WELCOME TO ESSENTIALS! You are about to embark on an amazing journey. Have no fear, I am your tour guide. I will help you all along the way.
Here are a few suggestions on how you and your student can be SUCCESSFUL before the year even starts!! I suggest you looking into some of these recommendations and applying them to your summer routine.
YOU/MOM/TEACHER: Read and familiarize yourself with all of your materials. Get to know them like a good friend. :) I have two documents for you.
1. ESSENTIALS MATERIALS: This document will help you know what you MUST purchase and what materials could be considered as optional.
2. GRAMMAR OF ESSENTIALS: This is a document that defines all the Essentials Verbiage. There is so much to take in and know as an Emom.
TAKE NOTE:
--> You will not need another language arts program.
--> Pour over these materials this summer if you can. This way you will be prepared to teach your student and won’t spend your valuable time this fall having to teach yourself these basics.
--> I will show you how to organize your guides and help you administrate your year during our orientation time in AUGUST.
CHILD/STUDENT: Review or teach the following skills this summer (These are the basic building blocks; we will build on this foundation. If you have no capacity, no worries, your student WILL get these blocks over time)
A. Be sure your student is able to copy words from a white board and is familiar with basic dictation skills.
B. Be sure your student has some exposure to the eight parts of speech
1. Noun – A noun names a person, place, thing, activity or idea.
2. Verb – A verb is a word that can assert action, being or existence.
3. Adjective – An adjective modifies a noun or pronoun by describing, qualifying of limiting.
4. Pronoun- A pronoun is used instead of a noun or name in order to avoid repetition.
5. Adverb – An adverb is used to modify a verb, adjective or another adverb.
6. Conjunction – A conjunction connects phrases, clauses and words.
7. Preposition--- A preposition connects meaning between a noun or pronoun and some other word in the sentence.
8. Interjection – An interjection is a sudden expression of emotion. It is not grammatically connected to a sentence.
C. Be sure your student is familiar with some basic language arts skills.
1. In order to be considered a complete sentence, a sentence must:
a. Have a subject
b. Have a verb
c. Begin with a capital letter
d. Have a correct end mark or punctuation
e. Make sense
2. The four basic types of sentences and their purposes are:
a. Declarative sentence- makes a statement and ends with a period (.)
b. Interrogative sentence- asks a question and ends with a question mark (?)
c. Imperative sentence- gives a command and has “you” or an implied or understood “you” as the subject of the sentence.
d. Exclamatory sentence- shows strong feeling and ends with an exclamation mark (!)
3. Basic capitalization and punctuation rules are:
a. The first letter of every sentence is capitalized.
b. A correct end mark such as a period (.), exclamation point (!), or question mark (?) is always used at the end of a sentence.
c. “I” as a work is always capitalized (Example: He and I are happy.)
d. All proper nouns (specific names) are capitalized. (Example: I love Mom.)
e. All other words begin with and are written using lower case letters. (Example: Children love moms.)
4. Writing – first year students will work toward writing one paragraph by the end of the Essentials school year. Students should be able to write a simple sentence. Older students will work toward writing 3-5 paragraphs by the end of the Essentials school year. Students will utilize a thesaurus and class brain – storming time to bring greater complexity to their writing while also making it more engaging.
FUN TIP: View this picture below and see how the memory work from all the Foundations cycles build the foundation for Essentials. Maybe burn a disc of these items to help your child. (This is assuming you have all the Foundations Memory Work CDs on your computer.)
AGAIN, if there is no margin for any summer prep work, you and your student will be just fine. Just make sure you have all your material and you are ready to organize yourself in August!
