May 20, 2011
Dear Parents,
I want to thank you and your children for such a wonderful year! I absolutely love teaching fourth graders!! They are a terrific group of kids. They have been a fun group to teach and tease. Let me tell you, they tease back too! We have had lots of fun learning from each other.
Please encourage your son or daughter to read every day. Continued reading through the summer is so very important for their success in fifth grade. Reading is an acquired skill, and like other skills, it improves with practice. When children read every day, they learn to read faster and get better at understanding what they read. If children do not read for a month or two, they are likely to lose much of the progress they have made during the past school year. That means they will have to spend part of the next school year just catching up to where they were when they left school in the spring. It=s like taking two steps forward, and one step back. Children who read during the summer start school ready to continue their progress.
Make sure your child spends at least 15 minutes each day reading. Don=t worry about what they read, just make sure they read. Encourage your child to sign up for the local libraries= reading programs. Summer is a great time to read just for fun. A sports fan may read nothing but biographies, another child may read all of the books in an author=s series, and another might like to read poetry books and magazines. All will benefit from what they have chosen, and all will start school in the fall better ready to learn and benefit from further reading instruction. Enjoy the summer and happy reading!
Sincerely,
| Denise Thompson |
