What's new in Homework Land

Dear parents and guardians,

It has been an exciting two weeks since Room 9 was re-organized. I sense that the students are getting to feel more relaxed with me, and with each other, and that we are starting to settle into our routines.

Some parents have been asking: What is my child's homework? As I outlined in our letter at the start of the year, the best use of home study time is to enjoy reading a book with your child. Developing a love and a familiarity with reading all kinds of books is the most important daily "study" activity you can do with your child.

"But what else can I do to support my child's learning?" you might ask.

Try practicing counting with them, in the following ways:

1. Count forwards to 20, 30 and beyond.
2. Count backwards from 10, 20, 30 and beyond.
3. Start counting at any number and count forward or backward.
4. Count upward in 2s, 5s, 10s.
5. Play dominoes, or play snakes and ladders or yahtzee to practice simple addition skills.
   

Based on some notes I've received in student agendas, a few of you are inquiring about spelling tests. I will be soon be sending home a "fridge list" of spelling words, approximately every week, for students to practise and use at home. We will have a quiz on some of the words from the list each week. My emphasis is not just on the correct spelling of the word, but more importantly, can your student use the word legibly and appropriately in context of a sentence?

I'll try to post the fridge list here on the day we put it into our agendas.

Thanks for all your support.
G. Brown