Homework

Richmond Street School Kindergarten Homework Expectations  2007-2008< namespace="" prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xml="true">

The staff at < namespace="" prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xml="true">Richmond Street School is dedicated to the idea of instilling a love of learning in all their students.  With that in mind, the staff has done extensive research to understand and adopt the best possible practices toward achieving student success.  We discovered through research that if students don’t embrace the joy and excitement of learning at an early age, school becomes boring, and at worst, a source of discouragement and defeat.

We at the kindergarten level feel that responsibility profoundly. We witness first-hand students discovering the thrill of accomplishment and the satisfaction of acquiring knowledge.  We feel this is a precious gift, indeed.  We constantly walk the fine line between challenging each student to his or her utmost abilities, while nurturing the skills necessary to become a successful citizen of the 21^st century.

Brain research shows that 5 and 6 year olds crave language – hearing, speaking, and reading language.  Learning language, its cadences, sounds, rhythms – these are the most important components in developing students’ reading, writing and speaking abilities.  While this may seem self-evident, it is important to remember that this age group can easily become frustrated and “turned off” to the joy of reading if all reading activities are linked to a “homework” process.

Therefore the Kindergarten teachers have developed an approach to homework to help foster a love of reading, while slowly building up to activities that will enrich each child’s reading experience.  The timeline we’ve developed is intended to not only promote a love of reading, but to build some parent-child family time into our hectic lifestyles.

Our primary goal is to expose children to the joy of reading.  We regard this nightly reading together as “mandatory,” so on that level it is indeed “homework.”  However, we do not want to burden our young readers with written work before they have fully grasped how magical the reading experience can be.  Our fervent hope is that families will take our “reading nightly” mandate as seriously as we do, so that all students become prepared for writing and enrichment activities by the beginning of the New Year.

Of course, if after a month of nightly reading, you become aware that your child yearns for additional activities or ideas to supplement your reading time together, please contact his/her teacher to discuss if an enrichment packet is appropriate.

Read on!!!

Nancy Jacobson