Queen Mary Street PS Parent Resources

Parenting and Family Literacy Centre

Welcome to the Parenting and Family Literacy Centre at Queen Mary Street Public School!

Parenting and Family Literacy Centres are operated in 8 Ottawa-Carleton District School Board elementary schools with the support of the Ministry of Education.

The Centres welcome parents/caregivers and their children from birth to age 6 to help prepare them for starting school. The Centres also encourage families to be a part of their children's early learning by:

  • Helping children build essential literacy and numeracy skills through stories, music, reading and playing;
  • Offering a book-lending library in different languages so parents can read to their children in their first language;
  • Familiarizing children and families with school routines;
  • Giving children and families the chance to spend time with other families;
  • Linking families with appropriate community resources for special needs, health, and other related services.

For more information about the Centre, visit the following links:

Parenting and Family Literacy Centre Postcard

Parenting and Family Literacy Centre Fact Sheet

Literacy

ESL Website List

Me Read? No Way! A Practical Guide to Improving Boy's Literacy Skills

  • A publication by the Ministry of Education that includes helpful tips for encouraging boys to read and improving their overall literacy skills

Helping Your Child Learn to Read: A Parent's Guide

Tips for helping your child with reading K-3

Tips for helping your child with reading 4-6

Numeracy

Tips to Help Your Child with Math:Kindergarten-Grade 3 (See more at the Ministry of Education)

  1. Counting can be fun and entertaining. Sing counting songs such as "One, Two Buckle My Shoe". Your local librarian can recommend fun counting books. Start Easy and Work Up!Once they have got the hang of counting by 1s, introduce skip counting, such as counting by2s and5s.
  2. Use household items for counting practice. Practise adding and subtracting with objects found around your house like spoons or pots and pans. When they've become good at these skills, move on to simple multiplication.
  3. Tap into your child's curiosity. Go on a number hunt together and discover places where numbers are used such as a clock, TV, computer keyboard, calendar, telephones and licence plates.
  4. Predict and compare. Start to measure and estimate things like how far it is from the driveway to the house or how long a trip will take and then measure and compare the actual time it takes.
  5. Talk about time. The concept of time can be hard to grasp. Talk to your kids about minutes and hours. Then get them to try counting days and weeks – for example how many "sleeps" until the weekend or a visit to a friend or relative.
  6. Identify geometric shapes and sizes. Play "I Spy". Instead of looking for words beginning with a letter, look for different colours or shapes and count the number you find in the room.

Tips to Help your Child with Math: Grade 4-6 (See more at the Ministry of Education)

  1. Connect math to daily life. Let your kids know the importance of math in day-to-day living. Talk about the ways you use math in your job and around the house. Show them a tax form or how you pay the bills. Ask them how they used math during the day.
  2. Practise mental math using coins. For example, show that a certain item costs a certain amount and ask what coins are needed to pay for it.
  3. Play games together. Show them math can be fun and exciting. Play family games to add excitement to math activities, like chess or checkers or games in the car such as math bingo or adding licence plate numbers.
  4. Cooking can be counting fun!Get older children involved in helping out at dinner time and let them help measure ingredients for dishes or estimate the number of potatoes that are needed to feed everyone.
  5. Sports and math. There is a lot of math used in sports: batting averages, points per game, save percentages – these are math terms that a sports enthusiast will love.
  6. Measuring made easy. Estimate and measure the area of different shapes. For example, use small square objects (plastic tiles, dice, etc. ) to estimate then measure how many are needed to fill the area of various flat surfaces such as a magazine cover.

Nelson Math Companion Links

Click on your grade level for at home Math challenges, activities and additional links.

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