Homework in first grade is designed to meet two specific goals. First, the homework assignments are structured to help students develop good at home study habits. This is the first experience that Columbus Academy students have with homework expectations, and we strive to help first graders and their families become comfortable with homework routines. The second goal is to reinforce learning that is taking place at school. All homework should be a review or extension of material presented in class.
First grade students are expected to work on homework Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings. Most weeks this homework will consist of Fluency Folder work (repeated readings of a poem or other reading selection to help in developing fluency in reading), Monster Word spelling practice, and number sense/math facts practice. Occasionally students may have a specific written homework page or an extended project in place of or in addition to the usual homework expectations. Some nights the homework assignment could even be to play a math or spelling game previously learned in class. Nightly homework (excluding D.E.A.R.) should take no more than 15 minutes to complete. In addition to the daily expectations, students take home a book each evening for at-home (D.E.A.R. - Drop Everything and Read) reading. We ask parents to record their child's nightly reading on the provided reading log. This allows the students and teachers to track reading progress throughout the year.
To maintain regular communication between school and home, we use a system called Thursday Folders. 1D students keep a folder of schoolwork from the week, which they then take home every Thursday to share with parents. These papers often come home as a stapled packet, with an Ask Me About mini-newsletter attached. This paper can guide parents in talking with their child about his/her week at school. This gives parents the opportunity to review the week's work with their child, and it is a great way of staying connected to their child's school experience. After reviewing the folder and reading the comment page if there is one that week, parents have the opportunity to write a comment on the slip (if they wish), then sign and date the slip. Children are expected to bring the signed piece of paper back to school on Friday. There is no need to send the entire packet of work back to school! That is for the parents to keep. It is our hope that parents will find this form of communication informative and that they will enjoy seeing their child's work consistently.
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