The goal of the Los Altos School District English-Language Arts Program is for all students to obtain the knowledge, skills and attitudes that allow them to:

• Speak with conviction and effect and listen with understanding and compassion
• Write with clarity, purpose and persuasion
• Read with comprehension and enthusiasm
• Develop a life-long love of reading
• Build confidence communicating through language and technology and critically assess information with ease.

READING/LANGUAGE ARTS

Grades K- 5 Core: Houghton-Mifflin Medallions Series

Grades 6-8 Pearson Prentice Hall, Timeless Voices, Timesless Themes 

Helpful Links for Students and Parents

• Free flash Games for language, grammar, vocabulary, and phonics practice. 

• A great site for K-2 students to practice reading skills is Starfall.com.  Students can practice letter recognition or work through the Learn To Read books, games, and resources. The site also has support for parents and teachers.

• Reading practice for ELL students (Spanish, French, German, Italian, English)

• KidsReads.com is like a giant online book club for kids. Share favorite books, write reviews, read reviews, talk about favorite books, series, and authors. Sponsored by Disney.
  
• Another book club for kids can be found at the Random House website for kids. Students can participate in book adventures and activities from "the Magic Treehouse", "Junie B. Jones,"  "Nate the Great," and other series.
  
• Kids will love Scholastic's new Flashlight Reader's book club. Students read great books and hear authors describe just how they tackle the craft of writing.
  

Word Study

• Match vocabulary words with their meanings and donate rice to help end world hunger.
  
• Word Build and Bank
  
• What's in the Bag? (K-2)
  
• Word Family Sort (Short Vowels)
  
• Picture Match (K-2)
  
• Flip-A-Chip (Affixes & Roots)Phonics Practice  and Chants for Phonemic Awareness instruction for ELL students.
  

Grammar

• The University of Illinois has published an online grammar handbook to use with writer's workshop. Stufun.com is a fun site with kid-friendly grammar information 
• The lyrics to the Schoolhouse Rock grammar songs can be found at this site. You can also click on the titles at the bottom of the page to hear the songs.
• The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation is a great online tool for writers.  You simply click on grammar or punctuation in the sidebar and choose a topic from the pull-down menu.  All the resources appear instantly.

• Spelling

• Kid Spell.com has multiple resources and activities to improve student spelling.

• Students can practice spelling at FunBrain.com. Click on FunBrain.com for links to ALL of their online games, sorted by topic.

• Vocabulary and Spelling City is a great site where you can practice spelling and vocabulary words.  You can even create flash cards for special vocabulary lists.

• If you're looking for an easy way to remember specific spelling rules, you can always visit the Musical Spelling Rules site to learn songs that highlight spelling rules!