Parents As Partners

Reading

As we begin 2026, we encourage families to focus on three simple New Year goals that support student success:

📘First, stay connected to learning at home. Reading together, talking about school, and encouraging your child to explain their thinking helps reinforce skills and builds confidence.

📗Second, support consistent routines and attendance.Regular attendance, predictable routines, and communication with teachers help students feel prepared and supported.

📕Third, stay engaged and share your voice. Attending meetings, participating in Title I events, and providing feedback helps guide our programs and strengthens our school community. Your involvement plays a critical role in student success. As we move forward in 2026, we look forward to continuing our partnership with families to support learning and growth.

Helping Children Learn-English

Helping Children Learn-Spanish

Math

While we use many assessments to monitor your child’s math progress, there are ways you can help at home!

🔢 Practice Basic Math – Encourage number recognition, counting, and simple addition or subtraction through everyday activities like cooking (counting ingredients), grocery shopping (identifying numbers), or playing board games with dice.

Your support makes a difference! Thank you for partnering with us in your child’s learning.

We will be completing our AimsWeb Plus winter reading benchmarking in January.  During the winter benchmarking window, we use AimsWeb Plus to assess each student’s progress in key early reading skills, including letter name fluency, letter-sound fluency, and phoneme segmentation. This important mid-year check allows us to see how much students have grown since the fall and whether they are on track to meet end-of-year reading goals.

Winter benchmarking helps us to:

• Identify reading strengths students are developing
• Pinpoint skills that may need additional support
• Adjust small-group instruction and targeted interventions

Once benchmarking is complete, teachers will use this information to guide instruction and will share updates with you about your child’s progress and next steps.

Knowing letter sounds is essential because it helps children connect written letters to the sounds they hear in spoken language. This skill is the foundation of phonics and allows young readers to blend sounds together to read words and break them apart to spell them. When children have strong letter-sound knowledge, they gain confidence, read more fluently, and are better prepared to tackle new or unfamiliar words. Overall, mastering letter sounds builds the groundwork for successful reading and writing.

Want to help your child say their letter sounds correctly? Watch this informative video (this resource is for parents).

(For Spanish speakers: Use the PDF to learn how to change the subtitles to Spanish.)

Students are learning a diverse set of skills that form the building blocks of successful reading. These include recognizing and pronouncing common phonemes and understanding vowel-consonant words and consonant-vowel-consonant combinations. Do you want to help them practice but are not sure how?

Learn how to use the UFLI Home Practice Pages to help your child continue to be successful. (For Spanish speakers: Use the PDF to learn how to change the subtitles to Spanish.)

One of the best ways to instill a love of reading in your child is to read with them every day! Do you want to do more to help your child become confident readers and spellers? Each week in school, your child learns letter sounds, spelling patterns, and high-frequency words. You can make a big difference by reinforcing these skills at home in fun, simple ways.

👍 Easy Ways to Help at Home

• Sound Practice
  • Ask your child to say the sounds of the letters or patterns they’re learning (ex: m, a, s). You can use sticky notes, flashcards, or even write them in sidewalk chalk!
• Word Building
  • Help your child make new words by changing the first letter. For example: cat → hat; hot → cot.
• High-Frequency Words
  • Post high-frequency words (like the, said, was) on the fridge or bedroom wall. Practice reading them in a “silly voice” (robot voice, whisper, singing).
• Everyday Word Hunt
  • While shopping, driving, or cooking, ask your child to spot words, letters, or patterns they know.

🌟 Quick Tip

Keep practice short (5–10 minutes) and playful—consistency matters more than length! Little bursts of practice each day make a big difference.

Check out this short video on even more ways you can help your child!

Establish a Consistent Routine: Maintain a regular daily schedule for waking up, meals, and bedtime. A consistent routine helps children feel secure and makes school transitions smoother.

Encourage a Love of Reading: Read with your child every day to foster a love of books and build literacy skills. Engage in discussions about the stories to enhance comprehension and vocabulary.

Promote Independence: Encourage your child to take on small tasks, like packing their backpack or dressing themselves. This builds confidence and prepares them for school responsibilities.

Foster Social Skills and Emotional Development: Help your child learn how to share, take turns, and express their feelings in a healthy way. Encourage social interactions through playdates and group activities to build friendships and social confidence.