Aspen Elementary School

Research has shown that children who read even TEN minutes a day outside of school experience substantially higher rates of vocabulary growth between second and fifth grade than children who do little or no reading!

Listed below are some suggestions for increasing your child's vocabulary.

1. Identify words that are critical to story understanding which are not explained in the text.
2. Select words students will "encounter" again (moderate frequency words).
3. Preteach meanings of words using examples, synonyms, definitions.
4. Provide children opportunities to use the words.

There are two types of vocabulary words. Those that you can decode phonetically and those that are sight words. The later you just have to memorize. the more you read, the more your vocabulary list grows!

Research has shown that children who read even TEN minutes a day outside of school, experience substantially higher rates of vocabulary growth between second and fifth grade then children who do little or no reading!

Some strategies for teaching your child vocabulary are listed below:

Identify words that are critical to story understanding that are Not explained in the text.
Select words students will "encounter" again (moderate frequency words).
Preteach meanings of words using example, synonyms, definitions.
Provide children opportunities to use the words.

There are two types of vocabulary words. Those that are phonetic (can be decoded using phonics) and those that are sight/frequency words ( which you just have to memorize). The more you read, the faster your vocabulary wi

Welcome to the start of another year at Aspen. The summer months flew by very quickly and I am so excited to be a part of the Learning Center Team again this year! The classroom teachers have been busy building their communities and next week the DIBELS and NWEA measures will be administered. The DIBELS is a tool used for planning instruction. It is designed not so much for determining a final outcome of instruction but to help improve those outcomes. The road to reading success begins early in life. Let's work as partners in developing our children's growth in literacy!

Technology provides wonderful opportunities for students to practice skills and strategies that they have learned in a variety of subject areas. Try some of these interactive online games to improve your reading skills.

Grade 1 http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_1st.htm

Grade 2 http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_2nd.htm

Have fun with learning to become a better reader!

Be responsible for taking daily work home.
Get a pen pal and write letters to each other.
Focus on daily learning.
Write stories at home and read them to an adult.
Read a variety of fiction and non-fiction material.
Play Hangman.
Tutor a friend or younger student.
Limit TV and video games.
Write a review following attendance at a play, musical, or special event.
Read books at a higher level.
Keep a vocabulary log or create a project of new words, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, suffixes, prefixes, and or multiple- meaning words.
Prepare a report using reference skills.
Visit the public library often.
Read at least five books this summer!