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Parent Resources for Primary Students
Write at home! Enlist the help of your students’ parents to encourage and
practice writing skills. Promote these fun “at home” activities:
- Election Interviews
- Students can practice asking good questions by interviewing family members about the election process. Help your child brainstorm a list of questions they have about elections, voting, and political parties:
- What is a democrat?
- What is a republican?
- Who is running for president?
- How do they get elected?
- What issues do the candidates believe are important for our country?
- Who can vote?
- Where do we vote?
- How do you decide who to vote for?
Finally, allow them to conduct a “phone survey” by calling a group of friends and family members to find out who they will be voting for in the next election. Encourage students to keep a tally and then to write a prediction of who they think will win the election.
- Story Box
- Teachers: Fill a shoe box, bag, or plastic container with a variety of odd items: sunglasses, a pack of gum, band-aids, a magnifying glass, silly putty, a ruler, etc., to send home with students. You may want to put together a class book of Story Box stories and illustrations as a final project.
Directions: What do a penny, a baseball, and a dog’s leash have in common? That’s up to you and your family! Take home this Story Box and see what surprises it holds. Your family’s goal is to create a story with a beginning, middle, and an ending, using everything in the box. Pull out one thing at a time, and work together to fit each item into your story. It’s okay to be silly! Once you have the story line, assign one person in the family to write the story down and ask others to work together to create an illustration.
Adapted from: Opp-Beckman, L. (2003). PIZZAZ! ... STORY BOXES. Retrieved March 6, 2008, from Leslie Opp-Beckman's Page at University of Oregon Web Site.
- Healthy Eating Challenge
- Tired of fighting your kids over making healthy eating choices? Give your kids the freedom to plan a week’s worth of menus…the only catch is that they have to use the USDA’s food pyramid guidelines. Walk alongside your kids in this journey; ask them to think about what they already know about healthy eating. As they try to figure out what they need to know, point them in the direction of resources:
- Go to Food Pyramid for helpful information, including a week-long meal-tracking worksheet, Food Pyramid guidelines, tips for families, etc.
- Dole SuperKids boasts serving size guidelines, a kid’s cookbook, and a nutrition database.
- At EatSmart.org kids can play nutrition games at the Nutrition Café, and learn how to calculate calcium intake.
- Try LearnToBeHealthy.org for more online nutrition games and health resources.
After the menu is planned, give your kids art supplies to create a menu for each evening, complete with family conversation starters. Invite your children into the kitchen to cook with you for the week. After a successful week of healthy eating, plan an active night of family fun to celebrate.
- Thanksgiving blessings
- As you discuss the meaning of Thanksgiving, ask your child what s/he is thankful for. Together, make a list. Use this list to make blessing tree: Cut out leaves from construction paper; punch a hole in each; write down (or draw) items on your lists on each leaf and hang them on a branch centerpiece using ribbon or yarn.
- Take Your Kids on an Art Adventure
- Take your kids on an art adventure. Pull together an image collection of famous works of art from the internet. Each day present one new picture, looking for action and describing words. Post an on-going list of these words and ask your child to use these words in an art journal that combines written descriptions, feelings, and images that your child has copied or drawn. If it is possible, visit the art work you have seen at local art museums and galleries.
- Tell Me a Story - a social studies connection idea
- “Please, tell me a story!” is the common refrain of our younger children and students. Although the concept of the past can be hard to grasp, we can bring history to life through the use of storytelling and oral traditions of families.
Encourage students to interview some of their relatives, and then present the stories they hear to their class. Children may be asked to draw pictures to help them remember the story. Artifacts (pictures, old lunch boxes, clothing, small antiques, yearbooks, toys, etc.)
may also aid students in retelling their families’ stories.
Sometimes family members may not realize how much history they’ve lived through. Try sending home the following suggestions:
Please tell me a story about:
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- A school memory
- A family memory
- Our family traditions
- Our religious traditions
- Where you have lived
- What kinds of transportation you used
- What kinds of foods you ate
- What you did for fun: toys, games, sports, books, etc.
- How you learned about news: radio, TV, computers, newspapers, etc.
- Bubble Recipe - a science connection idea
- Encourage your kids to experiment to come up with the best bubble solution recipe and best bubble tools.
For the bubble solution, gather: water, Dawn or Joy dish soap, other dish soaps, light corn syrup, a spoon, measuring cups and measuring spoons, lots of bowls.
Instructions: Try different combinations of water, dish soap, and light corn syrup to find the best bubble solution. Use measuring cups and spoons, and write down the amount of each ingredient you use each time you make a solution. When you have found “the best” solution, write a recipe card to share with your friends. Try different bubble tools to see which make the biggest or the smallest bubbles. For bubble tools, gather: string, thin wire hangers, cookie cutters, pipe cleaners, plastic lids, etc.
- Creating a Phone Directory - a math connection idea
- In the primary grades children are just entering the world of numbers, counting and basic operations. It is important for these young children to experience numbers and mathematical ideas in their home and in the larger world. One way to get children and parents writing and talking about numbers and how they are formatted is through telephone usage.
Encourage parents to have their children make their own phone directory of 3-5 relatives they are permitted to call. For very young children who cannot yet read/write names, have the children use small photos to aid them in identifying the person. Spend time talking about the format of local telephone numbers (3 digits – 4 digits) and the importance of sequencing them correctly. Have the children write the relatives’ names and telephone numbers. As a reinforcement, have the child practice finding the person, reading the number aloud and then checking it by making the call.
- Draw and Label Objects
- Drawing and labeling objects, situations and experiences precede learning to write thoughts and ideas. Regularly encourage your child to draw and then talk about their pictures. Begin by labeling objects for them, slowly relinquishing that role as your child is able to write letters and then words independently. Two quality video clips that provide for models for parents are Art and Writing and Reading With Children at http://pbskids.org/lions/videos/.
For a short article about supporting writing conventions at home, "Supporting Writing Conventions at Home."
- My House is a Zoo
- Introduce your students to the fun of
sharing similes with their families. Ask your
students to imagine each of their family members
as animals and to list specific characteristics as
evidence.
Suggestions:
- Send home a list of animal names. Ask families to work
together to create a list of characteristics for several
animals.
- Challenge families to work together to discuss how each
family member is similar to a certain animal.
- Create and send home a handout with fill in the blank
sentences such as:
My mom is like a__________ because she_________ .
My brother is like a________ because he__________ .
- Students could be encouraged to make a My House is a
Zoo! book with their simile sentences and illustrations.
Adapted from Animal Families lesson by
Poetry Zone at
http://www.poetryzone.ndirect.co.uk/index2.htm
- The Moose Cafe
- Opportunities for
reading and writing are all
around us--even when the
subject is food. What you’ll need: Menus
from area restaurants.
What to do: Go with your
child to several restaurants
to ask for free copies of
their menus. Take them
home. Ask your child to read several of the items on each
menu with their descriptions.
Then ask your child to make up a menu for an
imaginary restaurant--the Moose Cafe or the Tuna Bake
Bistro--with creative descriptions for several items on their
special restaurant’s menu.
Source: READ*WRITE*NOW Activities for Reading and Writing Fun
http://www.udel.edu/ETL/RWN/Activities.html
- Family Photo Stories
- Peruse your family album and select a photo that shows details of action, dress, or scenery (rather than a formal portrait). Each family member should then write or dictate a sentence or paragraph describing the event, time, place or action depicted in the photo. These can be real or imaginary scenarios. Share the stories.
visit other parent writing resources:
- Parent Resources by Grade Level
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- Articles that Support Parental Involvement
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