1E) Curriculum and learning at home
Provide parents with learning activities to do at home with their child to support home language development and connect the curriculum with learning at home.
Strategy Overview: Math Activities/Actividades for Families
This website offers over twenty quick, fun activities that families can do with children to engage in math. Examples include songs, games and question routines. An English/Español tab at the top of the page provides access to all content in both languages.Read More
Website: Hablemos de Matemáticas
This website offers activities and resources in both Spanish and English on how teachers can work with families to bridge mathematical learning both at school and at home.Read More
Website Article: Connecting Home & School Mathematics
This resource offers written and video examples of how teachers can partner with families to connect math with both school and home activities.Read More
Video: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Communication
This video reinforces an asset-based approach towards supporting Multilingual Learners. It highlights the importance of family engagement and social-emotional development strategies to help create a warm and inviting environment for ML children.Read More
Video: Encourage Use of Home Language at Home and in Preschool
This video shares idea for educators to incorporate into their teaching to help encourage the use of children's home language.Read More
Strategy Overview: Haciendo conexciones lenguajes con nuestros niños
This guide (in Spanish) is designed to help families tap into the linguistic genius of their Multilingual children. It provides some common areas of transfer between Spanish and English and offers some suggestions for how to aid children in connecting their two languages at home.Read More
Strategy Overview: Making Cross-language Connections with our Children
This guide (in English) is designed to help families tap into the linguistic genius of their Multilingual children. It provides some common areas of transfer between Spanish and English and offers some suggestions for how to aid children in connecting their two languages at home.Read More
Webinar: Family School Partnership—PreK
In this webinar video, building strong family partnerships is explained as well as providing some tangible strategies for early learning educators.Read More
Video: Helping with Homework (Parent-Child Relationship)
This is an example of a parent and a child working on a project at home together. Later the child will bring the project to school and share it with peers and the teacher to connect home-based learning to school-based learning.Read More
Video: Our Chicks Have Hatched!—A Home School Connection
The first clip of this video is a conversation between a parent and a child as they discuss a school project about chicks that have been sent home. The second clip shows how the school project was made in the classroom. Children interact with live chicks in the classroom while the teacher helps them identify and write the language they want to use to express what they have learned.Read More
Video: The Joy of Reading—First Language Development
This video provides helpful examples of parents reading and discussing books with their children, and an example discussion about reading in home languages between a teacher and a group of parents.Read More
Tip Sheet: Parent Involvement and Family Engagement for Early Childhood Professionals
This resource compares and contrasts "parent involvement" and "family engagement." A spectrum of ideas in both categories for partnering with families are offered.Read More
Website Article: Early Literacy Instruction in Spanish
This article is a research overview for teachers about the early literacy development of Spanish-speaking children. The content covers stages of literacy development, explicitly notes the differences in reading instruction between English and Spanish, and includes some example literacy strategies and tips for parents.Read More
Template: Language Presence in the Classroom
This simple form serves as a template for teachers to acknowledge and record the linguistic knowledge of families who are the "home language experts" for Multilingual Learners.Read More
Strategy Overview: Ensuring the Presence of Each Child’s Language
This resource provides a comprehensive list and explanation of the actions teachers can take to acknowledge, affirm, and support multiple languages in the classroom. Included are tips for engaging with families as "language experts" and capturing their linguistic knowledge on a planning template, and phrase cards with basic greetings in 10 common home languages.Read More
Tip Sheet: How to Support Your Child’s Social-Emotional Health – 8 Tips (in 16 languages)
This tip sheet helps parents, providers, and teachers communicate with children about their feelings in both home and school environments.Read More
Video: Elementary Active Family Engagement at Home (Spanish)
This sample video demonstration, provided in Spanish, helps families know how to engage with children in learning games and activities at home.Read More
Video: Elementary Active Family Engagement at Home
This sample video demonstration helps families know how to engage with children in learning games and activities at home.Read More
Video: PreK Active Family Engagement at Home (Spanish)
This sample video demonstration, provided in Spanish, helps families know how to engage with children in learning games and activities at home.Read More
Video: PreK Active Family Engagement at Home
This sample video demonstration helps families know how to engage with children in learning games and activities at home.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Approaches to Learning (Arabic)
This tip sheet, provided in Arabic, can be helpful for providers who work with multilingual families and want to ask questions and share information about children's learning engagement and interactions in both school and home.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Approaches to Learning (Spanish)
This tip sheet, provided in Spanish, can be helpful for providers who work with multilingual families and want to ask questions and share information about children's learning engagement and interactions in both school and home.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Approaches to Learning
This tip sheet can be helpful for providers who work with multilingual families and want to ask questions and share information about children's learning engagement and interactions in both school and home.Read More
Website: For Families/Para las familias
This is a webpage intended to be shared with families. The links include resources for support on teaching children to read, partnering with the school, the use of technology, and the benefits of bilingualism.Read More
Website: For Families/Para las familias
This is a Spanish-language webpage intended to be shared with families. The links include resources for support on teaching children to read, partnering with the school, the use of technology, and the benefits of bilingualism.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Language and Literacy Development (Spanish)
This tip sheet, provided in Spanish, helps providers partner with parents and families of Multilingual Learners in order to develop language and literacy skills both in school and home environments.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Language and Literacy Development
This tip sheet helps providers partner with parents and families of Multilingual Learners in order to develop language and literacy skills both in school and home environments.Read More
Tip Sheet: Helping Children Read (Spanish)
This handout can be shared in both English and Spanish; it shares research and ideas about what families can do to support literacy and language development for their children from infancy to 6 years old.Read More
Tip Sheet: Helping Children Read
This handout can be shared in both English and Spanish; it shares research and ideas about what families can do to support literacy and language development for their children from infancy to 6 years old.Read More
Resource List: Ideas and Resources for Parents of EL Students
This website offers an extensive list of online resources that can be shared with families of Multilingual Learners, or used by the teacher in class. Some resources are directly for students to practice language skills, while others are intended to inform teachers and parents about language learning.Read More
Tip Sheet: Reading Tips with Families (in 16 languages)
Teachers can access eight different literacy tip sheets for families in sixteen different languages. This information bolsters the home-school connection for Multilingual Learners and their families.Read More
Tip Sheet: Family Grid
This resource supports teachers in providing families with learning activities to do at home that support Multilingual Learners’ development in multiple domains: motor, math, science, language, literacy, and social-emotional development. Teachers can individualize grids to align with their classrooms’ content and language needs.Read More
Handout: The Importance of Home Language
This resource provides handouts with information about the benefits of bilingualism, the importance of maintaining the home language, and how families can support their Multilingual Learners. The handouts are available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, and Russian, and can be used by teachers and families.Read More
Handout: Message in a Backpack for Families
This resource provides links to different handouts teachers can give to families with learning activities to do at home. Teachers can select which topics to support at home, and links are available in multiple languages (English, Spanish, Farsi, Chinese).Read More
Website: Supporting Young English Learners at Home
This website offers nine downloadable flyers in both Spanish and English that include tips for parents on how to ask questions while reading with children, as well as numerous ideas for educational games and activities to try at home. There are additional links for an Educators' Guide to teaching academic language and content to Multilingual Learners, and an archived webinar presentation on additional activities to strengthen language development at home.Read More
Webinar: Helping Young English Learners at Home
This webinar offers a summary of nine downloadable flyers (in both Spanish and English) that include tips for parents on how to ask questions while reading with children, as well as numerous ideas for educational games and activities to conduct at home.Read More
Strategy Overview: Supporting Oral Language
To develop language, children need many opportunities to practice speaking. This overview describes how teachers can support families to give Multilingual Learners opportunities to practice oral language.Read More
Strategy Overview: Development of Literacy Skills
Children become lovers of reading and writing through exposure to a variety of meaningful texts and wonderful literature. This overview describes how school can be organized to support this learning from a young age, and how caregivers can develop this learning at home through reading, discussing books, and noticing text in the world around them.Read More
Video & Video Guide: Integrated Thematic Unit – 3rd Grade
This video provides a rich opportunity to look inside a classroom and note the intentional supports for English language and literacy development embedded in a thematic unit of study. The teacher implements a Daily 5 structure, which allows Multilingual Learners to learn both academic language and content across multiple modalities and learning activities. The accompanying guide suggests moments in the video to pause to notice teachers’ practice, along with prompts for reflection and discussion.Read More
Strategy Overview: Family Cohorts
This resource explains how to partner with families by establishing cohorts and home-school connections. Family cohorts can help to create a site-wide culture that values family engagement to support dual language learning. Resources for family cohort meetings are provided, such as a sample agenda and a blank planning template.Read More
Strategy Overview: Family Conversations, Home-School Connections, & Projects
This resource describes how to engage families in their children’s learning by facilitating family conversations, home-school connections, and projects. This resource includes guidance on how to partner with families and connect the curriculum to learning at home.Read More
Parent Letter: Start of Theme (Spanish)
These letters can be sent home to families to announce upcoming topics in classroom thematic units. They prepare families to connect content learning to home experiences, and offer the opportunity to invite parents to share experiences or artifacts that relate to the themes.Read More
Parent Letter: Start of Theme (English)
These letters can be sent home to families to announce upcoming topics in classroom thematic units. They prepare families to connect content learning to home experiences, and offer the opportunity to invite parents to share experiences or artifacts that relate to the themes.Read More
Tip Sheet: Interactive Read Alouds
This handout for families reviews strategies for interactive reading at home. Information about how to ask questions, and engage in conversations with children while reading at home, will help support literacy development for Multilingual Learners.Read More
Video: Home-School Connection and Projects
Opportunities for curriculum-based learning at home help build relationships with families and support language development for Multilingual Learners. This video showcases an example of a home-school project presentation in a preschool classroom where educators provide high-quality extended talk in multiple languages and provide hands-on, inquiry-based experiences.Read More
Tip Sheet: Interactive Read Alouds (Chinese)
This handout for families, written in Chinese, reviews strategies for interactive reading at home. Information about how to ask questions, and engage in conversations with children while reading at home, will help support literacy development for Multilingual Learners.Read More
Tip Sheet: Interactive Read Alouds (Spanish)
This handout for families, written in Spanish, reviews strategies for interactive reading at home. Information about how to ask questions, and engage in conversations with children while reading at home, will help support literacy development for Multilingual Learners.Read More
Strategy Overview: Bridging School to Family Assignments
This resource offers examples of projects and activities that provide families with opportunities to connect school-based content with learning at home. Examples demonstrate how teachers can also invite home language into the classroom.Read More
Flyer: How Families Can Develop Oral Language/Como familias pueden desarrollar lenguaje oral
Teachers can share this flyer in English and/or Spanish with the families of Multilingual Learners. This flyer provides families with learning activities that can support home language development.Read More
Video: Key Points of Home Language Preview and Review
This resource explains how educators can engage families in previewing and reviewing books with Multilingual Learners. Teachers can provide families with books to preview at home to connect curriculum with learning at home. Teachers can invite families and other speakers of the home language to come to classrooms to share books in their home languages.Read More
