Raz Kids

Raz Kids has been updated with your child's most recent reading assessment from January.  This week you will be receiving a letter in your child's PS 89 folder indicating if progress was made.  Please acknowledge your child's growth in reading.

If your child was reading at a Level A and is now reading at a Level C - THAT IS GREAT!
If your child was reading at a Level D and is now reading at a Level G - THAT IS TERRIFIC!
If your child was reading at Level F and is now reading at a Level I - THAT IS FABULOUS!

On grade level expectations is F/G/H.  That is with the expectation if your child started off the school year reading at a Level D.  If you notice that your child went up only ONE reading level we will be scheduling appointments to meet with you to discuss some techniques and strategies that should be implemented at home.  Please make sure that you log into RAZ KIDS, and practice, practice, practice!

Read, Read, Read!

Take a look... it's in a book... a Reading Rainbow!

Writing ALL ABOUT

We are experts at so many things.  We know a lot about many different topics.  To support your child with their writing we have been assigning different nonfiction text features to practice at home.

Your child should be explaining to you the topic that they are writing about in class.  At home or the library, on the computer and taking out books your child should learn even more about their topic.

When reading, we have been learning about arctic animals such as polar bears and penguins.  Ask your child what facts they learned about these animals through our read alouds.

During reader's workshop we have been learning about the difference between nonfiction (real) and fiction (pretend) books.  We have been studying nonfiction text features in the books we are reading and collecting facts on our tables topics (plants, animals, crops)

Reading Strategies

Tricky Words Don't Scare Me!

Do You Know Your Letter Sounds?

Do You Know These Digraphs / Vowel Team / Diphthongs Sounds?

Do You Know These Vowels?

Get Ready to be Reading Detectives!

Reader's Workshop

We are working on reading long and strong!  Good readers are able to read, without distraction for 10-15 minutes.  They read, think about what they are reading, and use strategies to solve tricky words, such as looking at the picture and using their letter sounds.  This school year we will be learning a lot of strategies so that we can move from Level D to Level J (grade level expectations).  That is a lot of levels, so make sure you are reading every night at home for at least 15 minutes. 

1 just right reading book should be coming home every day in your child's red folder.  Please return that book each day and a new one will be sent home.  If things are not coming home right away, please allow time, your child is learning new routines and this takes time.  We are understanding on this matter this first full week of school.  Next week we expect that your child will be more familiar with our routines.

Don't forget to visit Raz Kids.  We check every week to see how your child is performing and progressing.  Raz Kids

Answering Questions

Answering Questions

 It is important when we speak, read, and write that we provide evidence to explain our thinking.  Often teachers ask students "Tell me more... What makes you say that..."  It is important to ask questions and for students to be able to provide examples to support their thinking.  Often times it may be assumed that students are not providing the "correct" answers, when in fact they have examples.  In other instances, students are giving answers or remarks they think is correct but have no information to back up their ideas.  This week in reading and writing we will be discussing how to answer questions with evidence, referring explicitly to the text.

Check out this thinking mat to help us organize our sticky notes.

Read Along / Read To

For beginner and emergent readers

Check out this website for some great books you can read yourself, or along with the narrator.  Click on "English" for each page to be read to you. 

Parents: the books can be spoken in other languages too!

Critical Readers

Literactive

Check out this website to read stories (for early readers and to better develop fluency for advanced readers)

Literactive

Username: ps89reader
Password: hokessuf

Have fun!

Early Readers

Check out so many fabulous nursery rhymes, here.

Which one was your favorite?

Suffixes

Check out these fun games for prefixes, suffixes, root words, and base words.  We will be talking about them all week long!

Click here to visit Book Unit Teacher!

Earning Eggs!

Starting today, we are working hard for eggs.  Every time we go up a reading level we get to select an egg of our choice.  Inside it is filled with 3 special prizes.  I can't wait to see you earn lots of eggs.  Let's read, read, read!

English Is Fun

You have to check out this website.  It is Ms. Rappaport's newest, most favorite site in all of the internet for helping to make us better readers and writers.

Let's have some fun with English Games!

Ways to Help Your Child Read at Home

Help Your Child With Reading Comprehension

Check out this article from The Home School Magazine entitled "When a Child Doesn't Remember What He Reads!

Scholastic Book Clubs

Some students have expressed an interest in ordering Scholastic books that they viewed from our magazine basket.  If you would like to purchase books at a discounted rate, click on the icon below.  Our learning lab earns points to get free things.

Molly Lou Melon

This week, we will be basing our ELA component of our learning from the story, Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon.  Get ready to be a part of the classroom conversation!

Keep the Beat, Article

Check out this article from Medical Xpress regarding a correlation between rhythm (keeping a beat) and language skills needed for reading.

Article