Department of Student Services

Reminders:

• Progress updated on IEP goals will go home with report cards on December 22, 2022. 
• If you need assistance obtaining school supplies, please contact Tricia Moskal at [email protected].
   

► The executive functioning strategy/skill highlighted this week is organization.

Below are some strategies from thepathway2success.com that parents can use at home to help their children build skills.

Organization is developing and maintaining a system to stay neat and tidy. Learners might need organization skills to keep binders and supplies tidy. They also use organization when putting their ideas together before starting a project. Organization is also critical beyond school for keeping our homes neat and having systems in place to help us complete work efficiently.

Some strategies for organization at home include:

• Organize a room. Choose one room or area of the house and organize it together. Doing an organization project together makes it considerably more manageable for everyone involved. You can even listen to music while you clean to make it more fun.
• Sort and tidy. Choose something that could be sorted, such as a pile of clothes or a stack of books. Discuss how they can be sorted and work it out together.
• Model the creation of task lists or a system of labeling to-do items by using systems such as Sarah Ward’s “Get ready, Do, Done.”
   

► Raising multilingual or bilingual children: Practical tips for supporting your child’s multilingual or bilingual development

Play and games

• Read and tell stories in your heritage language, and encourage your child to join in. Use dress-ups and be creative!
• Play games in your heritage language, especially games that focus on language, like "I spy," bingo, "Who am I?" and memory.
• Sing songs, dance and play music in your heritage language. Children love music, and melody is a great way to help them remember things.
• Look for child-friendly word game apps in your heritage language.

Community activities

• Look for schools, child care centers, playgroups or multilingual and bilingual programs that support your child’s use of their heritage language.
• Organize playtime with other children who speak the same heritage language.
• Organize visits to or from speakers of your heritage language. Visit libraries or museums dedicated to your culture
• Go to the library and borrow CDs, DVDs, picture books, age-appropriate fiction and magazines in your heritage language.
• Look for cultural activities that you and your child can do together to tap into your family’s cultural heritage and identity.

At home

• If possible, talk to your children in your heritage language from birth.
• Listen to radio programs in your heritage language, including popular music programs and channels for teenagers.
• If you have family and friends who live overseas, you could encourage your children to connect with them using video-chat or online.
• Think about what your child is interested in – for example, soccer, music, TV shows, cooking and so on. Try incorporating your heritage language into these interests. For example, you could find your child’s favorite recipe or a typical recipe from your community and cook it together using only that language.
• Watch movies or sport in your heritage language – for example, through satellite TV or online streaming services. You can sometimes switch the audio or subtitles of English content into other languages.