I'd like every student to have a 2-pocket portfolio folder (the sturdy cardboard-like ones, or better yet, the plastic ones. The type that has the pockets across the bottom are far better than the type that has the pockets going vertically.) This will be called our Home/School folder. Please check it every day! Also, any notes from you, lunch money, book orders, bus notes, etc. need to be put into this folder and sent back to school every day. Please help your child pack and unpack their folder daily. I will collect folders every morning and pass them back to allow your child to pack that day's papers, notes, etc.

   Another kind of "homework" that needs to be done every night along with packing their home folder is to pack a snack. We don't eat lunch before 12:15 every day, so your child needs to have a snack at 10:00. Otherwise, they are really "running on empty". The cafeteria does not supply mid-morning snacks or milk. These must come from home. If your child would like milk or juice at snack time, these are available to purchase.

   Lewiston has a homework policy for first grade which states that only special projects should be completed as "homework". I like to send home book bags as often as I can and ask parents to read them with their child. I ask that these book bags be sent back to school the next day because we use these books during guided reading time. Help your child learn responsibility by helping them pack these into their home folders every night. The single most important thing that a parent can do to help their child in school is to read to them. Make it a time to cuddle and enjoy the world of literature. It truly does make a difference!

   I also have spelling tests every Friday (although this doesn't start right away in September). Generally, I send a word list home on Mondays and have the test on Friday. On Thursdays, we have a pre-test, which is great practice. If a child spells all the words correctly on Thursday, they are exempt from the test on Friday. The words that I send home are mainly word families (rhyming words with a pattern) and high-frequency words. We work with the words during the week, but the children need to practice them at home, as well.

   Reviewing the letters of the alphabet as well as the sounds they make is a very important skill that needs to be practiced at home. Reviewing the Top 125 sight words, Top 40 spelling words, or weekly spelling words, counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s, and writing letters and numbers are the home activities that I would like to see happening regularly. Make these fun by playing games such as memory and go fish (to match capital and lower case letters, spelling words, etc.), using dice to count and eventually add, fill-in-the-blanks for words and/or sentences like we do every day with our morning message, play "hangman", or write simple messages or lists with your child. Have them be word detectives to find letters, words, numbers, or word chunks in newspapers and magazines. Have them read signs and food boxes. Give them a notebook to use as a journal to write and draw in. Make it fun. If it becomes a struggle, it's time to find another way. Please let me know if I can help you in any way.