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    Parents,

    A few helpful hints to encourage your first grader to be successful in school:

    1. Please read your child's decodable books twice each night they bring them home. If they appear to struggle, then please read it again. We usually have several opportunities to read them during the day and often the students will memorize the pages so please make sure they point to each word as they read it. Help them to sound out the words they miss. Sometimes it helps to finger-spell the words by sounding out each letter and holding up a finger for each sound.

    2. Please go over their reading sight word lists every so often. They need to know those words quickly. It helps with their comprehension and also with their fluency when they read.

    3. Make sure the decodable books are signed and then placed into your child's folder to be returned the next day. The completion and return of these books on time is part of their reading grade.

    4. The last and most important thing is to remember to praise your children when they are successful--even if it takes a few times. They are so tickled with themselves when they succeed and catch on after they have struggled. Definitely a huggable moment!

    **I don't send any homework home on Wednesdays or Fridays. If we have a reading assessment on a certain day, I usually won't send homework home.