Kindergarten Homework - 3rd Marking Period

As stated in my previous post, homework serves to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom as well as achieve academic success. A child should do their best and be proud of their accomplishments.

During the third marking period, our kindergarten curriculum required the completion of the following tasks:

Monday - write the assigned sight words 5-10 times in your journal.
Tuesday - complete the sentence by drawing a picture. If possible, label your drawing. We do this five times.
Wednesday – sort objects
Thursday - math related assignment (worksheets reinforcing counting by 2s and 5s, graphing, identifying three dimensional figures, telling time - hour)
Everyday - read for 20 minutes

Week 22:
Sight words: look, at
Sentence: Look at the ______ _______.
Sort: Sort by chuck sounds “at” and “an”. Sort the pictures and words (e.g. cat, bat, hat) with the chuck sound /at/ from pictures and words (e.g. pan, can, man) that have the chuck sound /an/.

Week 23:
Sight words: this, my
Sentence: This is my ______ _______.
Sort: Sort by chuck sounds “ad”, “ap” and “ag”. Sort the pictures and words (e.g. dad, sad, mad) with the chuck sound /ad/ from pictures and words (e.g. map, nap, cap ) that have the chuck sound /ap/ from pictures and words (e.g. bag, rag, tag) that have the chuck sound /ag/.

Week 24:
No homework this week. School closed due to two snow storms delivering 40+ inches of snow to the suburbs of Washington D.C. We did decorate a heart and completed the following sentence: what is love … ?

Week 25:
Sight words: me, on, from
Sentence: I got a ____ from my ____. The ____ is on me.
Sort: Sort by chuck sounds “op” and “ot”. Sort the pictures and words (e.g. stop,mop,hop) with the chuck sound /op/ from pictures and words (e.g. hot, dot, pot) that have the chuck sound /ot/.

Week 26:
Sight words: she, went
Sentence: She went to the _______.
Sort: Sort by chuck sounds “ug”, “ut” and “un”. Sort the pictures and words (e.g. mug, bug, rug) with the chuck sound /ug/ from pictures and words (e.g. nut, cut, hut) that have the chuck sound /ut/ from pictures and words (e.g. sun, fun, bun) that have the chuck sound /un/.

Week 27:
Sight words: he, will
Sentence: He will ______ with me.
Sort: Sort by chuck sounds “et”, “en” and “eg”. Sort the pictures and words (e.g. wet, net, vet) with the chuck sound /et/ from pictures and words (e.g. hen, pen, men) that have the chuck sound /en/ from pictures and words (e.g. leg, beg, peg) that have the chuck sound /eg/.

Week 28:
Leprechauns are on the loose in our school! Our wonderful teacher asked each student to formulate a plan with their family on how to catch a leprechaun. First, write a plan about how you would catch a leprechaun and then draw a blueprint illustrating your plan. They encourage using labels and if you make a trap to send in a picture. Helpful tip: my children think leprechauns love Lucky Charms.

Week 29:
Sight words: have, for
Sentence: I will have ______ for dinner.
Sort: Sort by chuck sounds “in” and “it”. Sort the pictures and words (e.g. pin, fin, win) with the chuck sound /in/ from pictures and words (e.g. pit, sit, hit ) that have the chuck sound /it/.

Week 30:
Sight words: with, of
Sentence: I went to the _____ with _____. Can I have some of that _____?
Sort: Rhyming word sort - sort the pictures by rhyme (e.g. bee and tree, wing and ring, cake and rake, boat and goat, bear and chair).

Kindergarten Writing - Foster Your Little Shakespeare

Our school held a kindergarten curriculum information session. The session provided parents with some helpful information about writing expectations. At the beginning of the school year, the focus was on an idea not the writing. Expectations have shifted. Our teachers briefly discussed what they expect and do not expect from kindergartners.

A kindergarten student should be able to perform the following functions when writing:

Proof work. Kindergartners should reread their work and self-monitor for meaning and structure.

Use upper and lower case letters. A sentence begins with an uppercase letter. Upper case letters should not be present in the remainder of the sentence unless it is a proper noun.

Use spacing. Use your pointer finger to create a space between words in a sentence. Make sure letters within a word are close together.

Use punctuation. Convey a complete idea using punctuation. They should mark the end of their idea with an explanation mark, period or question mark. Also, they should use punctuation to separate ideas.

For example,

Wrong: I like to go the park and play with my friends and play kickball.

Correct: I like to go to the park. I like to play with my friends. I like to play kickball.

Construct idea. Students should construct an idea using multiple sentences; explain a picture with more than one sentence.

Spell sight words correctly. The kindergarten sight words should be spelled correctly. Students should use phonics to spell unknown words. Each word should have a beginning, middle and ending sound. They were very quick to point out not all words will likely be spelled correctly as this would not be a realistic expectation. They further stated that some sounds are developmental (e.g. sh, ch and th).

Draw detailed pictures. Students should illustrate with detail. Their pictures should reflect on their sentences and provide additional information. No stick figures!

Check work. Students proof their work before, during and after the writing process to check for the meaning and structure.

Every child prior to handing in work should perform the following check list:

Reread – good writers reread their work

Abcd – 1st letter of a sentence is a capital letter and the remainder are lowercase letters

Spacing – make sure there is spacing between words

Punctuation - ! . ?

Spelling – did you spell the sight words correctly

Reread – check corrections and continue process until no errors

Let your child self-monitor using the above checklist and parents should double check their work. The teachers also gave us a helpful hint to assist our children in writing more – ask questions!