Teaming Up To Support Healthy Learners

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Teaming Up To Support Healthy Learners
Parents Boost Learning
Home
School
Your Child
Community
Grant MacEwan Elementary School
Thursday, February 5, 2009
It takes a village to raise a child. African
Proverb
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Family Life Makes A Difference
How can you help your child succeed? Research
suggests that children who are well adjusted,
happy and motivated tend to come from families
with the following characteristics
Togetherness Children tend to be happy and well
adjusted when they feel important and cared
for. Openness and Honesty Everyone feels
comfortable sharing their thoughts with each
other. Children are encouraged to express their
feelings and talk honestly about what theyre
experiencing. Positive Reinforcement Family
members encourage and support each other,
especially during challenging or difficult times.
Most of the comments made to each other in daily
conversations are positive. Responsibility Parent
s help their children become more responsible for
their actions. They help their children solve
problems on their own.
Tolerance Children are encouraged to share their
views and offer different opinions. Parents
genuinely listen to these views without passing
judgment. Maturity Children gradually gain
responsibilities and privileges as they grow and
become more independent. The sense of
accomplishment children gain from successfully
meeting increased expectations helps them to
mature. Involvement In Learning Parents are
highly involved in their childrens learning.
They provide their children with challenges and
encourage them to think and learn every
day. Involvement In Community Activities Volunteer
ing as a family helps children to connect with
their community and learn more about
citizenship. Source Peel District School Board
(Ontario)
Each day of our lives we make deposits in the
memory banks of our children.  Charles R.
Swindoll, The Strong Family
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What Is Homework?
Scenario Your child comes home and you say,
What is your homework tonight? Sometimes
children may respond by saying I dont have
any.
Have you ever heard this response from your child?
If so, some suggestions for what homework can
look like include

• Checking their student agenda planner for
  homework, assignment deadlines and test dates.
• Reading books and magazines
• Reading through the newspaper
• Studying vocabulary (checking spelling and
  defining words)
• Organizing their binder

• Highlighting their notes
• Turning their notes into mind maps or cue cards
• Studying their cue cards or mind maps
• Playing board games or doing crossword puzzles
  based on their notes
• Parent(s) quizzing their child as well as the
  child quizzing their parent(s)

How much homework should my child be doing?
The Calgary Board of Education makes
recommendations about homework. Assigning
homework is up to the individual teacher, but
students and parents are encouraged to set aside
some regular time each evening for home study or
recreational reading. The nature and amount of
home study recommended are as follows
Division 1 (Grades 1-3) Parents and teachers
should encourage children to read each evening.
No formal assignments should be made, but from
5-10 minutes of systematic study per night is
recommended.
Division 2 (Grades 4-6) Formal homework
assignments may be given at the discretion of the
teacher. They should be within the half hour
range.
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Parents Boost Learning
Literacy For Families
Helping Your Child With Reading, Writing and Oral
Language At Home
Your interest, involvement and support will help
to improve your childs achievement and success.
The following are suggested activities that you
and your child can do at home.
Model Reading and Writing Have your child
see you read and write in whatever language you
are comfortable with. Children learn best by
example. Relate reading to your every day life.
For example, you can read magazines, newspapers,
catalogues, menus, TV Guides, internet, crossword
puzzles, maps and guides. Write letters to your
child. Compliment her when she has done
something well. Use cards and notes to let her
know how proud you are of her accomplishments. Ask
your child to write letters, shopping lists,
invitations and to-do lists.

• Encourage your child to write a letter to a
  family member she has not seen in a while.
• When reading a book or watching TV show or a
  movie, ask children to repeat the plot, the
  storys characters and the setting. Ask him to
  retell what happens in the beginning, middle and
  end. After you read a book/article together, ask
  him questions about what happened. Ask your
  child to tell you about his reading and his
  feelings about it.
• Work on increasing your childs vocabulary by
  using and defining more difficult words in
  everyday speech. For older students, make sure
  to ask open ended questions, rather than just yes
  or no questions. This encourages your child to
  use language and vocabulary for self expression.

• Read, watch, listen to and discuss newspaper
  articles, television and radio news coverage,
  journals and magazines. (An article beside the
  breakfast bowl can do wonders to the usual
  mundane conversations.)
• Prepare shopping lists together and compare
  prices, sizes and brands. This is a great way to
  use the weekend flyers to find the best deals.
• Comic Strip Writing Use comic strips to help
  with writing. Cut apart the segments of a comic
  strip and ask your child to arrange them in
  order. Then ask your child to fill in the words
  of the characters (orally or in writing)
• Float and Sink Encourage hypothesizing
  (guessing). Use several objectssoap, a dry
  sock, a bottle of shampoo, a wet sponge, an empty
  bottle. Ask your child which object will float
  when dropped into water in a sink or bathtub.
  Then drop the objects in the water, one by one,
  to see what happens.

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader
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Follow The News As a family, choose an
important news event to follow for a day or two.
Ask each person to find as much information on
the topic as possibleread newspapers, listen to
the radio, and watch TV news. Then talk about
what everyone learned. Pro and Con What Do You
Think? Make a family game of discussing a
special issuefor example, Teenagers should be
allowed to vote, or There should never be any
homework. Ask your youngsters to think of all
the reasons they can to support their views.
Then ask them to think of reasons opposing their
views. Which views are most convincing? Let Your
Voice Be Heard Promote good citizenship. Help
your child write a letter to the editor of the
local newspaper about an issue affecting
childrenfor example, suggest that a bike path be
built near the school or that a city event be
planned for youngsters. Children are citizens
and their ideas are worth hearing. Play spelling
and language games---like Scrabble, Boggle or
Trivial Pursuitand look for the correct spelling
and meaning of words. Encourage your child to
read independently. He can read magazines,
newspapers, comic books or anything of his
choice.
Paperless Word Games The Prime Minister's Cat
Start with A and work your way through the
alphabet using an adjective beginning with a
different letter each time. For example, the
first person might say "The Prime Minister's cat
is an angry cat," and the second person would
respond, "The Prime Minister's cat is a beautiful
cat." See how far you can get. I SpyThis game
is often played using colors with young children,
but with those who can read you can make it more
challenging. How about "I spy, with my little
eye, something that ends in L." Or "I spy, with
my little eye, something that has a double letter
in the middle." Aunt Annie's Holiday Another
alphabet game, this one also tests your child's
memory skills. The first person says "My Aunt
Annie went on a holiday and brought back
something that starts with A let's say an
apple." The next person says "My Aunt Annie
went on a holiday and brought back an apple and a
brick." And so on. Questions Pick a topic or a
"scene" (for example, two teachers supervising
the children at recess) and start acting it out
with each person taking a turn to say a line. The
catch Each person has to ask a question. For
example The first person says, "When is recess
over?" The second person says "Why do you want
to know?" The first says "Do I have time to go
to the bathroom?" and so on. A variation on this
is to pick a number and allow only sentences with
that number of words, rather than questions. So
if the number is 3, A might say, "Recess over
soon?" and B might reply, "Check your watch."
Alphabet Game One person says I'm thinking of
something naming the category, like animals or
food that begins with the letter A. Then
everyone guesses. Categories can be anything
countries of the world, animals, boys'/girls'
names, things you eat, body parts, places in
Canada and so on.
A child educated only at school is an uneducated
child.
George Santayana
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PAPER AND PENCIL GAMES The Name Game Have
each child write their name, one letter per line,
down the left-hand side of the paper. Then use
each letter as the initial letter of an adjective
or phrase to describe them. Alternatively, the
letters can become the initial letters of words
in a sentence. So Daniel might write daring,
adventurous, nice, intelligent, extra-strong,
likes spaghetti in the first version, or Daring
anything new, I eagerly leap. Change a Letter
The first person starts off by writing down a
word of between three and six letters. The next
person tries to change one letter to make a new
word. The next person (or the first person again)
tries to change one letter to make a different
word, and so on until no more words can be made.
For example games, gates, mates, mites.
CAR TRIP GAMES
License Plate Phrases Give each child a piece of
paper, and have them write down the letters only
from, for example, five license plates they see
around them. They have to then use those letters
in order, as the first letters of the words in a
short (and ideally funny) phrase or sentence. For
example, if the license is AAYC 665, you write
down AAYC and the phrase you could get might be
alligators avoid yellow cars. Restaurant Legs
Not good for rural highway driving, but if you
are trekking through some small towns, assign a
child (or a team) to each side of the car and
have them look for restaurants and call out the
names as they read them. They get points for the
number of legs the people or animals in the title
would have. For example, a restaurant called The
Coach and Four scores a whopping 16 points (four
horses, each with four legs), but Shakespeare's
Inn only gets two. The good thing about most of
these games is that they can be played
co-operatively they're more about having fun
than winning and when there is competition,
children can sometimes beat the adults.
"Literacy is not a luxury, it is a right and a
responsiblity. If our world is to meet the
challenges of the twenty-first century we must
harness the energy and creativity of all our
citizens".
President Clinton
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Math For Families
Helping Your Child With Math At Home
Teachers help build childrens mathematical
thinking at school. Families help build it at
home. Research shows that an ongoing partnership
with families can help children develop math
understanding. Teachers and parents help
children view themselves as able learners of math
through using real objects and encouraging them
to talk about their learning.
Promote Math as Thinking, not Memorization -Praise
your child when she thinks for herself, or when
he figures things out by himself Great job
using a new way to figure that out. - Try not to
emphasize memorizing. Although some parts of math
need to become automatic through memory work,
children need time for mathematical thinking and
reasoning dont rush it Take your time. -
Ask your child to explain how he figured things
out, what she was thinking. This helps children
realize that you value their thinking How did
you know that? Keep in mind that memorizing does
not always mean understanding and that math is
about making sense.

• Talk About Math
• Ask questions that encourage your child to
• - use math language, including words such as add,
  subtract, equal and the names of shapes
• - explain his or her thinking Tell me how you
  know that or How did you get that?
• - sequence and plan What are you going to do
  first?
• - count How many buttons are on your shirt?
• - compare Which leaf is biggest?
• - use logical thinking There are four children
  coming to the party. How many treats do we
  need?
• describe the world What shape is the moon?.
• Talk about math as you show your child how you
  use math in your life. For example, to
• - measure for recipes, sewing, and woodworking
  I need one cup of sugar
• - estimate amounts of paint or wallpaper or to
  hang pictures I want to put this picture 10
  centimeters above the other one
• - use the clock to be on time or plan ahead If
  the party is at five oclock we need to leave in
  half an hour
• - read schedules for television, bus or movie
  times The movie starts at seven oclock, so
  well be home before bed-time.

"I hear--I forget, I see--I learn, I do--I
understand".
Gennady V. Oster
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Everyday Math Family Activities...
That Support Student Understanding
Young children learn best through working with
objects and by having real experiences. Real
experiences are those that can happen naturally
while doing day-to-day activities around the
house and in the community. Children need to make
sense of math by doing, seeing and talking about
mathematical connections with their lives.
Children who learn to make sense of math in this
way build a strong base in working with numbers.
Estimation Estimation is using what you know
to make a guess that makes sense. Estimation is
an everyday skill. Questions to Ask - How do you
know? - Does that make sense? - If you dont
know, how can you find out? - Is there another
way to find out? - How many _____do you think
there are? - Which one has most, is longer, is
heavier? Things to Do Estimate first and then
find - something that is longer, shorter,
lighter, heavier, than _______ - how many
crayons end-to-end would go from the couch to the
fireplace - how many blocks will fit in this box
- which will take longer, to walk to the door or
write your name - how many minutes before your
food comes after you order - how many pennies it
will take to cover a book
Patterning Patterning is seeing repetitive
cycles, events and images that are predictable.
Questions to Ask - How do you know? - Does that
make sense? - If you dont know, how can you
find out? - Do you see a pattern? Tell me about
it. - What will come next? Things to Do - Look
for repeating patterns on cloth, wallpaper, or
clothing. - Look for repeating patterns in time
(e.g., seasons, months, or daily routines). -
Listen for patterns in songs and clap or dance
the rhythm. - Start patterns with blocks, beads,
playing cards, or toys and get children to make
them longer. - Count by 10s, 5s, and 2s.
"Learning is a treasure that will follow its
owner everywhere".
Chinese Proverb
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Counting and Numbers
Numbers are all around us and we need to
know how to use them. Questions to Ask - How
many are there? - How do you know? - If you
dont know, how can you find out? - Does that
make sense? Things to do for Counting - Let
your child see and hear you counting. - Count
everything touch each thing while counting. -
Use number rhymes and songs. - Set the table.
Ask How many forks are needed? - Play board
games. - Play dice games. Have the children say
the numbers. Things to do for Numeral
Recognition - Play card games. - Find numbers on
signs, in newspapers (e.g., find all the 3s). -
Use magnetic numerals. - Make play dough
numerals. Things to do for Sorting - Sort the
laundry. - Put away the cutlery and toys. -
Arrange books (e.g., sort by size or subject). -
Collect items to use for sorting (e.g., buttons,
rocks, nuts and bolts, or beads). Sort them using
muffin tins or egg cartons. - Sort playing cards
or dominoes. Things to do for Orderingsize,
height, length, number - Use nesting toys. - Ask
which flower is the tallest or shortest. - Order
various materials by length, volume, size (e.g.,
ribbon, buttons, lids, pieces of paper). - Use
playing cards or dominoes.
Things to do for Number Concepts - Find out how
many _____there are (e.g., doors in your house,
red cars on the street, cups on the table, red
lights on your trip to the store). - Tap your
finger ____ times and have your child tell you
the numeral or point to the number on a numeral
card. - Make groups of 3, 4, 5, 6 things. -
Make 8 as many ways as you can (e.g., 4 and 4
5 and 3 2 and 6). - Match numeral cards with
the correct number of things (e.g., numeral 8
card with 8 objects). - Look at dominoes and
find all the ones that have a total of ___
dots. Spatial Thinking Understanding where things
are in our world and how they relate to each
other helps us makes sense of our
world. Questions to ask - What do you see? -
What would happen if______? - Can you tell me
why______? Things to do - Recognize dot
patterns on dice without counting them (e.g., let
children call out the numbers on the dice). -
Conduct a shape search playing I Spy I spy
something that is round. - Build with blocks.
Make designs with shape blocks. - Play shape
tickle (e.g., draw shapes on your childs back so
that she or he can identify them). - Play with
puzzles and games involving fitting shapes into a
space. - Make jigsaws using pictures and then
put them back together. - Make a map of your
bedroom, your house, or your neighborhood. -
Practice position words by having a treasure
huntfollow clues like over, under, above, below,
next to, beside. - Put cutlery into the right
space in the tray.
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Additional Activities That Foster Math Skills At
Home

• Prepare shopping lists together and compare
  prices, sizes and brands. This is a great way to
  use the weekend flyer to find the best deals.
• Look at advertisements together and estimate how
  much money you can save if you buy different
  brands. For example, compare prices of clothing
  at different stores or sports equipment at stores
  for sporting goods. This is also a great way to
  teach your child about finding good prices.
• Collect coupons and see how much you can save.
• Play logical math games, or work with a
  calculator and the computer.
• Graph a variety of data, perhaps on family gas
  consumption, time spent watching television, time
  spent on the internet or time spent listening to
  CDs and other music. Discuss the graph.

• Newspaper Math
• Look for specific number ranges such as all of
  the numbers between 20-50. Your child can look
  for odd numbers, even numbers, prime numbers,
  multiples of three, etc. The possibilities are
  endless
• Newspaper advertisements and coupons can teach
  the skill of budgeting. Look through grocery ads
  together, making a list of all the items you need
  to buy. See if your child can locate which
  stores sell each of the items for the lowest cost.

• Grocery Store Math
• Ask for help weighing the produce.
• Ask your child to estimate how much each item
  weighs, then check these estimations.
• Have your child keep a tally as you pick up
  items, and see how well theyve added prices and
  estimated total cost when you get to the
  checkout. This exercise is for children who have
  already grasped the concept of addition. Start
  with a small amount of purchases, then gradually
  work your way up to larger-sized shopping trips.

Traveling Math Search for numbers while you
drive. Ask children to find the numbers one
through 10, 20, 30, 40 etc. from license plates,
street signs, addresses, even billboards. They
can also include numbers that are spelled
out. -When on longer car rides have your child
estimate how far youve traveled, how many more
miles to your destination, and how long its
going to take you? This can teach them to
estimate time and distance.
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Tips For Parents On Raising Physically and
Emotionally Healthy Children
Given the many challenges that parents and
families face today, raising children to be
physically and emotionally healthy can be a
daunting task.

• Provide unconditional love and express love both
  physically and verbally.
• Enforce rules for the child and use removal of
  privileges and other forms of discipline that do
  not belittle, harm, or reject the child.
• Model behavior that you would like the child to
  display.
• Praise the child for his or her
  accomplishments.
• Encourage the child to try things and do things
  on his or her own with minimal adult help.
• When language is developing, acknowledge and
  label the childs feelings and encourage the
  child to express his or her own feelings and to
  recognize feelings in others (for example sad,
  glad, sorry, happy, mad).

Use developing language to reinforce aspects of
resilience to help the child face adversity for
example, I know you can do it encourages
autonomy and reinforces a childs faith in his or
her own problem-solving skills Im here
comforts and reminds the child of the trusting
relationships that he or she can rely on.
Offer explanations and reconciliation along with
rules and discipline. Encourage the child to
demonstrate empathy and caring, to be pleasant,
and to do nice things for others. Encourage
the child to use communication and
problem-solving skills to resolve interpersonal
problems or to seek help with them.
The strongest oak of the forest is not the one
that is protected from the storm and hidden from
the sun. It's the one that stands in the open
where it is compelled to struggle for its
existence against the winds and rains and the
scorching sun."

Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)
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Technology Supports Learning
Technology is global. It is a tool to be used in
your childs education. Surf the Internet with
your child and explore the many websites that
offer learning opportunities
www.cbe.ab.ca (Go to students for the drop down
menu and choose online libraries for resources
that support reading, writing and
math) www.amathsdictionaryforchildren.com http/
/nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html www.linktolear
ning.com www.yahooligans.com (search engine,
great for research) www.aplusmath.com (a fun
way to practice your math facts)
www.cbc4children.com www.doctormath.com (help
with solving math problems) www.school.discovery
.com (covers an amazing array of subjects)
www.factmonster.com (answers your questions
within hours!) www.google.com (search engine)
www.schoolnet.com (over 5,000 learning resources)
www.cbc4children.com http//www.factmonster.com
Dictionary, Encyclopedia, and Homework Help
http//www.homeworkelephant.co.uk Your first
stop for internet resources to help complete your
homework assignments. Over 5000 carefully
selected resources to assist with your homework
problems http//www.funbrain.com http//children
.nationalgeographic.com Kid's games, animals,
photos, stories and more http//www.searchedu.co
m Searches educational sites http//www.homework
spot.com Find the best K-12 homework resources
organized by subject and grade-level.
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as
if you were to live forever".

Mahatma Gandhi
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When Your Child Reads To You....
Reading aloud to your child has many benefits.
It increases your childs vocabulary. It helps
your child build an understanding of how books
work. It helps your child learn that reading is
a pleasurable activity. Most important of all,
it provides an opportunity for you to spend
quality time with your child! Read different
types of books such as Picture books
Information books Nursery rhyme and poetry
books Before Reading Make this an enjoyable
time for you and your child. Be enthusiastic
about reading the book. Make sure your child
is comfortable and can see the book easily.
Look at the cover of the book and read the title.
Ask your child, What do you think this story
might be about? Discuss connections between
the book and your childs experiences. While
Reading Take time to talk about the pictures in
the book. Use expression and read in a natural
speaking voice. Stop occasionally to talk
about the story and develop understanding. For
example - What do you think might happen
next? - How do you think that person feels? -
That was funny! Talk about the meaning of
unfamiliar words. If your child hesitates at a
word, give him/her time to solve the problem
alone. Wait at least ten seconds before saying
anything.
After Reading Talk about the story. For
example - Did you like it? - What did you
like best? - Why? Why not? - Did the
story remind you of other stories we have read?
- Did the story make you think of anything that
has happened to you? Ask your child if he/she
would like to read the story again. Familiar
stories enable your child to join in with the
parts of the story they know. SUPPORT When your
child reads a word that doesnt make sense ask,
Does that make sense? Encourage him/her to look
at the pictures to think about what would make
sense. When your child reads a word that is
incorrect but makes sense, ask, Does that word
look right? Encourage her/him to look at the
letter combinations rather than sounding it out
letter by letter. When your child says nothing,
prompt him/ her to skip that word and read on to
the end of the sentence. Or begin again at the
start of the sentence. If your child is still
stuck after two tries, tell her/him the word.
If your child is unable to read the text,
encourage him/her to echo some of the words as
you read them. COMPLIMENT Compliment your child
when she/he corrects a mistake. makes
relevant comments about the book. asks
questions about the book. reads correctly after
being helped. reads smoothly it sounds like
talking. Compliment your child for reading with
you.
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  He goes by Shout, but unlike ...375 x 375 - 53k - jpgwww.printmag.com Shout, shout, let it all out300 x 400 - 20k - jpgwww.theage.com.au
                                        
Shout Out For Volunteers

• Prior to 645 we need 2 volunteers to set up the
  refreshment table. (Leslie will purchase the
  beverages and snack for the evening)
• 1.______________ 2. ___________________
• Babysitting ____________ ______________
• Facilitators to lead small group discussion with
  parents regarding the tools/strategies of what
  homework can look like. (Parents will be provided
  with a copy of the handout which has activities
  that aid in the fostering of literacy, math and
  social development skills.)
• 1.________________ 2._______________ 3.
  _______________

T
E
A
M
Together
Everyone
Achieves
More
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Notes
Activities compiled in this resource are borrowed
from the Peel Region Board of Education and
Achieve. For further information go
to http//www.peel.edu.on.ca http//www.achievebc
.ca/downloads/pdf/MathForFamilies.pdf
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