Dear Castle Families,

It’s time for Read Across America! and The Cat in the Hat will visit our school to encourage reading. With that in mind, I would like to encourage reading aloud to your child at home. Did you know that many parents avoid reading aloud to their kids because they think they read too fast, or stumble over words or are afraid their child won’t want to listen to them? Reading aloud to your child is one of the best ways to help your child succeed in school. Keep these tips in mind:

• Involve your child in the story. Have her/him turn the pages. Or read one line and let her read the next.
• Take your time and don’t rush the story. Your child can tell if you are in a hurry.
• Try changing your voice to show the characters’ feeling—joy, sadness, fear. These variations can make the story more exciting for both of you! 
• Remember that you are helping your child learn to enjoy reading. Try different types of reading materials, such as comic strips and poetry.
• Ask your child to retell small parts of the story to you. Or ask him questions while you read. Examples: “What do you think will happen next?” “Why do you think she did that?”

One of the things we do at our house is to choose a chapter book we can all enjoy, like RASCAL by Sterling North. My husband and I take turns reading it aloud to our kids, they are in 6th-12th grade. Even our four high school daughters enjoy it! Reading is the foundation for all other learning. Once a child learns to read the world literally opens up to them!

On another note, if your children expect your help with homework you can let them know that you are around if they need you—but their schoolwork is their job. The benefit is they will learn to take personal responsibility and they’ll learn how to find the answers while boosting their study skills!

We have many exciting things on the horizon at Castle School! One of these exciting things is a new program in our lunchroom where we will be separating food waste from paper and garbage and using the food waste to reduce garbage and feed pigs! We are also going to be pulling together a Castle Green Team to help our school reduce garbage and educate students, staff and the community about reducing waste. We will be taking on these pilot programs in collaboration with Washington and Ramsey County Departments of Health and Environment. We want our kids to be leaders in taking care of our world! Please let me know if you are interested in helping out in some way.

Sincerely

Kerri Town