Dear Parents,
On Monday, October 21, we are going to start Borrow-A-Book Program, also called Kindergarten At-Home Reading Program. Simply put, when your child brings a book home, you have a week to read the book with him/her (some of the books are levelled books and help the child read the repetitive patterns over and over again). And accomplish the needed activity (e.g., a worksheet OR a favourite picture drawn in his/her response journal). Then, log the name of the book in the Book Log. On Friday, please make sure that you return everything (the book, the activity if applicable, the response journal, the borrow-a-book instructions and borrow-a-book log). Please find the cover letter of Borrow-A-Book Program.
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Dear
Parents,
Welcome to the Kindergarten At-Home Reading Program.
This program is for students and parents to share reading together. It takes
about 10 – 15 minutes of your
time and helps your child develop skills in three major areas: print awareness,
phonological awareness and oral language. These three areas most significantly
impact your child's emerging literacy skills.
Each package contains a book that your; child has selected
and a Borrow-A-Book Log. To begin
with, students are to exchange their book every
Monday for a new book to be read at home over the course of the week.
Usually, the books will be simple, repetitive pattern books that will naturally
invite your child to join in and read the repetitive parts. Remember to
celebrate every book you read together, even if your child has just memorized
the pattern. Others may choose books that you will have the pleasure to read to
your child.
Your child's book will come home every Monday inside a black bag along
with the Borrow-A-Book Log Sheet
and a Reading Response Journal. Please keep them all together in the
zip lock bag provided:
1) Borrow-A-Book
Log: Please help your child print the title
of each book on the Book Log and sign it, acknowledging that you read with your
child.
2) Reading
Response Journal: The
directions are simple. Here are a few suggestions. Encourage your child to
choose 1 particular story book she/he has read with you to draw and write about
in their journal each week. Students might perhaps illustrate and write about:
·
something
that happened in the book they read
·
something
they particularly liked
·
something
they connected with in the text (e.g. This reminds me of when I …)
·
their
favourite part
Writing
Response: This supports the daily writing
strategies your child is acquiring on the learning continuum in the classroom
and correlates to the following levels: a, (Emergent Writers), b/ c (Early Writers),
d/e, (Advancing Writers)
a)
Your child draws an illustration- the parent
serving as the scribe to write what is happening in your child’s drawing.
b)
Encouraging your child to label his/her drawing by
listing the dominate letter sounds (phonetic/inventive spellings) in the word
he/she is trying to label (e.g., watr = water)
c)
Encouraging
your child to label his/her drawing using high frequency sight vocabulary (
e.g., a car, a tree, the cat, my mom, me etc.,)
d)
Encouraging
your child to write a simple sentence using a combination of (high frequency
words and phonetic spelling)
e)
Encouraging
your child to make his/her writing legible for the reader via (using capitals
at beginning of a sentence, leaving spaces between words, using punctuation and
re-reading his/her sentences to make sure the writing looks and conveys the
intended message).
Please ensure that our Classroom Books are
returned to school for exchange every Friday
in your child’s large zip-lock book bag. Our classroom books are not issued over the weekend, although your child’s book from
the school library may certainly be taken home from Friday to the following
Friday each week.
“Children are
made readers on
the laps of their parents.” (Emilie Buchwald)
FYI: (Tips for parents on reverse side)
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This is the bin of borrow-a-book bags. We will keep all the book bags here.
An example of borrow-a-book bag is shown above which contains a book log, borrow-a-book instructions/cover letter and a response journal all inside a ziploc bag with your child's name on it. Please ensure all materials are inside upon return. If you wish to keep the instructions at home, please do so and just let us know.
Some of the books may have activity pages. Doing the activity page will be good enough for these books.
There might be a need for crayons, glue stick and scissors, aside from using a pencil and an eraser.
If the child opts to do a favourite picture in his/her response journal, that would be enough for these type of activity books.
If your book does not have an activity page, drawing and writing about the favourite picture would be recommended. It can be done solely by the child or it can be a combined effort between you and your child. You can help your child draw, colour and write the words. To put it simply, let it be a FUN activity for your child to look forward to. I had many response journals that were full of artistic pictures done with sticks, feathers, noodles, stickers and buttons! It looked like a beautiful treasure chest of priceless paintings!
We are looking forward to your child's wonderful journey of reading and writing!
