Sample Activities from the Family Guide
With activities spanning content areas, the bilingual Family Guide provides tips on building strong family-school partnerships and navigating parent-teacher conferences, engaging families as true learning partners.
Family-School Partnership
When schools and families work together to support learning, children do better in school. Research tells us that children experience many benefits when their families are involved with their school and engaged in their learning (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). Students whose families are engaged are more likely to:
Easy-to-implement strategies for good attendance
• Earn higher grades and test scores. • Pass their classes. • Attend school regularly.
• Have better social skills. • Graduate from high school. • Go on to further education.
Tips to empower families to get involved with their child’s school and classroom
Supporting Your Child at School 1. Routines help! Help your child go to bed early and at the same time every night, and give plenty of time for dressing and a healthy breakfast. 2. Get to know your child’s school and staff so you are comfortable with both. Respond if your child’s teacher reaches out to you. If needed, your school should be able to provide a translator . Use the School Contact List on page 28 to get organized. 3. When you meet your child’s teacher for the first time, share your child’s strengths and interests , and if your child speaks more than one language .
4. Speak up with questions or concerns. If something is happening at home that may affect your child at school, be sure to let the teacher know so she or he can be supportive. 5. Get involved in your child’s classroom. If the teacher asks for family volunteers , try to volunteer. Pick what you’ll enjoy most or what fits best with your schedule. There may be options outside school hours if you’re busy with work.
6. To prepare for parent-teacher
conferences , make a list of questions to ask. See page 23 for examples.
1 SET
Who Is That?
Talking for literacy, family photos for social studies, and more
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FEATURED ACTIVITY
WRITE AWAY Literacy Standard: Writes and Illustrates
Simple activities create everyday learning moments
JOURNAL Remind your child to use the included writing journal as a special quiet-time activity to enjoy. Your child can follow the fun prompts or make up new ones. Ask your child about the pictures, marks, letters, and words he or she made.
LITERACY Standard: Asks and Answers Questions About Stories TALK AFTER READING Discuss the characters, the setting, and the story events. Then ask your child questions: “Where is the story happening? Is this a place you’d like to visit? Why?” MATH Standard: Counts, Adds, and Subtracts ADD AND TAKE AWAY Use small objects that interest your child. Make a group of two. Count them aloud with your child. “Let’s add another. Now how many do we have?” Try adding and taking away different amounts.
SOCIAL STUDIES Standard: Understands Families and Jobs FAMILY NAMES AND JOBS Look at family photos and talk with your child about who is in your family. Help your child name the grown-ups and talk about the jobs they have. HEALTH & SAFETY Standard: Develops Healthy Habits WASH YOUR HANDS Remind your child to wash hands after playing outside, before eating, and before bedtime. Taking steps to reduce illness makes it easier to have solid attendance at school!
Aligned to standards across literacy, math, social studies, and more
Curious about learning milestones? See page 24.
When writing is part of your child’s everyday activities, your child will discover that it is something to enjoy. "
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