Raz Kids

Parents,
I've given you access to your child's Raz Kids account and you will probably be receiving an email with your username and password.  With your username and password it will allow you to view their progress on Raz Kids.

• Tomorrow I'll be sending home a Parent Letter explaining Raz Kids along with your child's Username and Password so they can access it at home.  It is a free app that can be downloaded to a mobile device or they can use it on a computer; however, it DOES require an Internet connection.  
• We've just begun using it in the classroom on our ipads, so the students aren't very familiar with it yet, but we will get there.  Basically, students have access to a wonderful assortment of digital books that are at their reading levels.  I've set them up on the level that I feel is appropriate for their current reading ability.  Some of the beginning levels DO NOT have quizzes for the students to take, but once they get to Level A or B, they will begin taking quizzes on the books they read.  
• We have the 5 Finger Rule that students need to adhere to at home and at school - Listen, Listen, Read, Read, Quiz.  This means they need to listen to each book twice, then read it on their own twice, before taking the quiz.  This helps to build their accuracy, fluency and comprehension skills.  I also have to remind them to look at the words while they are 'listening' to the book as it highlights the words as they are read AND to point to the words as they read on their own.  
• This program has incentives built in as well; they earn stars/points for books read and quizzes taken, which they can then use to build their rocket.  We don't spend much time on this at school, but they are welcome to build and customize their rockets at home.  
• A quick word of caution, older siblings are very familiar with Raz-Kids and although they can be a great help to their younger siblings, sometimes they want to read books and take quizzes for their younger siblings to advance them quicker, or teach them little 'cheats' that they've learned, so please be mindful of this at home.  
• When students complete all of the books in their current level, they move to the next Reading Level, which entitles them to a trip to my prize box.:)

Raz Kids is a great learning resource for you to use on Snow Days, as is starfall.com & abcya.com, which I have links to on my blog:)