Math

Every Monday - Thursday your child will have math homework. This is a short review of what we learned in class that same day. Your child should be able to do most of this work on their own, without parental assistance. He/she needs to complete the assignment daily and return it to school the next morning.

Spelling

A list of fifteen spelling words will be sent home every Monday. Please review the words with your child throughout the week. Your child should know how to read the word as well as spell is correctly. Weekly assessments will be given on Fridays.

Reading

Your child is expected to read every day for at least twenty minutes. They can read to an adult, a sibling, to themselves, or you can read with or to them. They also have a homework calendar that has different types of activities to do. Each month they are expected to do a different amount. The activities on the homework calendar are to be completed and kept at home. Do not send the finished activities back to school. Please initial in the box indicating that you saw your child complete the activity. On the back of the homework calendar is the reading log. Please write down the title of the book your child is reading, sign both sides, and return the calendar at the end of the month. I will have a sticker chart in the classroom. Each month your child can earn two stickers to put on the class chart (one for completing the homework calendar activities and one for completing the reading log). At the end of the year, if they have turned in all nine calendars and reading logs they will attend a special end of the year party. Please try your best to make sure your child turns in the completed calendar and a log each month. I would love to see all of the children attend the end of the year party.

"Why Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?"

Let's figure it out -- mathematically!

Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week.

Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!

Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.

Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 min. /week.

Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes.

Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.

Student A reads 400 minutes a month.

Student B reads 80 minutes a month.

Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year.

Student A reads 3600 min. in a school year.

Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.

Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.

Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

By the end of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits, Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days. Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days. One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:

• Which student would you expect to read better?

• Which student would you expect to know more?

• Which student would you expect to write better?

• Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?

• Which student would you expect to be more successful in school....and in life?