DAILY MATH PRACTICE

Each night, students should practice counting by 1's and 5's on their number grids in their homework folders.  These number grids should go home each night and return to school the next day.  Students can also choose two numbers on their grid and decide which is larger and which is smaller.

WRITING
Parents should encourage students to write daily.  The writing can be something as detailed as a journal entry about their thoughts and feelings, or something as simple as helping write the grocery list or a to do list for home.  When they do write, do not focus on perfection.  This only instills a fear of making a mistake.  Sometimes students need to make several mistakes before mastering that skill/concept. 

Do not tell them how to spell the words.  Encourage them to say the word slowly listening to every sound in the word.  We call this stretching the word like a rubber band.  Tell them to think about the letter or letters that make each sound, and then write those letters.  

Encourage them to try new words that will increase their vocabulary.  For example, instead of writing I like ice cream; have them think of other ways to write the same ideas/feelings; I enjoy eating ice cream. 

HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS
Students are to practice reading their high frequency words for the week. These words will be found in the stories in their anthologies for the week.  Each week, I will staple their new list of high frequency words in their agendas.  These words can be found in their agendas on the page that should be signed by their parent each night.  Students will also be writing sentences using these words.  These words will appear on reading, spelling, and sentence dictation tests. 

GRAMMAR
Students should be beginning sentences with capital letters.  They should end a telling sentence with a period.  When students write a person's name, it should begin with a capital letter.  The word "I" should be capitalized when it is written by itself.