SMARTY PANTS HOMEWORK!

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Children love to show you what they have learned at school, so doing some HOME practice is really fun for them. It will also keep the learning process going when they are NOT here!
 
None of these activities are MANDATORY, but all of them will reinforce what your child is learning at Smarty Pants.

Below is a list of things you can work on with your child at home.

Personal and Social Development
Develop a plan for the week.Let your child help you toplan a weekly schedule of times and events, highlighting anything that will be out of your ordinary routine.This will help him to understand the order of things and give him the security of knowing his upcoming schedule.

 

Making choices.You encourage independence when youlet your child make some reasonable choices and decisions, such as choosing the story to read at bedtime or selecting a birthday card for a relative or friend.

 

Language and Literacy

Play with words.Play the name game using your child’s first name and have her help to think of and recognize words that begin with the same sound as the first letter of her name. Find opportunities to sing songs, recite poems, and make up rhymes.

 

Make a word card file.Write words your child wants to read, one per index card, adding cards as he learns new words. Encourage him to select word-cards from the file when he wants to copy a word or practice sounding our a special new word.

 

Take dictation.Offer to help add a story to your child’s drawings by writing down the words she tells you. Let her hear you sounding out the words as you write the letters so she sees the connection between spoken and written language. Saying stories is an important first step to writing them.

Take a part. After reading, pretend to be one of the characters and encourage your child in acting out the stories you read together. Play the part with enthusiasm. Repeating the character’s words with emphasis will encourage fluency later on when your child begins to read on his own.

 

Mathematical Thinking

Collect things with your child. Collect groups of things, such as container lids, buttons, key chains, and sort them using different rules that you and your child choose (for example: bigger ones from smaller ones, lids from food containers and lids from drink containers).

 

Be pattern detectives.Hunt for patterns on clothing, in thewallpaper, on dishes, in the carpet.

 

Keep on counting.While working around the house withyour child, count aloud the number of socks as you do the laundry, the number of potatoes as you make dinner. Solve problems, such as, “How many crackers will we need for everybody to have two with their soup?”

 

Search for shapes with your child.Look for all the shapes(triangle, circle, square, etc.) that you can find inside your house or see on the way to the store.

 

Scientific Thinking

Use your senses like a scientist.Encourage your child tolook at, smell, listen to and feel things in the environment. Take a walk in the woods and talk about the things you can touch, smell, see, and hear.

 

Wonder with your child. Let your child hear youwondering about things that intrigue or mystify you, such as,“I wonder why we can see a rainbow in the mist from the garden hose!” Question your child about his explanations by asking,“How do you know that?” or,“Tell me why you think that.” Encourage people like your doctor, the plumber, and the cable t.v. technician to give your child explanations to questions he can understand.

 

Social Studies

Different rules for different places.Talk with your childabout how rules for behavior can change depending upon where you are, such as behavior at the theater and behavior at a ball game.

 

Point out workers in the community.Talk with your childabout roles of people who help your family, such as the garbage collector, postal employees, grocery store clerks.

 

The Arts

Foster creativity.Keep art supplies on hand (crayons,markers, paper, scissors) and encourage your child to express his ideas and feelings in creative ways. Encourage talking about his creations (“Tell me about your picture.”). Supply him with puppets and building materials, such as blocks and construction toys.

 

Make and enjoy music together. Sing to her in the car,make an instrument, clap the beat, dance, play lots of different recorded music and talk about the different sounds. See a show or go to a concert.

 

Physical Development and Health

Encourage activity. Give her room to play every day in theneighborhood, your yard, the park, or in an organized sports or movement program.

 

Arrange ways for your child to help. Ask him to do choreswhere he can use his hands, such as peeling vegetables, pouring juice, cracking open eggs, and mixing jello.

2014 Smarty Pants