TEACHERS AND PARENTS AS PARTNERS
(Developed by the CT State Dept of Education @2003 McDonald's Corporation, McDonald's Fantastic Scholastics)
"Families are their children's first teachers."
During the year your child is in GRADE 3 at Horace W. Porter School he/she will learn a great deal. You can play an important role in your child's success! Here are some great activities that you can do with your child/ren to help them throughout the year:
WORD IDENTIFICATION: (Identifies and reads letters and words)
  • Make a set of cards with base words, a set with prefixes and a set with suffixes. Have your child make words and read them to you.(See example below)
  • Read words with more than one pronunciation accurately according to the meaning in the sentence (wound - He put a bandage on his wound. He wound the toy duck and watched it waddle.)
  • Help your child tell how the prefix and/or suffix changes the meaning of a word. 
COMPREHENSION: (Understands what he/she reads)
  • After reading the title and looking at the cover, ask your child what he/she thinks the books is going to be about
  • After your child reads, encourage him/her to write or tell a summary
  • Have your child look in the newspaper to find graphs, tables or diagrams that go with an article
  • Before, during, and after reading with your child, ask him/her literal questions, inferential questions and questions requiring a connection and a conclusion:

  • Example story: Molly's Pilgrim
    Literal:  What country did Molly come from?
    Inferential: How did Molly"s mother feel when she realized that Molly was ashamed of the doll?
    Connection: If you were going to make a doll that reflects your family's heritage, what would it look like?
    Conclusion: Why do you think Molly fits the definition of a pilgrim?
  • Ask your child to provide evidence from the story to support his/her opinion of it.
  • Play the "Words That Sound The Same Game" (Say a word in a sentence. Have the child say the same word in a sentence that demonstrates a different meaning. Ex. fair - fare: The children went to the fair. The children needed money to pay the fare on the bus.) 
WRITING: 
  • Encourage your child to write often in many different ways (grocery lists, thank you notes, letters to friends, stories, journal entries, directions)
  • Have a variety of paper, pencils, crayons, and markers available for your child to write
  • Encourage your child to read his/her writing aloud to you and ask him/her to make changes to improve the writing (expressive words, elaborate, organization of thoughts, punctuation, grammar, spelling)
SPELLING:
  • Review spelling words with your child and provide opportunities to practice them
  • Encourage your child to correctly spell words when writing
MOST IMPORTANT ACTIVITY:
  • Take your child to the public library and select books (both fiction and nonfiction) that he/she is able to read or would enjoy hearing!
EXAMPLE:
PREFIX BASEWORD SUFFIX NEW WORD
Re- (do over) invent -ed (happened in the past) reinvented
pre- (before) cook   precook
dis- (not) like   dislike
  color -ful (full of) colorful
il- (not) legal   illegal

Last updated: May 29, 2003