Richland One recognizes that parents are critical partners in the education process. Children whose parents are involved and engaged have higher achievement and academic goals. We encourage families to use these simple strategies to support academic growth and success in school
GENERAL • • • • • •
Emphasize learning as a daily priority and model a positive attitude each day. Ensure that your child is at school and on time every day. Provide quiet study time in well-lit locations and prioritize homework responsibilities. Be an active participant in your child’s education either at home, at school, or in the community Communicate on a regular basis with your child’s teachers and school leaders. Make attendance a priority, especially on days that you know standardized testing will be administered or there is a test in the classroom.
EARLY CHILDHOOD (PRE-KINDERGARTEN-2ND GRADES) LITERACY • Make reading and writing a daily priority. Model what good readers and writers do and let your child see you and your family reading. • Snuggle with your child as they read and ask them to predict, read aloud, and retell what they read. • Take literacy road trips to local libraries, museums, and other important community landmarks. • Play word/vocabulary games being sure to increase difficulty as the year goes on. • Allow time for reading for pleasure and reading for information. • Limit TV time. Set aside a special time just for reading and writing. • Have a special book basket placed in a central location of the home so that your child has access to his/her favorite books at any time. • While you are cooking dinner, have your child use magnet letters on the refrigerator to build words and practice blends. MATH • Present a positive attitude towards math and provide daily examples of how math is used at home, school, and everywhere! • Talk “math” at home. Use the vocabulary to build a natural bank of math words. Use terms such as “sphere” when asking for an orange. • Take your child to the grocery store with you! It is a great place to practice math skills. Your child will love to place the fruit in the scale to weigh, or count the number of apples in the bin.
• Use the legs of furniture to ask questions such as “How many legs are there all together?”, “What if we take one chair away, how many legs will be left?”. Have them draw a picture to help solve the problems you ask. • Practice categorizing skills such as sorting laundry by color or size. • Have your child help prepare meals. This is a great way to have them incorporate math skills such as counting, sorting, and measuring. SOCIAL STUDIES • Use the daily newspaper to teach your child about current events or community leaders. • Attend local cultural events with your child. • Provide opportunities for your child to learn about the economy. • Have your child create a community map using play dough. • Get involved in local community events so that your child sees how important it is to become an active community member. SCIENCE • Discuss important careers that involve science and begin to use those career words when asking your child to conduct experiments. • Use a Hula Hoop outside to designate a special place for digging. Allow your child to dig and explore soil, sand, plants, and bugs. Have a bucket of simple science equipment such as a thermometer and magnifying glass available for their outside science explorations. • Have fun with your child by making simple science experiments (baking soda and vinegar are the best). Ask them to predict what may happen. You’ll have a blast! • Classify objects by observable properties such as size, shape, weight, or texture. • Build a small herb garden and have your child make daily observations and measurements of the growth process.
ELEMENTARY (GRADES 3-5) LITERACY • Read daily to your child. Reading exposes children to a rich vocabulary and can have positive impacts on their literary achievement. • Increase the vocabulary of your child by talking to him/ her often. Exposing your child to a variety of words is a great way to help with reading. • Ensure that your child reads 15-20 minutes a day. A log of reading and providing incentives will enhance motivation. MATH • Find ways to practice number operations (i.e., skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s,…). • As you are visiting the store, ask your child to compare different brands for the same item and calculate how much will be saved by selecting the lower-priced item. • Find ways to collect, sort, and organize information. • Select family games that help with the development of math skills (i.e., checkers, chess, Monopoly, Clue,…). SOCIAL STUDIES • Talk about the holidays, especially public holidays such as Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Independence Day, and Veterans Day. These days mean much more than a day off of work or a sale! Discuss the meanings of these holidays, the people and events they celebrate, and how they impact our lives today. • Take every opportunity you can to explain to your child our civic rights and responsibilities. When it’s time to
vote, explain the importance of this right and critical responsibility. • Discuss with your child the topics you learn while reading the paper, surfing the web, or watching the news, then ask them for their opinions on political, social, and economic matters. Listen, ask probing questions, and compliment them on their reasoning. SCIENCE • See science everywhere. Take opportunities to ask “What would happen if…?” • Work on science together. Simple investigations at home can reinforce what is learned during the school day. • Become an active participant in your child’s education by collaborating with the teacher or curriculum specialist. Research resources at the school.
SECONDARY (GRADES 6-12) LITERACY • Encourage your child to READ, READ, READ! Magazines, comic books, menus, or directions are all great choices. • Show your child that you are a reader. • Read instruction manuals with your child. • Visit local libraries together to check out books. • Give books as gifts. • Write letters to your child and ask them to write you back. MATH • Make mathematics a part of daily life. • Use opportunities to talk about and apply math, when cooking, talking about sports, money, etc. • Be positive about math. Never say, “I was never good in math, either.” • Help students to learn their basic facts. • Express confidence in your child’s ability to do math. • Have your child explain his/her work.
• Explain how math applies to real life. • Encourage children to solve problems. • Encourage regular practice even when there is no assignment • Learn about the classroom practices your child’s teachers use to support learning. • Encourage students to sign up for free accounts on the official ACT and SAT websites to receive the Problem-of-theDay, practice tests, etc. • Monitor students’ ALEKS progress and learning by assuring they are using the resource while at home (at least 2 hours per week) SOCIAL STUDIES • Explain to your child his/her relationship to others in the global community. • Discuss with your child the differences in places and cultures during specific timeframes of history. • Identify and explain the relationships among multiple causes and multiple effects. • Explain the difference between fact and opinion, evidence and argument. • Find time to discuss current events and historical events. • Make social studies a part of daily life. • Talk about participatory citizenship of individuals in relationship to the state, the nation and international communities. SCIENCE • Make science a part of daily life. • Use opportunities to talk about scientific concepts and occurrences. • Be positive about science and express confidence in your child’s ability to do science. • Have your child explain concepts they have learned in science. • Explain how science applies to real life. • Encourage regular study of science notes, even when there is no assignment. • Learn about the classroom practices your child’s teacher uses to support learning.
Early Childhood Literacy – www.raz-kids.com/main/login , www.writer.com, and www.writereader.com Literacy and Math – www.starfall.com and www.abcya.com Science – www.sciencebob.com Elementary Literacy – www.raz-kids.com, www.readwritethink.org/parentafterschool-resources, and www.timeforkids.com Math - https://learnzillion.com/math Science - www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/archieve.html and www.learningscience.org Social Studies www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/funandgames and www.learninggamesforkids.com/social_studies_games.html Secondary General – http://tinyurl.com/ACTactprep , https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sample-questions , and http://ed.sc.gov/test/high/eocep Literacy – www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources, http://freerice.com, and vocabulary.coil/ Math – www.khanacademy.com and www.aleks.com Science – www.learningscience.org , http:sciencereviewgames.com/srg , and http://interactivesites.weebly.com/science.html Social Studies – http://teachingamericanhistory. org/50docs/, https://sheg.standford.edu/world and http:// americainclass.org/primary-sources/
For more information contact the Office of Teaching and Learning at 231-6704.