Wednesday 29 April 2015

Monday 27 April 2015

May Language and Literacy Tips

May Tips for Language and Literacy Skills
Courtesy of the GECDSB Speech and Language Department
Oral Language
Work on telling and retelling stories together:
Storytelling and retelling skills are important oral language skills related to reading and writing. Here are some tips for working on these skills:
Work on telling stories: Ask your child how their day went, how a trip was, how their visit to a friend’s house was etc. Encourage them to tell a story of their own about events. For example: Encourage a story grammar format like First… Then... Last...     Then model the format for them afterwards by recapping their story/retelling it to them.
Also work on retelling stories: Read stories together. At the end ask your child what happened in the story. Have them imagine they are telling the story to someone who did not hear it so they remember to add all the details. Encourage using a story grammar format like First… Next… Last… Then model the format for them afterwards by recapping their story/retelling it to them. 

Reading
Helping your child read at home:
Have them look at the picture for clues
Have them look for chunks in the words like ‘it’ in ‘sit’, or ‘all’ in ‘small’
Have them get their mouth ready to say the word by sounding out the sounds in the word
Have them look for words that look like words they know like ‘could’ looks like ‘should’
Have them go on and read the rest of the sentence if they get stuck on a word, reading the context around the word sometimes helps us fill in the blanks like “I water the (garden)”
If your child says the word wrong while reading ask questions like: “Does it make sense?” “Does it sound right” “Does it look right?”
Aim to read for 20 minutes a night and have fun doing it!

Writing
Have fun writing down answers to silly questions related to the month of May
Sample Questions:
What is your favourite animal? Write down all the information you know about it, then ask others for new ideas!
What are your favourite foods? Write a list and then make up a new recipe!
Mother’s Day is in May. Think of a wonderful time you have had with your mother/grandmother/aunt and write them a letter
Think of your favourite things to do in the spring and write down a bucket list to finish before summer starts
Camping season starts in May. Write about your favourite camping memory. 

Friday 24 April 2015

Story Time Outside




Read-A-Thon

We were very lucky to have a local Author come in to be our Guest Reader. Thank you to Mr. Cornelius Boon who read his book called Stick In The Mud.




Saturday 18 April 2015

When Science and Colour Mix...

What happens when we set up 3 jars of water, one red, one clear and one blue and put one paper towel between them??

Tweet, Tweet, We are thankful for...

After reading 'Daniel Tiger's Thank You Day', we were inspired to say "Thank You" more in our classroom. Check out our THANK YOU TREE. Lots of great writing happening!