Parent Resources

Home Connections

What is Home Connections?

Home Connections is a parent activity handbook that is correlated with the Early Literacy Framework – Handbook for Early Childhood Classrooms. This handbook contains information that early childhood teachers can share with parents in the form of handouts. Each "Parent Activities~Actividades Para Los Padres" handout provides specific activities designed to help children develop early literacy skills. These activities are an extension of the classroom and support the activities of the Early Literacy Framework. Home Connections activities are aligned to the Illinois Early Learning Standards, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Child Assessment Profile, the CPS Reading Instruction Framework and the Head Start Outcomes Framework.

Contents of Home Connections

Home Connections offers handouts in English and Spanish that teachers can give to parents to involve them in supporting literacy based classroom instruction. This handbook also includes the Mission Statement for Early Literacy in Chicago Public Schools, a list, “Accomplishments of the Very Young Child” from Starting Out Right (1999), which is a set of possible accomplishments exhibited by young children as they are learning to read and write, and “The Five Essential Components of Reading” from Reading Tips for Parents (2001). We have also included the texts of the Illinois Early Learning Standards, the Child Assessment Profile, the Reading Instruction Framework and the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework.

Early Literacy Home Connections (PDF)