LAF Update
February 9
Random Act of Kindness Week
- Monday - Wear Red
- Tuesday - # Be Colorful - Wear your favorite color
- Wednesday - Wacky Day
- Thursday - Team UP for Kindness (Wear Your Favorite Jersey)
- Friday - Blue and White Cougar Spiritwear
Destiny Discovery App
Donations from our first annual "Whoo's Reading" Readathon were used to start a digital collection of electronic (ebooks) and audio books for the library. Students are learning how to access this collection. Here is the video tutorial teaching you how to install the Destiny Discover app. https://youtu.be/mPrvLYQjFbE
One School, One Book - Title?
Our book title reveal will be at our student pep rally on Friday, February 16th. On the 16th, your child will come home with the One School, One Book book. Your role in the One School, One Book program is to read to your child the chapters that are assigned each week. You can read with just your LAF student or the whole family.
I promise you that this book is absolutely worth reading as a family! Next week, when the title is revealed and you read the book summary, I know you will agree. Stay tuned until next week, when your child comes home with the book title and another surprise we have been keeping a secret all year!!!
Why Reading Aloud is Beneficial for All Ages
We've read to our kids almost nightly since infancy. Then once our children can read on their own, many families stop reading aloud. A report from Scholastic shows that 40 percent of children ages 6 to 11 whose parents no longer read books to them at home say they wished their parents still did. Reading aloud offers many educational and emotional benefits to older children.
"Tweens whose parents still read aloud to them are more likely to view reading as a pleasurable activity -- something we do to relax at the end of a busy day," says Alexander. "They become more interested in books and are more likely to read for fun on their own."
Reading researcher Dr. Michael Milone touts these academic benefits. "Reading aloud to kids stimulates language development, boosts their listening skills and models fluency and vocabulary," he says. "As students advance to the next grade level, the vocabulary gets harder. When parents read challenging material aloud, students learn new academic and content-area words and how they are pronounced.
"For example, if you read aloud an article about weird winter weather patterns, you might find words such as 'barometric pressure,' 'cumulonimbus,' 'El Nino,' 'Fahrenheit,' 'precipitation,' 'meteorology.' These are all fourth-grade science words that are easier to learn and less threatening when a student hears them in context."
A busy parent might be thinking, "So we have to set aside time for two read-alouds? One for younger children and one for older kids?" Not necessarily. It depends on what text you choose. "A good story or article read with expression can attract the interest of kids of all ages and hold the adult reader, too," says Alexander. "A 6-year-old may not be able to read a news story about a dog that saved its owner, but she can follow the story line and enjoy listening along with her older sister."
Excerpts taken from www.uexpress.com L. Landmann
Rescheduled: Candids and Club Pictures
On Monday, February 26th, all students in band and orchestra should bring their instruments to school for yearbook pictures.