Connect school to home in the Kindergarten classroom with take-home bags..

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Are you looking for meaningful, hands-on homework for your kindergarten kids? Do you want your students to practice and extend the learning they are doing in the classroom? Do you want your students to be excited about homework? Several of my teacher friends, (special thanks to Kim Jordano!) create lots of take-home bags tied directly to classroom skills. They have enough bags so that every child can take one home for the night and bring it back the next day.

Want to read this book? Click on the cover!

Here is a take-home bag I put together for my book Monkey in the Story Tree.
I found the bag last year in the dollar bins at Target. But you can use simple tote bags. Recycle the tote bags you get at conferences by turning them inside out and labeling them with fabric markers or puffy paint. I attached the book and the letter to parents to the bag with ribbon. I also included a list of sight words the kids are working on. I also included:

• a small dry-erase magnet board and marker
• magnet sight words
• a bag of magnet letters
• a class journal

The letter to the parents explains what to do with the materials. You can download a copy of the letter here. And click on the book to read the story. I think take-home bags are the perfect homework for Kindergarten Kids! Take-home bags create active learning activities, are easily understood by parents, and reinforce learning going on in the classroom. Hint! Take-home bags make great learning center activities too.