PARENTS RESOURCES
Parent Resources
Free Audio Books, eBooks and Textbooks
Free Audio Books: Our collection of 450 free audio books includes many children’s classics. The Wizard of Oz, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Mark Twain, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, The Swiss Family Robinson, Gulliver’s Travels, Anne of Green Gables, Aesop’s Fables, The Wizard of Oz series, and much more. You can download audio files straight to your computer or mobile device.
Free eBooks: This collection includes many children’s classics in ebook format. You generally have the option to download these texts to your Kindle, iPad, Nook or computer. Video tutorials are included on the page.
Bartleby.com: Gives you access to free online classics of reference, literature, and nonfiction.
Calibre: Download free e-book software that will manage your electronic library, convert e-books from one format to another, and give you online access to free e-books.
CK-12: This non-profit provides “open textbooks” for K-12 students all over the world. It offers free high-quality, standards-aligned, open content in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
ePubBud: Makes available free children’s books for the the iPad, Nook, Kindle and other ereaders.
International Children’s Digital Library: Provides free access to high-quality children’s books from around the world in different languages, including Arabic, Afrikaans, Danish, English, Farsi and beyond. Hosts books for kids 3-5, 6-9, and 10-13.
Librivox: A favorite of ours, Librivox provides free audio books from the public domain.
OER Commons: Discover a meta collection of free textbooks that can be sorted by subject and grade level.
Project Gutenberg: The mother of all ebook sites hosts 40000 free ebooks, and makes them accessible for Kindle, Android, iPad, and iPhone.
The Harvard Classics: Harvard’s influential president, Charles W. Eliot, said that if you spent just 15 minutes a day reading the right books, you could give yourself a proper liberal education. He published a 51-volume series, now known as The Harvard Classics, and they’re available free online. Ideal for the older student.
Physics Comic Books - PhysicsCentral, a web site run by The American Physical Society (an organization representing 48,000 physicists), has created a series of comic books designed to get kids excited about physics. Among other comics, you can read Nikola Tesla and the Electric Fair for free online.
Parent resources for reinforcing teaching at school:
http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/collection/more-printables/free-printables-all-ages
http://freeresources.smarttutor.com/
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/parents/
https://www2.ed.gov/parents/landing.jhtml
Every kid can be an artist!
About the site: Offering “simple ways to fill your family’s life with art and creativity,” this site is dedicated to encouraging your inner artist. Click on links for painting or drawing projects, sculpture, stained glass, clay, collage, and more. A parents’ corner offers advice on everything from how to create an art space in your home, to simple art activities to set up for after-school projects.
A great life lesson for kids! Their smarts can extend far beyond test scores to benefit those in need.
About the site: If your kids are bored, point them toward this site, where they can work their brains while making a difference in the world. Freerice is a non-profit owned by the United Nations World Food Programme. For each answer you get right, the site donates 10 grains of rice to feed hungry people worldwide. Subjects range from humanities to math, chemistry, languages, geography, and more.
Bright graphics and easy navigation make it perfect for kids to use alone, while they target reading and math skills.
About the site: This site takes learning and turns it into fun games. Students can choose from activities in the Math Arcade, read books and comics, play educational games in the Fun Arcade, or just have fun with an adult in the Moms’ and Kids’ Playground.
Opportunities to learn are everywhere here, including “Hour of Code” courses that focus on kid-friendly subjects like Star Wars, Minecraft, and Frozen.
About the site: This nonprofit was launched in 2013, with the mission statement, “Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science.” Sections are separated by activities for students to try and lessons for teachers, plus tutorials cover everything from learning JavaScript to making your own apps and games.
The trusted name in public television helps bring your classroom to life!
About the site: From searchable Common Core and national standards to activities that support math, science, social studies, and ELA, this site delivers comprehensive digital resources for your classroom. Features include videos, shareable documents, and in-depth lesson plans
Who doesn’t need more positivity in their life? This site offers ways to promote happy learning in—and out—of classrooms.
About the site: This is the site of The Positive Engagement Project, a non-profit focused on equipping teachers with tools to help students become positively engaged in active learning. Free downloads include a variety of categories, from English language arts to character development, and test-taking strategies. The site also includes downloads to target sight words, vocabulary, literacy, and math.
From cool hands-on experiments to science fair project ideas, this site encourages the budding scientists in every student.
About the site: “Science Bob” Pflugfelder, a science teacher and author, started this site to encourage parents and teachers to practice “Random Acts of Science.” He makes it easy with clear instructions, entertaining videos, and more.
You’ll find lots of inspiration here, from classroom tips for every grade to organizing ideas, games, grants and contests, and more.
About the site: With content written by teachers, this site offers everything you need to stay productive (and sane!) throughout the school year. Topics are arranged by category, including arts and creativity, classroom management, deals and discounts, and professional development. A teacher helpline offers advice from people who’ve been in your shoes.
This commercial-free site is one-stop-shopping for videos on a wide range of instructional topics. You’ll save time without having to search multiple sites for what you need.
About the site: Bring education to life in your classroom with videos that will engage your students. This online sharing community offers a variety of options for incorporating videos into your curriculum. You can create a playlist to correspond to your lesson plan or search videos by elementary, middle, or high school levels, as well as by subject.
We can’t forget the little ones! PreK-2 kids are like sponges – they’ll soak up all the fun lessons and activities you can give them.
About the site: This blog, created by a teacher with a background in curriculum and instruction, offers articles, hands-on lessons, and hundreds of printables for teachers and parents. Most resources are free and focus on literacy, but the site also includes help for teaching math, science, and social studies to children in preschool through second grade.
Multiple links for home learning activities: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/summer-learning-resources-matt-davis
Links for science: http://www.nsta.org/parents/
https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/parentresources.asp
Valuable link for parents and students with special needs: https://www.specialeducationguide.com/pre-k-12/tools-and-research/support-and-resources-for-parents-and-teachers/
California Department of Education Special needs link: https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/se/sr/
A great resource for character education: http://kiwaniskids.org/en/TerrificKids/Lead/Parents/Character_education_resources.aspx
California Department of education:
Common Core Standards: https://www.cde.ca.gov/re/cc/ccssresourcesparents.asp
General information: https://www.cde.ca.gov/re/
Parent resources: https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/parentresources.asp
California Parent Teacher Association: http://capta.org/
California Dashboard:
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/cm/
https://www.caschooldashboard.org/#/Home
CAASPP Test results:
STONE CORRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
Parent Involvement Policy
The Stone Corral School District agrees to implement the following statutory requirements:
- The school district will put into operation programs, activities, and procedures for the involvement of parents in all of its schools with Title I, Part A programs, consistent with section 1118 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Those programs, activities and procedures will be planned and operated with meaningful consultation with parents of participating children.
- Consistent with section 1118, the school district will work with its schools to ensure that the required school-level parental involvement policies meet the requirements of section 1118(b) of the ESEA, and each include, as a component, a school-parent compact consistent with section 1118(d) of the ESEA.
- The school district will incorporate this district wide parental involvement policy into its Local Education Agency (LEA) plan developed under section 1112 of the ESEA.
- In carrying out the Title I, Part A parental involvement requirements, to the extent practicable, the school district and its schools will provide full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, parents with disabilities, and parents of migratory children, including providing information and school reports required under section 1111 of the ESEA in a format and, to the extent practicable, in a language parents can understand.
- If the LEA plan for Title I, Part A, developed under section 1112 of the ESEA, is not satisfactory to the parents of participating children, the school district will submit any parent comments with the plan when the school district submits the plan to the State Department of Education.
- The school district will involve the parents of children served in Title I, Part A schools in decisions about how the 1 percent of Title I, Part A funds reserved for parental involvement is spent, and will ensure that not less than 95 percent of the one percent reserved goes directly to the schools.
- The school district will be governed by the following statutory definition of parental involvement, and expects that its Title I schools will carry out programs, activities and procedures in accordance with this definition:
Parental involvement means the participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities, including ensuring—
- that parents play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning:
- that parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education at school;
- That parents are full partners in their Child’s education and are included, as appropriate, in decision-making and on advisory committees to assist in the education ofchild;
In carrying out the Title I, Part A parental involvement requirements, to the extent practicable, the school district and its schools will provide full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, parents with disabilities, and parents of migratory children, including providing information and school reports required under section 1111 of the ESEA in a format and, to the extent practicable, in a language parents can understand.
- If the LEA plan for Title I, Part A, developed under section 1112 of the ESEA, is not satisfactory to the parents of participating children, the school district will submit any parent comments with the plan when the school district submits the plan to the State Department of Education.
- The school district will involve the parents of children served in Title I, Part A schools in decisions about how the 1 percent of Title I, Part A funds reserved for parental involvement is spent, and will ensurethat not less than 95 percent of the one percent reserved goes directly to the schools.
- The school district will be governed by the following statutory definition of parental involvement, and expects that its Title I schools will carry out programs, activities and procedures in accordance with this definition:
Parental involvement means the participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities, including ensuring—
(A)that parents play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning:
(B)that parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education at school;
(C)That parents are full partners in their Child’s education and are included, as appropriate, in decision-making and on advisory committees to assist in the education ofchild;
The United States Department of Education funds the following regional parent and information resource centers for parent reference:
California Parent Center, San Diego, http:parent.sdsu.edu
American Indian Parental Assistance Program, Valley Center, http://www.setca.net Salinas Parent Empowerment Project, Salinas, (831) 753-5748
- The Stone Corral School District will take the following actions to involve parents in thejoint development of itsdistrictvvide parental involvement plan under section 1112 of the ESEA:
- Parents will have the opportunity to complete a needs assessment survey to give input into the districtwide parental involvement policy. The findings will be used to develop and revise the policy.
- School and district advisory committee members will have the opportunity to participate in the development of the districtwide parental involvement policy through focus groups, personal interviews.
- A district-wide parent advisory council will be established to provide advice on matters related to parental involvement in Title I, Part A programs.
2.The Stone Corral School District will take the following actions to involve parents in the process of school review and improvement under section 1116 of the ESEA:
- Needs assessment surveys (both formal and informal) will be completed by parents to assess program effectiveness and assist in programmatic revisions.
- School and district advisory committees (i.e. SSC, ELAC, DELAC, and GATE) along with the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee and Districtwide Parent Advisory Council will regularly review school and district programs and make recommendations for program improvements.
- Each school will convene an annual Title I meeting outlining the use of Title I funds and soliciting parent input to meet the needs of Title I students.
- Each school will provide parents with student achievement data and how that data will be used to improve instruction.
- The Stone Corral School District will provide the following necessary coordination,technical assistance, and ‘other support to assist Title I, Part A schools in planning and implementation effective parental involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance:
- District office staff will meet with school representatives to coordinate the planning and implementation of effective parental involvement activities.
- District staff will assist school sites in the effective communication to parents about academic programs that are available to students.
- District staff will assist schools in the development of materials, reports and other documents which will be made available to parents regarding student achievement and school performance.
- District staff will assist the school sites at parent meetings on topics related to student achievement and performance.
- District staff will coordinate parent involvement activities that are available to all parents in the district.
f.All parent information will be disseminated to parents in their primary language, and in a manner that is easy to understand.
- The Stone Corral School District will coordinate and integrate parental involvement strategies in part A with parental involvement strategies under the following other programs by:
a.coordinating parent involvement activities, when appropriate, such as the Parent University.
b.providing the parents of Head Start students with the kindergarten expectations
C.hold annual kindergarten orientation for incoming kindergarten parents, with an emphasis on recruitment of Head Start/State preschool parents.
d.make parent activities available to all interested parents.
- The Stone Corral School District will establish a districtwide parent advisory committee that will develop a parental involvement annual evaluation. The evaluation will be distributed to parents and allow them opportunity to evaluate the content and effectiveness of the parental involvement policy. The evaluation will include the identification of barriers to greater participation by parents in parental involvement activities, with particular attention to parents who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy, or are of any. racial or ethnic minority background. The findings will be used to design strategies for more effective parental involvement and to revise, if necessary, the parental involvement policies.
- The Stone Corral School District will build the school’s and parent’s capacity for strong parental involvement, in order to ensure effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership among the school involved, parents, and the community to improve student academic achievement, through the following activities specifically described below:
- The school district will, with the• assistance of its Title I, Part, A schools, provide assistance to parents of children served by the school district or school, as appropriate, in understanding topics such as the following, by undertaking the actions described below:
- the State’s academic content standards,
- the States student academic achievement standards,-
- the State and local academic assessments,
- the requirements of Part A,
- how to monitor their child’s progress, and
- how to work with educators:
Grade level content standards pamphlets will be distributed to every parent in English or Spanish as appropriate at the beginning of the school year.
- Back-to-School Nights , will be held to inform parents of schoolacademic programs.
- Standardized test assessment results – will be sent to every parent in English or Spanish as appropriate, including an explanation of how to interpret the scores.-
- Parent conferences will be held to inform parents of the child’s progress with suggestions of how parents can assist the child at home.
- Parents will be notified of the -academic programs and student achievement in a variety of ways, including report cards, progress reports, English Language Development (ELD) report cards, and conferences.
- Parent Education activities will be held which will give parents the tools and resources to extend learning at home (i.e. homework assistance, Family Math, Family Reading, Family Science, Math Their Way, Activities Integration in Math and Science (AIMS), techniques to use with daily reading at home.) Other activities may include computer classes and English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.
- The Community Based English Tutoring Program (CBET) and Adult ESL Programs may provide adult English language instruction to parents and other members of the community. •
- Parents of English Learners (ELs) will be informed of the child’s level of English proficiency, how such level was assessed and the status of the student’s academic achievement. •
- Parents of ELs will be informed about the method of instruction used in the program in which their child is participating and the methods of instruction used in other programs available to the child.
- Parents of ELs will be informed how the program in which the child is participating will meet the educational strengths and needs of the child and how the program will specifically help their child learn English and meet age-appropriate-academic achievement standards.
B.The school district will, with the assistance of its schools, provide materials and training to help parents work with their children to improve
. their children’s academic achievement, such as literacy training, and using technology, as appropriate, to foster parental involvement by:
Parent ,education activities will be held, which give parents the tools and resources to extend learning at homey The school district will work with schools to ensure that materials and training needed to help parents work with their children to improve the child’s academic achievement will be provided: The district will assist the schools in paying reasonable and -necessary expenses associated with parental involvement activities to enable -parents to participate in school-related meetings and training sessions.
- The school district will, with the assistance of its schools and parents,educate its teachers, pupil services personnel, principals, and other staff, inhow to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners, in the value and utility of contributions of parents, and in how to implement and coordinate parent programs and build ties between parents and schools, by:
- The district will hold regular District Parent Advisory Council, Superintendent’s Advisory , Committee meetings, District English Learners Advisory meetings, and GATE Advisory Committee meetings to solicit parent/community input as to how the district and schools can assist the staff in working effectively with parents as equal partners and how to coordinate parent programs.
2.The district will involve parents in the development of programs that will build ties between parents and schools.
- The school district will, to the extent feasible and appropriate, coordinate and integrate parental involvement programs and activities with Head Start, public preschool and other programs, and conduct other activities, such as parent resource centers, that encourage and support parents in more fully participating in the education of their children, by:
1.The district will participate in a Community Health Fair to provide families information regarding health and safety related issues.
2.The district will host a Parent University, in cooperation with Head Start, which will provide high interest seminars and workshops to interested parents.
3.The Migrant Education Program will provide migrant families With additional academic and community-related services which will support families in participating in the education of their children.
- The school district will take the following actions to ensure that information related to the school and parent-programs, meetings, and other activities, is sent to the parents of participating children in a format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand:
1.District translators will provide language translations to parents at school and parent programs, meetings, and other activities. All written communications will be translated in a language parents can understand.
2.District staff will solicit input from the districtwide parent advisory committee, as well as other school and district advisory committees as to more effective home — school communication.