Buchanan K-1 Center
Wow, where did this year go? Here are a few things to keep in mind over the summer to help keep your child/children from regressing before the next school year begins.
Read with them every day! Reading to young children and listening to them read to you is one of the best ways to help your child become a better reader. Keeping a log on your calendar of the title of the books you read is a fun way to track how many books you read over the summer. (Ask your child to retell what they have read to check their understanding of what they have read)
When your child comes to a difficult word, it is tempting to tell them, but it is better to prompt them to try it on their own. They could try to sound it out, check the picture to see if they can figure out a word that would make sense, and then run their finger under the word to see if it matches.
If your child struggles with sight words as they read, make a list of those words and do a quick game of memory match or flip through the words at bedtime or during mealtime.
When traveling in the car can be a great time to practice sight words or decoding by reading the signs along the way.
Helping your child keep a written journal of their summer activities and experiences is a great way to keep their writing skills sharp! Writing about personal experiences is usually fairly easy and quick. (For K-1 students invented spelling of hard words is encouraged so they don’t lose what they wanted to write)
The main thing to remember is to have fun and keep your child/children engaged and practicing the skills they have learned during the year!
Have a great SAFE summer and keep Reading and Writing!
Submitted by Lisa McCarty, Instructional Coach
The students in the Honors LA9 classes were busy the last quarter of the school year. They read examples of narrative nonfiction and wrote their own pieces to put into a narrative nonfiction writing portfolio. They also studied various poets and poetry and wrote a “found poem” from a song. Following that unit, they went through the research paper process and wrote a career research paper. Then they ended the quarter studying Shakespeare’s classic tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. After all of that work, they are now ready to relax and enjoy summer break!
Submitted by Chris Stahly
