Kinder Parent Training: Session 2

Kinder Parent Training

This was the second in a series of three to educate parents about how to help their children in school. I found the evening to be informative and filled with lots of great ideas.

The session was broken into 4 areas:

Mathematics:

In kindergarten, students are expected to know number 1-30, sequentially and out of order. Also, pattern recognition and graphing are essential.  Moreover, students will learn addition and subtraction, so Mrs. Liechty gave the parents three fun ways to play games to practice math.  Using a die, the child can roll a number to see what to add/subtract from a set number.  Another idea is to use dominoes to add/subtract from a set number.  We will start playing the addition games tonight!

She also shared an internet source: Tito El Gatito-Sumas y restas

Sight Words:

By this point in the academic year, the students should know the spelling of listas 1, 2 & 3. Unfortunately as students progress to listas 4 & 5, they are forgetting what they had previously learned!  So, 3 times a week, we are reviewing all 50 words to keep the spelling fresh in his mind.  I told him to remember that 9 of the 50 words  For the next round of testing, students will need to use the words in context of a sentence orally and written.

Reading:

Mrs Liechty gave the parents some great ideas about reading:

1.  Picture Walk- first go through the book looking only at the pictures.  Of course, I knew this as Preview the book, but I like how she calls it Picture Walk.  While we do the picture walk, we can point out unfamiliar words that students may need to complete the retelling of the story and later to write about the story. In addition, students need to have basic literacy skills that include recognition of the spine, title page, cover of the book, back of the book, author and illustrator.

During the second trimester, students are retelling stories, using descriptive words and complete sentences.  This area may be challenging for the Dual Immersion students because of a lack of vocabulary and weak oral language skills.

Writing:

I was shocked to realize that the kindergarten students are using Webs to write a basic paragraph. The Web includes the Topic to form the topic sentence and three (3) supporting ideas to write the detailed sentences. The last sentence will be the concluding sentence.  To earn the most points, students need to use a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, use appropriate punctuation, use proper spacing between words, form the letters properly, spell sight words correctly, and use different types of sentences.  Also, the picture that students use in the Web must match what their WOW. I don’t think I learned how to write a paragraph till junior high school.