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The reading log for the month of February is now out. Take 20 minutes a night to read your child's favorite book.

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Take the kids to some fun at the Mid Continent Library!

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Storytimes and Other Children's Activities | mymcpl.org - Mid-Continent Public Library

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Did you know MCPL's digital collection includes books, audiobooks, movies, magazines, and music? Regardless of what you're looking for, we have something for everyone.

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Recently, we started learning about different subjects in science. One of the things we learned about is something changing form. This is a crystal activity you and your child can do together at home.

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Biz Jones
Geodes are small rock cavities lined with crystals or minerals. They form through sedimentation, a process in which particles (solute) are suspended in fluid (solvent) and then accumulate. (Here, the Epsom salt is the solute, and the water is the solvent.) The salt particles fuse together because the water is so saturated, forming crystals as the water evaporates.

What You'll Need:

1. Help kids crack an egg at the narrow end and carefully widen the opening to the size of a quarter. Empty into a bowl; repeat with more eggs. (Save the yolks and make a scramble or frittata for lunch!)

2. Set shells in a bowl of hot water to rinse. Then show kids how to gently rub their thumb on the inside to loosen and remove the membrane (there may be two layers). Turn the shells over on a towel to dry. If desired, dye them before the next step (follow instructions on the box); let dry.

3. Set the shells inside the carton. Brush the entire inside with a thin layer of glue and dust with Epsom salt (this will act as a starter crystal). Let dry completely (a few hours).

4. Boil 1 cup water and remove from heat (an adult's job). Slowly add ½ cup Epsom salt and stir until it's dissolved. Continue stirring in small amounts of salt (a tablespoon or two at a time but no more than ½ cup) until it no longer dissolves, then STOP. You've made a super-saturated solution! It should be thick but not slushy.

5. Carefully pour the solution into your shells with a small ladle, filling to the top. Add a drop of food coloring to each egg, and stir gently with a toothpick. Place your shells somewhere safe and at room temperature.

6. Check your eggs daily. If you find a thin, hard, jagged layer forming on the surface, gently break it up with a toothpick (allowing the water to evaporate). After a few days, all the water will evaporate, leaving colorful geodes behind!

Bonus Fun: Have your child experiment with other soluble solids, like sugar, baking soda, or table salt-does she get the same result?

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Geodes are small rock cavities lined with crystals or minerals. They form through sedimentation, a process in which particles (solute) are suspended in fluid (solvent) and then accumulate. (Here, the Epsom salt is the solute, and the water is the solvent.) The salt particles fuse together because the water is so saturated, forming crystals as the water evaporates.

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In K 20 we are woking with Andy Addition. He is helping our kinder Kiddos add within the number 0-10.

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In our classroom we are focused on involving the parent in homework. Our new way of doing homework is interactive homework which involves the parent and child. Listed below is an article on the importance of interactive homework.

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Educational Research Newsletter and Webinars

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Middle-school students participated in a study of interactive science homework for 18 weeks. Frances L. Van Voorhis, Johns Hopkins University, developed science homework assignments that require students to work with their parents or other family members. Students in the experimental classes completed more assignments and turned in more accurate assignments than did students in noninteractive classrooms. Study findings also reveal that this greater parental involvement led to higher grades and better attitudes toward science.

Previous research shows that middle and high school students achieve better grades and achievement scores when they spend more time on homework and complete more assignments. Despite this link between homework and achievement, many students do not complete their homework, and students, parents and teachers voice legitimate concerns over current homework practices. Teachers want more communication with parents, but parents complain that teachers give them too little information on how to help their children with homework. Seventy-five percent of middle school principals surveyed report that fewer than half of the parents at their schools receive regular information from teachers regarding ways in which they might help their children with homework. This suggests, according to Van Voorhis, that a need might exist for improved communication between school and home about parental help with homework.

Past studies reveal both positive and negative effects of parent involvement in homework. Parents express frustration and embarrassment when they try to help their children with homework, saying they feel they don't have the necessary knowledge or work differently than the teacher. However, parental involvement has a more positive impact on achievement than socioeconomic status. Generally, parents are less involved in homework as their children progress through high school. But secondary students need different kinds of parental involvement. Studies have shown that discussion of school activities at home has the most positive effect of all the types of parental involvement.

Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS)

On the basis of these findings, researchers have developed a homework approach to promote student learning, parent-child interactions and parent- teacher communication. This design for interactive homework can be applied to any subject at any grade level. Each assignment includes clear objectives for learning, instructions for completion, and explicit instructions to the student for involving family members in certain portions of the assignment. Interactive assignments are assigned no more than once per week. Students are given several days to complete the activity, and certain sections of the activity include instructions to prompt students to involve family members with specific conversation. Parents are asked for feedback on the effectiveness of the activity.

Teachers use interactive assignments when interaction would increase students' comprehension. Teachers design interactive questions that parents can answer without formal education or detailed knowledge of the subject. The assignments focus on what the student is learning, not on what the parent knows.

Research

Two previous studies have been carried out on the effectiveness of interactive homework on students' learning. A year-long study with middle-school students in an inner-city public school indicated that the number of TIPS writing assignments completed was related positively to students' grades in language arts and the overall quality of their writing skills. A two-month study of sixth-grade students' mathematics homework found no significant differences in mathematics achievement between classes that used interactive assignments and those assigned traditional homework.

In the current study, Van Voorhis studied 10 classes of suburban students and their parents for two grading periods. A total of 253 sixth and eighth graders participated in low, average and honors science classes. Fifty-three percent of the students were white, 36 percent were African American and 11 percent were from other ethnic groups. All teachers in the study were encouraged to use science activities that promoted discovery and hands-on experiences that motivated students.

Van Voorhis compared the effects of completing TIPS homework assignments with non-interactive homework assignments. Six classes were assigned TIPS homework and four received traditional assignments. Van Voorhis collaborated with teachers to develop TIPS science assignments to match their curriculum for the first two marking periods. Teachers chose topics for weekly assignments and designed two test questions related to each homework assignment.

All TIPS science activities included eight components:

1. A letter to the parents explaining the assignment in one sentence

2. The objective or learning goal of the activity

3. Common, inexpensive household materials or materials provided by the teacher

4. A step-by-step procedure that requires the student to think and act like a scientist and to interact with a family member

5. A lab report or data chart for reporting findings

6. Conclusion/discussion of the results and realworld applications of science with a family member

7. A section on the report for family members to send observations, comments or questions to the teacher

8. A parent signature on each activity sheet

Noninteractive assignments included the same homework content and format but did not include the instructions for family involvement. At the end of the study, parents of students in all the classes were asked to complete a survey of their opinions of science homework.

Prior science achievement, mother's education level, student ability level, student race, gender and grade level were collected for each student in the study. Homework completion, homework accuracy, family involvement, time on homework, science achievement, and attitudes about homework and science were recorded. Achievement was measured by the percentage of homework-related test questions answered correctly and report-card grades. Van Voorhis sought to identify the effects of interactive and noninteractive homework on family involvement in homework, homework completion rates, homework accuracy and science achievement.

Findings

TIPS encouraged significantly more family involvement in science homework. Higher levels of family involvement did not carry over to other subjects, however. The TIPS assignments provided instructions so parents did not have to figure out how to help their child appropriately. When family members were involved, students completed more assignments and assignments were more accurate than students with non-interactive assignments. TIPS students also earned higher report card grades. This remained true even after controlling for student background characteristics such as prior science achievement. Van Voorhis suggests that these students may have gained knowledge by explaining and talking about their work in a systematic way with a family member.

Recommendations and conclusions

Van Voorhis recommends year-long studies and the use of standardized tests to determine if interactive assignments raise students' scores on these tests as well as report card grades. On the basis of this study, however, Van Voorhis concludes that students benefit from well-designed interactive homework. Designing the interactive assignments in this study took time and teamwork. Teachers worked during the summer to write homework assignments. Teachers noted the benefits of having time to collaborate and strengthen their understanding of class content by explaining it to others. They reported the lack of time to do this during the school year. The type of interactive homework that produced positive results in achievement and family involvement invites students to engage a family partner in an activity, experiment, discussion or interview. Such productive assignments are currently underused.
"Interactive Homework in Middle School: Effects on Family Involvement and Science Achievement", The Journal of Educational Research, Volume 96, Number 6, August 2003, pp. 322-338. Published in ERN October 2003 Volume 16 Number 7

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Homework assignments that include interaction with family members improve family involvement

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Middle-school students participated in a study of interactive science homework for 18 weeks. Frances L. Van Voorhis, Johns Hopkins University, developed science homework assignments that require students to work with their parents or other family members.

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The new wave in K20 is family literacy and making your Kinder Kiddo reading ready. The website listed below will give great ideas for family literacy.

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Promoting Family Literacy: Raising Ready Readers

By NCLD Editorial Staff

The research is clear: Children raised in homes that promote family literacy grow up to be better readers and do better in school than children raised in homes where literacy is not promoted. We know that promoting family literacy is important to future reading and school success, but does that mean parents should be prepared to read 100 books a week to their preschoolers? Of course not. While family literacy activities are often based in reading, there are lots of other ways families can conduct literacy activities at home through picture books, songs, poetry and storytelling.

Family literacy is defined as home literacy activities that provide literacy skill-building opportunities for young children while enhancing literacy skill development in all members of the family. While researching family literacy you will often come across terms like, "literacy-rich homes," "family-focused reading" and the importance of building strong "home-school communication." All of these components are essential for promoting family literacy activities and raising ready readers. This month's feature will provide you with ideas for promoting family literacy in your home that go beyond reading storybooks, as well as provide you with free resources to use at home or to distribute to parents in your setting or school.

Books: Key Members of Your Family
One of the easiest ways to show your child the importance of reading is to make a special place to store your child's books. Assigning a place for your child's books shows your child that books are special and deserve an organized storage place all their own. Making room on a bottom shelf of the family bookcase or placing books in a drawer within your child's reach are great ways to create a home library. Parents and family members should model how to organize books on the shelf and teach children how to handle books as a way to promote ownership of the library.

Have you ever flipped through a friend's photos and imagined a story to go along with them? Young children love to use their imaginations to create stories to go along with pictures. One of the earliest literacy skills children develop is the concept of sequencing, or telling a story from start to finish in order. One way to practice this skill at home is to create your own picture books, or books without words. Using photos, pictures from magazines or your child's drawings, books can be created and placed in the home library for easy access. Family members can "read" the story with the child by asking him or her to take them through the story. As the child gets older, family members should have the child dictate the story to them so they can write it down and then move on to encouraging the child to write the words themselves.

Storytelling: Talking about Family History and Creating New Adventures
One of the best ways to help foster family literacy in the home is to encourage all family members to engage in storytelling. Not only is storytelling a great way to share family history, it is also a great way to engage all members of the family -- especially those who are building literacy skills regardless of their age. Start by having an older member of the family tell a story about a major family event (wedding, birthday, graduation). Afterward, ask a younger member of the family to re-tell the story in his or her own words. Family members should be supportive when the child misses an important element and help the child pronounce key vocabulary words like names of relatives, locations, etc. This activity helps build vocabulary, understand sequencing and recall information.

Writing Notes: Connecting Family and Friends
Learning to read and learning to write go hand in hand. It is important to practice and encourage emerging writing skills with young children and those new to learning a language. One way to encourage writing practice is to have family members leave notes for one another on a regular basis. Leaving a note in a lunch box, taping a note to the mirror in the hallway or slipping a note under a pillow are great ways to reinforce the importance of writing to communicate information. Children should be encouraged to send notes at every stage of their development -- from scribbles to sentences.

Another way to encourage written communication between family members is to send each other frequent e-mail messages. This is a great way to help young children keep in touch with distant relatives or friends. Working with an adult, have the child dictate or attempt to type a short message. If the child has typed the message without help, the adult can type a translation of the message underneath it. All attempts at typing and dictating should be encouraged. Engaging in a frequent email exchange with relatives and friends builds a child's letter recognition skills and provides practice organizing thoughts and ideas.

Using the Library with the Whole Family
Visiting the library together is a great way to foster family literacy activities. Not only do libraries often offer access to books on a wide range of literacy levels and subjects, libraries often have books in several languages as well. Adults and children can improve their literacy skills by reading books in the family's first language and then reading the same book in English. By doing this, family members will build vocabulary, the ability to use context clues to learn new words, and enable adults to ask the child questions about the illustrations and predict what will happen next. Families should also visit the library to connect with community literacy projects, storytelling, tutoring and reading clubs.

Learning to love to read starts at an early age and often starts at home. If families make the effort to encourage, support and engage all aspects of literacy in their homes, children and family members will enjoy reading and writing together for the rest of their lives.

Suggested Tip!

Read Books New Ways

Does it feel like you've read the same story 100 times? Read it a new way: Ask the child questions about what they think will happen next and encourage them to tell you what they see in the illustrations.
Learn more >

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Promoting Family Literacy: Raising Ready Readers

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Promoting Family Literacy: Raising Ready Readers By NCLD Editorial Staff The research is clear: Children raised in homes that promote family literacy grow up to be better readers and do better in school than children raised in homes where literacy is not promoted.