1st Grade (& kindergarten) homework?

[Dawnie]

Now that school has been in session for a few weeks, what do your children bring home for homework?


During our meet the teacher night Victoria's teacher explained to us that there would never be any writing homework, occassional math pages, and books to read. They also would not have homework at all on the weekends - not even books.

Last year in Kindergarten is was the same - no homework and only books that came home for us to read to her then later in the year she had to read the high frequency readers.

So far she has brought home a few math pages that were really easy for her and her book - she brings home the same one for two days in a row. She has to read the book, we talk about it, and I have to write the date and title with any comments I have into her reading log.

It doesn't seem like enough to me. I realize it's only 1st grade but I hear what other first graders are bringing home in school districts around ours and I can't help but wonder if my child is being challenged enough. Our school district is suppose to be one of the "best" in the area.

I bought a set of high frequency readers for Victoria so she could keep reading over the summer and a kindergarten and first grade workbooks to do. We're still working in them on weekends and nights when she doesn't bring anything home from school.

Dawn

[Connie1222]

Jack is in 1st grade and a typical night of homeworkis this:

2 letter review sheets (usually one practice letter writing & one letter sound sheet)
1 math page,
1 "word wall" sheet. "Word Wall" words are the sight words they learn every week. There are 3/4 worda a week and each night they practice either writing them, writing a sentence using the words, or putting them in alphabetical order.

So about 4 pages total a night. I think it's perfect. The homework is a review oh what they did in school that day and we don't spend more than 15-20 minutes a night.

ETA: no homework on weekends either.

[Alyssa]

Aidan is in Transition, a program between K & 1st grade, but the first grade our public school offers. He was in private K last year.

In K, he had homework once a week. It came home on Wednesday and was due by Friday. It was usually just a worksheet or two like they do at school. The idea was home review but also responsibility to do it/bring it back in.

In Transition, we had his Open House last night and they said they won't be sending home much official homework. What they really want us to do, and what they are going to ask us to start to document, is read at least 10 minutes/night with your child. Their reasoning is that it will reinforce everything they're doing in school and that is the exposure the kids need most at home. Once a week, we also have "Secret Share" where they have to find something that starts with the letter of the week, put it in a brown paper bag, and come up with/write 3 clues about what it is.

[TtownAnne]

Caroline brings home homework on Mondays and it is due back by Friday. Her situation is a bit different because she attends first grade for math and reading, so she often has homework from both. This week she had two math worksheets, practicing handwriting, writing spelling words and putting them in sentences, as well as reading 15 minutes per night.

[LISA]

This week Paige has had math( she had to make a chart) and handwriting and she had some vowel homework as well, I don't think they get homework on weekends though.

[Cami]

Dawn, maybe her school structures the day differently so they think there is not as much reinforcement needed at home? I would look at what work the kids at other schools are doing (not the amount, but what they're covering) and see if they are learning the same stuff. Which I guess is what you're doing here. :)

Addison in K has a reading book each week (which she has the week to read), a few sheets on writing letters and numbers, and then on Friday, she brings home a "project" which is supposed to be something the family does together. Last weekend's was "Write the name and age of each member of your family and list what each person likes to do." First she wrote "Dad. 38. He likes to yell." :lol: She crossed that out and wrote "He likes to play pokr." :rolleyes: I made her cross that out and next she picked "He likes to swim." :) Oh and also on Friday her teacher sends home all the work she did in class that week and the kids are encouraged to talk about it all with their parents.

By comparison, last year in reception, she had two reading books a week (one at a time), a bag of sight words to learn, and letter writing practice.

[kalm]

Connor and Lilly are in kindergarten and they have about 20 minutes of homework per night, except for Fridays, plus they're supposed to read or be read to for 20 minutes a night.

So far, homework has been practicing writing one letter, upper and lower case. One "math" worksheet. Reviewing the week's sight words (four in a week). Reviewing concepts covered in "science" (this week, it's about seasons -- what each season's qualities are).

It's a lot to get them to sit down and do it...and a bit overkill for kindy, in my opinion. The theory is that they're getting used to the idea of having to continue schoolwork at home. :dunno:

[Mary DK]

Last year in kindergarten Eliot didn't bring any homework at all. A couple of times we had to do a family activity (family pumpkin ~ we decorated a pumpkin with things we had in our home & a "Me" poster with family pics & other family stuff on it) but that was it.

This year (1st grade) it's usually one page with writing practice, sound review, coding & a few sight words for him to read and he has to read 10-15 minutes per day or 50 minutes per week. About once a week, he has brought an extra page of something he didn't finish at school, yesterday it was a number chart (1 -100), we have been told that in a couple of weeks he will be bringing a spelling list to practice & learn from mon-thurs when he'll have a spelling quiz.

[magoo]

Anna is in JK and will have a "Sharing Book" sent home every Friday (today is the first day) and we are to return it on Wednesday. It will contain the shared reading poems that they have worked on at school, and we are encouraged to read them together, and complete some suggested activities. I'm not sure exactly what the activities are yet.

She also has Kindie Science on Mondays with a science teacher. Last week they talked about Ants, so this week their homework was to find out how many legs an ant has and where they are attached. :)

[Karri]

Holy cow, Kelley! 20 mins a day in Kindy is a lot!!

We've got no homework :heee: I asked and his teacher said she won't be giving any until January. All she asks is that we read to them every night.

[Bev]

We had Meet the Teacher night last nght too.

Apparently Mason is a polar opposite at school than he is at home. He's quite, he listens, he talks with a respectful voice.... I think he uses that all up at school and there's none left for at home.

Back to the topic at hand, we haven't had any homework, per se, but there has been a sheet to say he should be reading or read to for 15-20 minutes a day. He did have a cutting thing come home for a couple of days in his "communication baggie" and I told him his teacher kept sending it home because it was homework and if he didn't finish the cutting, then he wouldn't be able to go to university. :shuffle: It worked, because he finished it! He often talks about going to university, though I don't think he's decided on a major yet. :lol:

I expressed that I thought he wasn't interested enough in reading and she said for the poster he made in the hallway that he spelled all of the words and wrote them out himself except for one, which she wrote in. She said she was surprised that he didn't need any help. The words he wrote with no help were his name, brown (for favourite colour, :dunno: ) and play on the swings (for what he likes to do).

[Karly]

Tyrus doesn't seem to have a structured amount of school work sent home with him each night. A few nights, he had unfinished work from that day come home in his folder, and I had him complete it, but it didn't seem like a requirement.

This week was "L" week, so a note came home on Monday asking us to do as many "L" things as possible (sort laundry, look at the stars, listen to a story, write a love letter, etc).

[gulp!]

Emma is in kindergarten, and today was the first day that she got anything close to homework. We've been asked to complete a few worksheets at home, but there is no obligation to bring them back in. It's just stuff for us to work on at home. I'm not sure if it'll ever go beyond that, but I should find out more next week at Back To School night.

[mcox]

Olivia has homework every night!! She usually has a sheet where she has to practice writing her name. She also has a nightly coloring sheet. It usually doesn't take her that long to do her homework and she's really good about doing it, so far.

[Nocona]

Matthew has homework every night M-F. We got a calendar at the beginning of the month for every day's homework for the month. The first couple weeks varied, but lately it's been drawing something after telling your family about something that happened at school. ex. one night it was "tell your family about a story your teacher told you at school and draw a picture"

[Brooke]

Rebekah is in K.

Homework comes home on Mondays with assignments for each day and then it's all due back on Friday.
This week she had 3 color by letter sheets and one easy read book for the sight word "the".

[Clare]

Harry has been in kindergarten since February and never has any homework.

Last year in 1st grade, Emily didn't start bringing home homework until the 2nd term (3 months in). Then it was Mon - Thurs only, she had one page of maths that she had the whole week to complete (which she did in about 30 seconds :lol: ) and a list of sight words to write out each night as well as a reader.

This year in 2nd grade is similiar. Homework is Mon - Thurs, 2 pages of maths for the week and sight words each night and a reader. She also has a reading log that we have to fill in to say that what/how much she read etc.

I don't know whether it's this country or just our school, but homework isn't nearly as big a deal here as it is for some of you guys!

[Kimberly]

WOW! I teach first grade and I guess I give alot more homework than some people. My students have a weekly homework sheet that goes home with them Friday afternoon and they have until the following Friday to complete it and bring it back. The sheet is called "tic-tac-toe" homework and there are 9 activities on there. The kids pick three (making a tic-tac-toe) to complete. There are always three spelling, three math and three reading activities, so any way they try to tic-tac-toe, they hit basic skills. My students also have a guided reading book that they take home to read every night and a sight word list that they practice nightly. We do spelling work in class everyday, so nightly review should be quick and easy. So, my students probably have about 10 minutes of homework a night (sight words/spelling words) and then reading their book each night. Guided reading books are not long, so that should take no more than 5 minutes. If they also are completing a tic-tac-toe assignment that night, it might take 5 minutes. So, at the most, my kids should be doing 20 minutes of homework a night. The majority of my kids probably spend more time than that because they read additional books that I see written on their reading log.

I think that there is a fine line for homework. I don't want to overwhelm my students, but I also want to make sure that they are practicing and reviewing at home. I have always received great comments from parents about the tic-tac-toe homework because most kids think it's fun to choose what they do. I reward my kids for any activities that they do above the required 3 and many of my higher students consistently do all 9 activities.

[Shel]

WOW! I teach first grade and I guess I give alot more homework than some people..


I bet they call you the mean teacher :lol:



Riley has homework. Actually, it's homework for me. She has to be read to each night for 15 minutes. We usually do that plus some each night anyhow, so it's not a huge ordeal.

[kalm]

So why do my kindergarteners have so much freaking homework? I think it's pretty standard around here...I'm waiting for the fun crafty stuff to start. That's what kindergarten should be about, isn't it? We haven't had one thing come home that been anything more creative than crayon on paper. hmmmm...

[Bonnie]

We had Back to School night last night. The teacher told us they will start sending homework home in October, but it will be a folder sent home Friday with a week to complete. They also want at least 10 minutes of reading a night. I am very happy with what sounds like a reasonable expectation for a 5 year old. I think they should have NO homework at all in kindergarten, but this is OK.

[Dawnie]

Dawn, maybe her school structures the day differently so they think there is not as much reinforcement needed at home? I would look at what work the kids at other schools are doing (not the amount, but what they're covering) and see if they are learning the same stuff. Which I guess is what you're doing here. :)


According to the sample day the teacher had written down for us their day is broken up with "specials" which are their art, gym, library, science, science lab, and technology sessions. Victoria has two specials a day. They do writing workshop in the morning with quiet time to read books to themselves (the teacher also does one on one time with them at this time) and in the afternoon they work on math.

Last year when Victoria was in kindergarten I compared the work she was doing with the work my former friend's daughter was doing in K. Riley's work seemed much more advanced than what Victoria was doing. Victoria never brought home writing home last year but Riley had letters and later in the year words she had to write. The math pages she brought home were similar to what Victoria is bringing home this year in 1st grade.

Victoria brought home her Friday homework envelope and there was only the math pages she had done and no writing assignments. She is getting some extra help from the language arts department so they sent home sentence puzzles for her to play with and put together.

Dawn

[Lora]

So far the only homework that Christopher brought home was his weekly reader. He gets a different story each week that we have to read with him.

[~Jenn]

I've seen both...however, Rory typically has homework every night, and so far, it's been reviewing printing big and small letters. She has an agenda (provided by the school) that she comes home with everynight, and that's where her homework is. It's something that the teacher is doing with all of the kids, and she seems to enjoy it, almost. She comes home, takes out her agenda and does her homework at the table while dinner is being made.

ETA: Rory is in grade 1. She had no homework in kindergarten.

[~Jenn]

I'm adding to this, again.

Last night Rory came home with her usual letter review, as well as a nightly reading program (in french), 6 'words of the week' that they recommend making a game out of AND she mentioned that soon they're going to be getting math homework. I'm surprised, but she loves it, and, again, happily sat and did her homework while dinner was being made. I definetly enjoy watching/helping her learn, she seems to get so much enjoyment from it.

[Hannabanana]

Last night we finally had our "meet the teacher" event.
Hanna has an agenda that comes home every night that we have to initial every day and so far it only announces when she has library time, gym and social studies.
The teacher told us that she will start sending homework home Oct 1st.
I had heard that the other grade 1 class already had homework but apparently our teacher, who's new to the school and has been teaching for 18 years is just setting an agenda for her grade 1/2 split class now because she wanted to spend the first month getting a grasp of where each of the kids were developmentally before jumping right into the homework aspect. With only 16 kids in the class, I think that she's done very well figuring out what they're capable of doing.

[Cami]

My mom teaches first grade so I asked her what homework she gives her kids. This is her typical work (for the start of the school year):

*spelling/writing: on Monday, write words. On Tuesday, write them in alphabetical order. On Wednesday, write them in sentences. On Thursday, study for spelling test on Friday.

*reading: One book a week (to start). Phonics "pages" to complete.

*math: Write numbers (0-10) and do math problems each night. (she didn't explain what type of problems.)

*social studies/history/science: Varies with the lesson they are working on. Last week it was to visit the grocery store and write down the names of different apples for a project on... apples.

[bunkie68]

We had Parent Night at Julian's school tonight. He started kindergarten this year, and I love his teacher. She said they work hard at school (and they do - I'm amazed at all they're learning and will learn by year end), and she's got them for seven hours a day where we, the parents only see them for two or three hours before it's off to bed, and she said she flat doesn't believe in homework at their age. :rahrah: They do all different kinds of work at school, and while she has suggestions for homework on the school's website, she said not to turn them in, she wouldn't grade them. :lol: (And the suggestions are things like "sort laundry into colors", "find three things in your house that start with the letter B", "think of five words that rhyme with cat", that sort of thing.) I know Julian is wiped out by the time he gets home, from all the mental and physical activity, and I certainly don't want to fight him to get homework done, so I think she's got the right idea.