Homework

Homework in Weka In Weka students are sent home with a reading book every night. They are also asked to learn sight words and a few spelling words.

Reading: Monday and Wednesday your child will bring home a book from their browsing box. This is a book they have read before and can sometimes be their favourite book. This encourages the students to choose favourites and celebrate their success at reading their favourite book with fluency and expression.

Tuesday and Thursday your child will bring home the book they have been reading in their reading group for the past two days. By reading the story two days in a row before bring this book home your son or daughter should be starting to read this book independently, or with little help from you. They should be proud to read this to you with little help.

During the reading lessons in school students are asked to do the following things:
 * Talk about what they know about the topic of the book and predict what they think might happen in the book before reading.
 * Read the title and show different parts of the book e.g. covers, spine, contents/index pages etc.
 * Check the pictures for clues before reading the words.
 * Read the words with help or prompts as needed.
 * Find a range of letter sounds, punctuation marks, sight words, and other types of words after reading each page.
 * Answer a question after some pages to help build comprehension and understanding of the story line or facts.
 * Discuss the book at the end of reading and look at word structure and word meaning.

Sight words: There are three levels of sight words in Weka. These are based on the Essential Word Lists which are the most common words read in the English language. These are tested every Friday morning and a cumulative record kept of your child's progress. Once your child has shown success in reading the yellow sight words consistently they are given their first lot of spelling words. These are the yellow words again to learn how to spell. They will work through these before being tested through the spelling lists at the beginning, middle and end of the year.

Yellow Words: These are the first 20 words in the essential lists. These are the words you come across the most when reading.

Green Words: These are the next 30 words. These help expand vocabulary and support the yellow and blue reading levels of books.

Orange Words: These are the last 50 words. These help to fill gaps and support reading at the blue and green levels of books.

__Here are some ideas for learning these words in a fun way__.

Treasure hunt - Hide a few that make a sentence and get your child to find them and put them into a sentence that makes sense.

Ball throws - Try writing a word on a ball with chalk then passing it. Read it and throw it back for the next one.

Writing - Try writing with water and a paintbrush on concrete, or with chalk and them jumping on the right words as you call them out.

Spelling Words: The spelling words your child brings home are based on the first 200 words of the essential lists (Spell write)or the Peter's spelling test done at an appropriate time for your child's development. This determines your child's spelling age. Lists range from 2-20 spelling words depending on the spelling age. These are expected to be learnt by the student to be tested on Friday mornings. For the students in Room 2 this is the first time they have learnt words. Any help you can give at home will support their success and motivate them to keep trying. Please come in and see me if you have any queries, or would like any ideas to try at home.

Debbie Constable