Ms. DeCasper's Class    

Dear Parents,

This letter will introduce you to our Project CHILD reading classroom. Reading is so important, and one of our goals is to encourage good reading habits. The CHILD reading classroom is an exciting place where your child will participate in many kinds of learning activities-some are traditional and some may seem a little different.

In the CHILD reading classroom, the children work with a variety of reading materials. In addition to reading textbooks, we use computers, newspapers, library books, song books, poetry books, magazines, instructional games, charts, reference materials, and the children's written work from the CHILD writing classroom. We will also use our reading textbooks, which we supplement with CHILD activities focusing on fiction, folk tales, and the like.

The students also work at learning stations, where I provide stimulating learning activities designed to develop reading skills. Students work on the computer, do hands-on projects, and listen to and make story tapes. Project CHILD is based on active learning using computers and hands-on learning projects, so you will not see worksheets coming home every day.

Children work at the learning stations with a partner or with other students. Project CHILD promotes cooperative learning in which students often discuss their work and help each other. And of course, there are ample opportunities to read and enjoy books!

We hope you will support and encourage your child's reading progress at home by being a reader yourself. Make it a daily habit to share some kind of reading material with your child-a book or story, a magazine or newspaper article, even the daily comics. Reading aloud is a wonderful way to spend time with your child, and also helps increase your child's vocabulary and love of books. You might even spend time at the dinner table or in the evening reading a chapter of an exciting book to the whole family. Make regular visits to the public library with your child to select books to read and discuss together.

I encourage you to call the school to make an appointment to visit us, and see how the learning stations work. I'll be happy to talk about your child's progress.

Sincerely,

Ms. DeCasper

CHILD Reading Teacher

If you need to contact Ms. DeCasper, you can call (352) 671-6325 or e-mail decaspem@marion.k12.fl.us and I will get back to you as soon as possible. If you wish to schedule a conference with me, my conference hours are Mondays and Thursdays from 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM (Please call or e-mail to schedule a conference with me ahead of time before you come).

While you're here . . .

• Check out our Student of the Month on the Spotlight page!
• Forgot to write your homework down before you left? Check out our Assignments page.

Have ideas, suggestions, comments, or corrections for my class Web site? Please e-mail me so I can make this site better!