Category: Blogs

Mathseeds is a great resource to help engage your child in learning from home. They are able to practice one-to-one correspondence, comparing numbers, addition, subtraction, and much more. Try to have your child do at least one lesson per day!

Are you and your child getting bored with writing each day? You may want to try writing a story together! You can take turns adding one sentence at a time to a story. Choose a topic you want to write about and then consider who the characters are, where the setting is, what problem occurs throughout the story, and what the solution is (how does the problem get fixed). This could be done over several days and may engage your child more in the writing process. Let your imagination go wild!

TIP: Brainstorm the characters, setting, problem, and solution before getting started! You could make a “thinking map” or “web.” Place the title of the story in the middle of the paper and then draw lines and bubbles from the title where you can think up each area of the story before getting writing to have a guide along the way!

Another fun way we spice up writing in class is by combining two animals and creating a new name for it or combining two habitats and creating a new name for the place and imagining what kind of animals live there!

If you choose to combine two animals, you can have your child pick two different animals and consider what character traits and physical attributes they want to include from each animal. Where would this hybrid animal live? What would this new animal eat? An example is combining a monkey and a lion together. We did this in class together several months back. We called our new animal a Lonkey and it had the body of a monkey, with a lions mane and tail.

Another way you could encourage writing is by having your child choose a noun (person, place, thing, or animal), then have them choose an adjectives or several adjectives to describe the noun, next have your child choose a verb (action word) which will describe what the noun is doing. Finally, have them tell where all of this is taking place (setting). An example might look like this: “The yellow hairy monster is sleeping under my bed.”

I hope this helps to give you some new ideas of how you can write at home with your child!

Our social worker has been coming into our classroom to work with the class on social emotional skills. We have discussed our feelings, ways to apologize, ways to ask friends to play, and different ways to greet each other.

The following link provides access to two weeks of social emotional learning which can be completed at home:

This video will help you to promote your child’s learning in writing over the next few weeks. You can have your child write about anything! They could write about what they did the day before, a sleepover with a friend, a birthday party, etc. That is narrative writing. You can practice opinion writing by asking your child if they like “this or that” better. For example, “Do you like cupcakes or cake better?” Make sure that your child writes about why they like one over the other by using our “why word” which is the word, because.

I wanted to say how impressed I am with how much the children are participating in Rag-Kids. This resource is wonderful because it promotes so many of the skills we learn in class, focusing on comprehension by asking the children to identify setting, characters, key details and much more!

Our top participant in the class has earned over 7,000 stars!!! Wow! Great work!

I also wanted to let all of you know that I have updated the reading levels in Raz-Kids to the latest level which your child performed on the DRA reading analysis. I hope this helps engage your child more seeing as each level should be right where they are able to learn!

In addition to updating the reading levels, I analyzed the reports on how the students are performing on quizzes and what they are excelling in and areas where they may need some extra attention.

The area where the children are performing about 70% in correctly answering questions related to the text on retelling key details in the story. This tells me that many of the children are missing what the story is actually about. To help encourage these retelling skills and making connections with key details in the story, try having your child read you a story and then ask them to tell you what happened in the beginning, middle, and end. Then ask them to identify the events which took place that they believe were the most important and have them tell you why. Having a discussion about the story will help them to increase their comprehension skills and improve in understanding what key details are for future stories as well. It is ok for this to just be a conversation that you have after they finish reading you the book, however, if you would like to take their learning further, remember, you can always print out and utilize these comprehension worksheets:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HwF4Kdvk_0SS7IYmCr1a3MTOFHsMtKiA/view

Thank you so much for working with your child at home. I know these are unusual times and we are all trying our best to navigate them!

Click the link below to go on a field trip right from your couch:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SvIdgTx9djKO6SjyvPDsoGlkgE3iExmi3qh2KRRku_w/preview?fbclid=IwAR1tK30MD-vumNPTD7apPiMKrO8fYChb4kCZ574E9UsQxNDJ2tix3z4cOFs

The following link will take to you lesson plans for this week from our D-Shines program:

https://dl.orangedox.com/DSHINESESLessonsEnglish/1RCIO30jaPccnaj3kzUvFbXe1yKoabWkE

This is optional, but if you are looking for some extra resources, this is a great tool for physical activity and nutrition!

As of Monday, March 23, the Administrative Service Center will no longer be open but, just like our schools, the work will continue.  Our staff will transition to working at home and to make sure we continue to deliver services to the public, I would like to share the following contact numbers and emails: 

• General Information-  313 827-3006 communicatons@dearbornschools.org
• Social Emotional Hotline- 313 827-8500 dss@dearbornschools.org
• Tech Support- 313 827-8400 parenthelp@dearbornschools.org
• Student Services- 313 827-3068
• Special Education-  313 827-7050

Remember, this is just a suggestion and you may want to switch around your child’s learning based on their interests. Some of the children are very interested in math and could do this later in the day because they will still be excited about the information. Some children prefer reading or writing and have less stamina for math, so you may consider making the math lessons the first thing they do. Make learning at home work for you and your schedule, as well as your child’s interests.

Here is a suggested schedule:

1st –  Writing (3 sentences and a picture) 

I have a video I created which helps describe how to promote writing at home. Over the next two days, I will talk extensively on the blog about ways to help your child write at home, stay tuned for these helpful tips!

Brain break! This is where you could use Gonoodle or you could go on youtube and use cosmic yoga, or get outside and take a walk if the weather permits!

2nd – Raz Kids OR Reading Eggs for 20 min OR complete one lesson

Give them a break! Depending on when you are doing your “at-home-learning” — this might be a good time to have a snack or break for lunch or dinner. Let them have some time to themselves to engage in play or whatever activity they would like. This will also give you time to complete any tasks you need to get done in your day!

3rd – Math workbook page (10 – 15 minutes) Read them the directions, they can do one page front and back independently. Watch the links posted at the beginning of each week for the math videos. I have also created a video which discusses how to help teach math at home. This can be found under the “how-to videos” tab.

4th – Math seeds (20 minutes) and you’re done!!

If you would like to add more into your day, I have posted and will continue to post about art activities from Mrs. Buenting’s blog, physical education from Mr. Peecher’s blog, the D-Shines lesson plans for this week which include lessons on nutrition and physical education, social-emotional growth, science and social studies activities, and much more. Remember, these are not required activities, but resources you an use if you are looking for more learning activities to keep your child busy during this time.

Please remember to check in with your child to make sure they are understanding the material. Don’t forget to read each night, even if it is only for 10 minutes before bedtime. Make sure to discuss the pages your child read to you or that you read to your child to engage their reading comprehension! Now might be a great time to choose a chapter book to read together and read for a few minutes each night!

I hope this suggested schedule is helpful. Remember, make the day work for you! Change around the schedule, engage your child in other activities that promote reading, writing, and math. Cooking is a fun way to utilize math skills, following step-by-step directions, and much more! Try to have fun with the learning at home and do not stress! The children learn through play, so if you are having fun, so are they!

Remember:

This week your child should be working on math lessons: Module 4 Lessons 37-40

Continue reading each night and working on sight words.

Don’t forget to practice writing! Your child should be sounding out words by themselves and writing down the sounds they hear. If the words have been on a previous spelling test, they should be spelled correctly in their writing.

Please reference the post below for a reminder on what your child should be practicing to keep up their learning over the next few weeks:

Spelling test and lists will be pushed back and will resume in April when we return. In the meantime, please continue working on sight words. We have attached the sight word lists for Kindergarten that need to be mastered before the end of the year. 

• An easy way to practice these words is by writing out flash cards. We recommend you try the 6:4 method (6 words they know and 4 words they do not know) when reviewing. Practice the set of 10 words until they have mastered words and then bring in new words 4 new words and removed 4 they have mastered. 
• Alphabet Chart
• Sight Word Lists ** They need to know these by the end of Kindergarten! (Young 5, focus on the pre-primer list to prepare them for Kinder!) 

Reading

• Please use Raz-Kids and reading eggs to work with your child on maintaining and improving their reading skills. I will be monitoring the online programing from home, please email if you have any questions. Students should listen to the book, read the book, and take the quiz for each book before moving on to the next story or book. My recommendation would be at least 3 books a day (following the listen, read, and quiz pattern) and 20-30 minutes on reading eggs. 
  • Raz Kids
  • Reading Eggs
  • You will need the teacher username for raz-kids, these are posted on individual teacher’s blog but we have also listed them here: 
    • dvensko
    • Chammout
    • mdimitriou
    • afillmore1
• If you are not using online resources (raz-kids), we have attached comprehension pages for you to do with hard copy of books – 1 per day (15 total). 
  • young 5 reading comprehension
  • Kindergarten Reading Comprehension Papers
• Please continue to do the fun activities on the March is Reading Month Log. Don’t forget to log your minutes! 

Writing

• Attached is a template to use each day- 15 total. Students should pick a topic of their choice and write at least 3 complete sentences (Kindergarten) to match the picture they draw. 
  • Young 5 Writing Template – 1 complete sentence 
  • Kindergarten Writing Template – 3 complete sentences 

Math

• Here are the math lessons that should be completed in your child’s Eureka Math Succeed Book. 
  • Week of March 16th: Module 4 Lessons 31-36
  • Week of March 23rd: Module 4 Lessons 37-40
  • Week of March 30th: Module 5 Lessons 1-6
• This is a link to a youtube playlist that has the lessons online for your child to watch. On the right side of the video is the playlist where you can select the appropriate lesson. Module 4 Lessons 31-40

Module 5 Lessons 1-6

• Here is the link to math seeds. Students typically spend 20 minutes on math seeds each day in class. Math Seeds 

Here is a link to resources for helping teach your child at home: 

Teaching your child at home

All resources are linked in this folder so you have access to 1 spot 

Young 5/Kinder Online Learning 

Here is the district online resource page if you would like anything additional to what we have provided you. 

District Remote Learning Resources for all grades

Social Story for Kids about CoronaVirus 

Kid friendly story about what is happening

What should I turn in to the teachers: 

• Please keep math workbook and pages at home, no need to tear these out. 
• Please return the reading log, daily writing page, and reading response if you are not using raz kids where we can track their progress and reading. 

free internet link