Raise your hand if Montel Jordan immediately began singing in your head when you read that title.  Me, me, me!  I used to rock out on the stair stepper to that very song on my fav Jock Jams CD circa 1998.  And I could totally *still* bust out a verse or two.  Ha!  {The party’s here on the Westsiiiide! I couldn’t help myself.} So, I hope not to bore you to tears with the way we do homework around these parts, but I figured that it could be helpful to new teachers or those mandated to enforce homework packets in their buildings.  Brace yourself, it’s detailed… I have done homework as a packet since I taught kindergarten, and find it to be a great tool to connect school and home, and keep everyone organized.  In K, I didn’t start homework until after Christmas.  With my firsties, however, we start the week after we’ve had our first full week of school.  I find that this allows me, my kids, and their parents adequate time to get the hang of our daily routine before I start sending it.  The packet goes home every Monday and expect it back to school on Friday morning.  The front page lists the assignments for each day, Monday – Thursday.  No homework over the weekend, of course :)  Each night lists nightly activities for math, spelling, and reading.  I also include our spelling list right on the front.  The math and reading homework changes as we progress through the curriculum, while the spelling activities stay the same (the words obviously change each week).  Besides having to bring home their reading anthology (Treasures) each night, all other assignments are expected to be completed within the packet pages.  The whole packet is double-sided, stapled and hole-punched, so students can slide it right into their binder and keep it there throughout the week.  This prevents squishing/ripping and lost homework, of course.  The second page is a word list that students are expected to read to their parent(s) each night along with their reading anthology story.  Becoming familiar with spelling patterns and sounds helps build word automaticity, thereby assisting in fluency.  This list is also used during the weekly assessment that I complete with each student during the week. The next two pages (double-sided) are where students complete their spelling homework.  Monday – Write words 3x Tuesday – Spell words aloud to an adult Wednesday – Write a story or sentences using at least 5 spelling words (that’s what the lined paper you see below is for) Thursday – Complete a practice spelling test The pages that remain support our math curriculum (Math in Focus) and are considered “Extra Practice” to go along with whatever we’re learning in the classroom.  If you’d like to see a PDF of this document (not editable), click HERE.  If you’d like to use this document and edit it to suit your needs, click HERE where it is free on TpT.  Please note that the font I used is CK Handprint (free for download HERE) and I made the document in Word 2010, so it is a .docx.  Thus, it may download/appear differently depending on the version of Word that you own.   {Sidenote: photographing worksheets is just plain booooring! Sorry I couldn’t make this more exciting!}  Let me know if you have any questions 🙂