Dear Families,
I hope you all had a fabulous Spring Break! As we jump back into school, I want to remind you that end-of-year testing is approaching. Acadience testing will take place from April 28th to May 2nd. This gives the kiddos three full weeks to practice and maintain the skills we have learned throughout the school year.
In math, students will be tested on AQD, MNF and Computation. In ELA, they will be tested on WWR, Accuracy, Fluency, and Retelling. If you would like to know where your child currently stands in any of these areas based on their progress monitor, please send me an email, and I can let you know.

Helpful ideas to help practice:
Nonsense Word Fluency – Correct Letter Sounds (NWF-CLS) and Whole Words Read (NWF-WWR): The goal is to have students blend and read real as well as nonsense words.Here are activities to help your child with nonsense word fluency:1. Download the “Blending Board” app for your child.2. Flash Cards: Create 2 sets of consonant flash cards, alphabet without the vowels (a, e, i, o, u). Make another set of cards in a different color with the vowels on them. Place the first consonant set on the left, the vowels in the middle, and the second consonant set on the left. Flip one card at a time and have your child blend the 3 sounds.

AccuracyTry these activities to help increase reading accuracy:1. Echo Reading: Read a sentence or page, and then have your child read the same section back to you. This models accurate reading.2. Tapping: Have your child read a book or passage. If they make a mistake, tap your finger on the table, this will notify your child they made a mistake and they will go back and fix it. Make sure they go back to the beginning of the sentence to reread.

FluencyEncourage reading fluency with these activities:1. Repeated Reading: Have your child read the same short passage or book multiple times until they can read it smoothly and confidently.2. DYAD reading: Select a book that may be a little difficult for your child. Read in unison for 10 to 15 minutes.3. Have your child read out loud to you for at least 10 minutes of their reading time.

Retell To improve retelling skills, consider these activities:1. Story Mapping: After reading, have your child draw or write about the main parts of the story (beginning, middle, and end).2. Who, What, Where, When, Why: Ask your child these questions after reading to help them remember and retell key story details.3. Have your child ask you questions about the story/passage they read.
Advanced Quantitative Discrimination (AQD):Here are activities to help your child with Advanced Quantitative Discrimination:1. Number Models: Write a number down and ask your child to create a model using 10’s and 1’s. (e.g. III …. Would be 34. When they get good at this, you create 2 models and ask them to determine which model is bigger.)2. Comparing Large Numbers: Write pairs of two-digit numbers on paper, and ask your child which number is larger or smaller.3. More or Less Game: Using a deck of cards (remove face cards), draw two cards and ask your child which has the higher value. This helps with understanding and comparing quantities. You can make this harder by flipping two cards to create a double digit number, to compare to 2 other cards. Aces count as 1)

Missing Number Fluency (MNF):Try these activities to help your child with Missing Number Fluency:1. Fill in the Blank: Write a sequence of numbers with a missing number (e.g., 4, __, 6), and ask your child to fill in the blank.2. Pattern Recognition: Create simple patterns of numbers with missing elements (e.g., 10, 12, __, 16) and ask your child to identify the missing number. Do this with 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. 3. Using the Hundreds Chart, cover a number and ask your child to determine what the covered number is.
Computation 1 (First Grade Level) through Computation 3 (Third Grade Level):Play iReady learning games (get QR code from your child’s teacher)

Additionally, we have the Nature Center coming for a field trip on May 21st from 8:30 to 9:45 AM, and we will need some volunteers to help move tables outside and monitor groups of students during the presentation. If you are interested in helping, please let me know, and I will get you signed up.
We will also need volunteers for Field Day on May 28th. I will inform you of the time as soon as I find out.
The kiddos are doing great and working very hard. Let’s keep their determination high so they can achieve their best!
Thank you for your support! Ms. Strain