Summer is Here! Free Math Worksheets and More

Summer is here! And here are some good links for math worksheets and reading practice.

Have Fun!

http://readingisfun.me/?p=985

A great site with free first grade mathematics worksheets. Print it out and have your child practice in his/her free time. Very creative! Highly recommended.

www.tumblebooks.com

This site requires subscription but once you sign up, there is hundreds of stories. Children will enjoy choosing and listening to stories. Great story selection!

http://www.primarygames.com/math.htm

This site has a bunch of games. Every child will find something they like.

More good sites to come. Let us know of good sites you found and we will list them on this site.

Reading Fluency K-2

Once children know their letters and can read simple CVC words, such as cat, dog, hat, they are ready to take a next step. But this next step can cause frustration in both children and parents.

Students come out of kindergarten reading letter by letter. And if they are not taught word families, they continue to read letter by letter even when words get bigger. This impedes decoding, fluency, and comprehension, and causes great stress.

To address this, students should be taught word families, as I noted in one of my previous posts. Word family study is often referred as “chunking”. Students learn to “chunk words” by learning rhyme patterns/word families. For example…

-ash

dash

smash

rash

trash

Hooked on Phonics books are great for learning and teaching word families and chunking. Hooked on Phonics books progress in difficulty and each story reviews words/word families prior to child’s reading. As with other phonics material, stories don’t offer much of a story line, but they are good practice of word families/chunking.

100 high frequency words

Here are 100 high frequency words that according to Frey make up about 50 % of all text. 

I     a    and    he     to    

is    are    have   that    of   

in    you    it   was   for   

on   as   with  his    they

at   be   this   have   from

or    one   had   by   word   but  

not   what   all   were   we

when    your    can   said

there    use   an   each   which   

she   do  how   their if    will

up   other   about    out   many

then   them   these   so     some

her    would    make    like

him    into   time    has    look   

two    more   write   go   se   number

no   way   could   people   

my   than   first   water   been   call  who   

oil   its   now   find

long   down   day   did   get   

come   made   may   part

The Biggest Mistake In Teaching

The biggest mistake of past centuries in teaching has been to treat all children as if they were variants of the same individual and thus to feel justified in teaching them all the same subjects in the same way.

-Howard Gardner

Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse- Kevin Henkes

Lilly loved school. She loved the pointy pencils, squeaky chalk, shiny hallways,… And best of all, she loved her teacher, Mr. Slinger. And it was all well, until one day, Mr. Slinger would not let Lilly show off her fancy sunglasses, complete with glittery diamonds, and a chain like Mr. Slinger’s… This is another great story by Kevin Henkes. Lilly is adorable, charming, and realistic, and she will make both you and your child laugh. Happy Reading!

There Is No Place Like Space – Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library

There Is No Place Like Space- by Tish Rabe- Cat in the Hat Learning Library

This is another great book by Tish Rabe from the Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library.  It is a story about planets, stars,and universe, presented in a fun rhyming way. A lot of interesting facts. This is a definite repeat reading. Great vocabulary builder!

Stand Up for Yourself & Your Friends – American Girl

This is a great book, for girls 5 and up, about standing up for yourself. This book is good for every girl because every child will encounter bullying in school in some form, teasing, bullying, being mean, etc. In whatever way bullying comes from, this book gives examples and practical ways to address and understand bullying. Of course, this book will also help your child recognize if she is directly or indirectly, intentionally or not partaking into bullying. It’s a really good and helpful book. It exceeds expectations!

Girls Learning to Read – Amber on the Mountain- by Johnston and Duncan

Aaz

Amber on the Mountain – by Toby Johnston and Robert Duncan

If your girl is 6 or 7 years old and just learning to read, she will love this book.  It is a beautiful story about friendship, self confidence, determination, and learning to read. Anna teaches Amber to read and above all to believe that she can achieve things when she sets her mind to it. This is such an inspiring story that will not only get repeat reads, but it will encourage your little one to keep reading even when the process gets frustrating. The lesson of perseverance once learned will transfer to all other areas of child’s life. Great story!

Learn to Spell- Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade

Spelling – Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade

Check the spellingcity.com site. It lets you plug in your own spelling words into a list and play games. It just makes the memorization of the spelling words a bit more meaningful, which will help your child put the words in context and remember them even after the test.

The Night Before the Night Before Christmas- by Natasha Wing and Mike Lester

“The Night Before the Night Before Christmas” by Natasha Wing and Mike Lester.

Here is a humorous Christmas story about the family that survives the Christmas tree disaster (we all had those moments), the mall, flu, but it all ends well. Great rhyming too. You will love this one.