Allen School’s E-Newsletter

May 2005

Volume 1, Number 1

In This Issue:

· Encouraging Your Child To Write

· Writing Sites for K-2

· Writing Sites for 3-5

· Upcoming Events

·  New On Website

·  Fun & Educational Sites for Kids!

 

 

 

 

Writing Matters!

Writing matters for anyone looking to be successful in their community, in school, in college, and in the workplace. Parents and guardians are a child’s first writing teachers and are important and most influential as their children learn to write, develop a real love for words and writing, and as they begin to understand the power of writing. Even before school begins, the first and most important lessons children learn that help them become good writers and good students are learned in the home from their parents.

How Parents Can Encourage Their Children To Write:
http://www.teachersnetwork.org/NTNY/nychelp/Literacy/helping.htm

ü      Encourage children to write to other people in the family.

ü      Don’t worry too much about their child's spelling; children will gradually learn the spelling patterns and rules, but first they need the confidence to just have a go at writing

ü      Parents should always encourage their children to read back what they have written and praise their attempts at writing.

ü      Parents can get ideas for writing topics by talking to children about things they have known well. Have the child draw a picture and then write about it.
 

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Writing Websites for K-2

It is never too early to teach writing. Try these sites to help develop the love of writing in your child! Disclaimer.

Starfall
This is one of Allen School's favorite sites for grades K-1.  It has great audio stories to read and at the end of the story you can print out a writing activity to go with the story.  This is one of the best!

PBS Kids: Print and Share
Print out the pages to create a book that tells your family stories.

Reading is Fundamental: Reading Planet
This site is great for all ages!  At the activity lab, you can print a story and add pictures to it which is a great way to see if your child comprehends what they are reading. In the Game station, join the "Writer's Block." Once a month the site will post a beginning of a story and kids can add to it until the story is complete. The "Story Maker" and "Poetry Splatter" is also great to create original stories and poetry.

Young Writer's Workshop
This site is for beginning writers.  Print out the "writer's workshop page" to help spark the story writing process. For younger children, have the child tell the story and the parent can write down the story. They give you some great ideas on how to create book of stories that your child will love!

For Additional Reading and Writing Sites Click here!

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Writing Websites for 3-5

In the intermediate grades, it is important that children begin to understand the power of words.  They should be exposed to various types of reading and writing and emphasis should be placed on word choice, placement, and correct grammar for proper communication. These sites should help your child improve on their writing while having a lot of fun! Disclaimer.

Read Write Think: Student Materials
At this great site, student will find a large assortment of online interactive tools to support and develop their literacy skills.  Students can use the interactive tools to create comics, letters, writing map and webbing tools, develop vocabulary, and produce a variety of poems.  This is an excellent site!

Scholastic's Writing With Writers
It is very important for students to learn from the pros!  Scholastic has brought authors of various genres together to help students to write all kinds of text such as biographies, folktales, poetry, mysteries, more.   What is even better is that students can have their stories published online!

Writing Fix
Writing Fix is a great site to help students when they are unsure about what to write.  They use a variety of interactive writing games to demonstrate how to create personalized stories such as the instant plot creator and instant writing prompts.  They also offer links to great writing games such as scrabble, mad libs, cryptograms, and crossword puzzles to develop vocabulary. Never again will kids be able to say, "But, I don't know what to write!"

Instant Poetry Forms
For some students, poetry can be the hardest thing to write! This site helps to take the fear out of poetry by providing instant poetry forms.  Students simply choose the type of poem they would like to make and then fill in the blanks. Simple and easy!

For Additional Reading and Writing Sites Click here!

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Upcoming Events at Allen School

May is packed full of great happenings at Allen!  Here are just a few that are coming up!

·         In View Testing for Grades 2, 3, and 4-- May 3rd and 4th

·         Teacher Appreciation Week--week of May 2nd

·         Choral Concert--May 5th

·         Art Show--May 10th

·         Favorite T-Shirt Day--May 13th

Check out the Allen School Calendar for a complete listing of May's Activities!

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What's New on Allen's Website?

The Allen School website changes everyday!  Make sure you check it often!

·         Check out the photos from Literacy Day! ( Also, look in your child's grade level page)

·         First Grade celebrates Circus Week

·         It's Allergy Season! Learn how you can minimize the symptoms on the Nurse's page.

·         Check out the photos taken by our Digital Photography Computer Club!

·         Check out the Second Grade Earth Day Celebration

·         Donna Washington Visits Allen School! Check out the photo and listen to some of her stories online at the Media Center Page!

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Fun and Educational Sites for Kids

These are sites are some of our kids favorite sites and they are educational, too. Shh!!! Don’t tell them!

·         Game Goo: Learning That Sticks (K-3) This site has three different levels of learning.  At each level, students play really cool interactive games that promote literacy. Our kids go goo-goo over Game Goo!

·         I Spy (K-3) This site is so much fun!  Modeled after the popular I Spy book series, this site has students looking for items in the Wizard’s lab and solving riddles.  The best part, though, is that kids can make their own riddles and I spy pictures!

·         Escape From Knab (Grades 4-5) Students learn money skills at “Escape From Knab”.  The goal is for the students to earn enough money to return back to Earth by answering a series of questions about money and jobs. 

·         I Know That (All Grades) At this site, students can brush up on all kinds of skills! The Leon Math Movies and Leon DoJo are some of the kid’s favorites!

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