If you’ve visited a classroom, you’ve seen that we’re teaching our kids using interactive smart screens, iPads, and computers, in addition to the hands-on learning with which we are familiar. On Cyber Safety Night, we presented a workshop about some of the apps and programs we are using in our classrooms, and how you can use these and similar apps at home to help your child meet and exceed his or her educational goals. You may find the following information helpful during the school closure, especially.
Parent Portal
Parent Portal is your link to your student’s school record, and it has everything from attendance data and bus routes to report cards and test scores. To access your child’s test scores (testing starts in Kindergarten), log in to your Parent Portal account and click on the tab called “assessments.” Your child’s math and reading scores are in there, and you can go here to figure out where your next focus should be: https://tinyurl.com/MAPScores2019.
iRead
https://tinyurl.com/ECSDiRead
iRead is an adaptive program we use in the classrooms to help children learn phonics, word recognition, and more reading and language skills. Fun, friendly faculty monsters teach the children according to their level, helping to close learning gaps. You can access your child’s iRead account at home and whatever progress you make at home will carry over to the classroom. The goal of iRead is to have all of our students be proficient readers by the time they exit Diven. Make sure your browser is up to date, otherwise it won’t load properly.
Starfall
http://www.starfall.com/
Starfall has tons of free resources, including printable practice sheets, writing pages and more. We use it in classrooms during computer time. The vast majority of the resources are free! This has lots of great ELA and math activities. A $35 membership grants you access to additional content, including MP3s and additional activities up to grade 3, but the free version has plenty enough to get you started.
ClassDojo
http://www.classdojo.com/
ClassDojo is an app that many teachers use to communicate with families and to reward positive behavior in the classrooms. The program is free to use, but there is a paid version for families to use at home if you’d like to implement a similar point-based positive behavior reward system with your family.
Additionally, the ClassDojo website has a wonderful collection of activities to use with your children to develop their social-emotional intelligence. Check out https://www.classdojo.com/summer-kindness-series-week1/, for example. Find additional resources at https://ideas.classdojo.com/.
Endless Alphabet and Endless Reader
https://www.originatorkids.com/
This is a great app to use once your child has learned their letter sounds. Colorful animations and fun new vocabulary words keep readers engaged. I’ve used these app with both of my children since they were toddlers. It’s delightful to see such big words come out of such little mouths! Endless Reader has lots of sight words, while Endless Alphabet introduces more fun vocabulary. The free versions have plenty of content for you to see if these apps will work for your family.
Zearn Math
http://www.zearn.org/
Many of our teachers are using Zearn. Once you set up your account at home, you’ll be able to access all of Zearn’s wonderful features. You have two options with Zearn: if your child’s teacher is using Zearn, you can ask them for your child’s login information and recommendations for Missions or Topics for you to work on at home. If your child’s teacher isn’t using Zearn, you can set up your own Missions and Topics for your child after setting up a Teacher Account. Create an account with Zearn, create a Teacher Account and add your child as a student to your class. You’ll be given a Username, Password, and for each child, and can use that information to sign in and access individual lessons. Visit https://tinyurl.com/Zearn-at-Home for more information.
If you have any questions, please contact Liz Zilinski, ezilinski@gstcontractors.com.