Helpful Hints for Parents

The best advice I can give to parents of first graders is to encourage your child daily! Be excited about your child's education and make sure to look at their school work each day. Talk to your child about school. Encourage responsibility at home by inviting your child to participate in household responsibilities such as caring for pets, setting the table or taking out the trash. Make their homework their responsibility - as well as getting all of their school items organized to bring to school the next day. The earlier children are given responsibility, the sooner they become responsible!

Celebrate each little success with your child! Reading is a developmental process. Children need to be praised along the way. Most likely, your child will memorize books before he/she begins to sound out words. This is an important step in the reading process. Be excited when your child shows an interest in books. I also suggest that parents read in front of their child. When children notice their parents reading, it helps them realize how important reading is and reinforces that words have meaning. Try to read with your child daily - even five minutes before bed counts! Talk to your child about the book. This will help with comprehension.

Here is the biggie for beginning readers: Encourage instead of pushing your child to read. Students need to develop an interest in reading first so frustration doesn't keep them from learning. Many parents ask me what would help with reading the most. That is tricky to answer because it depends on the individual student. My general answer would be to learn the sight words (words that don't follow all the phonics rules) that are introduced in class. I send new lists home each Monday in preparation for our sight word tests on Friday. I have included a complete list of Dolch Sight Words below.

Dolch Sight Words

Pre-primer

a, and, away, big, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, play, run, said, see, the, to, up, we, where, you

Primer

all, am, are, at, ate, be, but, came, did, do, eat, get, good, have, he, into, like, must, new, no, now, on, our, out, please, pretty, ran, ride, saw, say, she, so, soon, that, there, they, this, too, under, want, was, well, went, what, who, will, with, yes

1st Grade

after, again, an, any, as, ask, by, could, every, fly, from, give, giving, had, has, her, him, his, how, just, know, let, live, may, of, old, once, open, over, put, round, some, stop, take, thank, them, then, think, walk, were, when

2nd Grade

always, around, because, been, before, best, both, buy, call, cold, does, don't, fast, first, five, found, gave, goes, green, its, made, many, off, or, pull, read, right, sing, sit, sleep, tell, their, these, those, upon, us, use, very, wash, which, why, wish, work, would, write, your

3rd Grade

about, better, bring, carry, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, fall, far, full, going, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep, kind, laugh, light, long, love, much, myself, never, only, own, pick, seven, shall, show, six, small, start, ten, today, together, try, warm

Nouns

apple, baby, back, ball, bear, bed, bell, bird, birthday, boat, box, boy, bread, brother, cake, car, cat, chair, chicken, children, coat, corn, cow, day, dog, doll, door, duck, egg, eye, farm, farmer, father, feet, fire, fish, floor, flower, game, garden, girl, good-bye, grass, ground, hand, head, hill, home, horse, house, kitten, leg, letter, man, men, milk, money, morning, mother, name, nest, night, paper, party, picture, pig, rabbit, rain, ring, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister, snow, song, squirrel, stick, street, sun, table, thing, time, top, toy, tree, watch, water, way, wind, window, woman, women, wood

Color Words

red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, black, brown, pink, white

Number Words

zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, first, second, third, last