Transcript

There are a lot of different ways in kindergarten that we promote home school connections. We send daily readers home for students to be reading to their parents and with their parents each night. We also send home word or letter trains based on the child's development so that they can practice those skills at home with their parents. One of these is called My Letter Train, it's for students that are still working on letter-sound knowledge. We divide up the letters and the sounds into six compartments on a train. They take this home and they work at their own pace with their parents on the letters and the sounds that are associated with those letters. Once they know that letter sound connection they color in the train. When all six train compartments are colored in they bring it back to read with us. If they have read them, and they know their letters and sounds they're ready for the next sheet, until they finish all of the alphabet.

Once students know their letters and sounds we move on to the word train. The word train is made up of familiar sight words that the students are learning in class and that are applicable to kindergarten. Each word train has three compartments, filled with familiar sight words. The students take these sight words home and are encouraged to practice them with their parents each night. When they know those sight words they color in the train compartments and bring them back to read with their teacher. We encourage parents to use these words with magnetic letters on the fridge, to put them in sentences, to find them in books that they're reading at night, and to really work with these words at home with their child. When they're sure that they know them they'll bring them back and we'll read with them.