Read to your child. It is important that children hear what reading sounds like. It will help your child with fluency and expression if you read stories aloud to them. Also, it helps foster a love of reading.
Let your child read to you, and don't be afraid to let them struggle. Please help foster independence. We know it can be hard! When your child gets to a tricky word, say, "What can you try? Which strategy should you use first?" Your child shouldn’t just try one thing to figure out a word! Sometimes one strategy will work on one word but not another. Most of the time, sounding out a word will not be the most successful way. Please encourage them to try some of the different strategies you'll see below. Help them think to themselves, “What strategy will help me read this word?”
Ask questions before, during, and after reading. This will help build your child's comprehension skills. Ask students to retell the story by summarizing the beginning, middle, and end. Ask the 5 W's: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How. (You could even make it fun by making a cube with the questions on them, a game spinner, or folded up papers in a hat)
Encourage writing in a variety of ways. Establish routines at home like writing in a journal/diary. Your child can write in it, and you can respond! Have your child write letters to family members. Give your child a notebook so they can record what they see in the world and what they've been learning, like the character Jack in the Magic Tree House series.
Skills Block Activities
An important skill that second graders must master is differentiating between long and short vowel sounds in words. At this point in the year, second graders have learned three main spelling patterns: open, closed, and CVCe. Below you will see an example of an editing activity that second graders completed in class.
Practice Commonly Used Spelling Patterns
Instead of memorizing how to spell certain words, students are taught to analyze word parts and use known patterns to read and write words. Here are some of the spelling patterns that your child should know by the end of the first quarter.
Short Vowel Words
chin
jump
can
stop
backpack
CVCe Words
hive
cane
hope
cube
Pete
Words With Vowel Teams
seed
heat
might
pie
boat
flow
Consider fun, multi-sensory ways for your child to build words at home!