age. The online link for Science is http://www.macmillanmh.com.  The students may also access Scholastic News.  Their password is frogbug5297

Study Time

 Your child should have a set time and place for studying and doing homework.  Getting into a homework/study routine at a young age will help a great deal as they get older.  Even if your child does not have any "written" homework, he/she should be working on math facts, the week's spelling words and reading for pleasure.