family communication
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Family Engagment – Discussing Thanksgiving
I like to take any opportunity that I can get to involve families in my classroom discussions and investigations, so I created this great freebie in order to find out a little more about each of my individual students’ family Thanksgiving celebration. Send this questionnaire home with your students to find out what each of their Thanksgiving celebrations is like. Ask them to bring it back after the holiday and compare and contrast the foods that they ate, what they liked and did not like, and give children the opportunity to share their own special traditions. This is a great way to help little ones understand that their families have…
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Engaging families in community service projects
This week I’ve been sharing ideas for starting a community service project in the preschool classroom. For any school community service project to be successful you have to engage families and get them excited about the project. This is not always an easy feat, so here are some of the ways that I’ve encouraged parent participation – and actually gotten it! Get the children excited about the project – when you’re working with preschoolers you can use their enthusiasm to your advantage. If the children are excited about your project then they will not stop talking about it, they will let their parents in on every single detail, and they’ll…
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Explaining assessment to families
Assessment in preschool is definitely a thing – it’s a huge part of what early childhood educators do every day, but most casual observers would never know that. This is because it’s not obvious. As teachers it important to be able to explain this unique assessment process to parents and family members so that they have a clear understanding of how we know what skills and concepts their child has mastered. There are two things that make preschool assessments just a little different; First, preschool assessments should be formative assessments. This simply means that you are using the results of any assessment to plan further activities and learning experiences. These…
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Helping your child get ready for preschool
As a preschool teacher I spend a ton of time making sure that children are prepared to start kindergarten, but I don’t always think about helping children prepare for preschool. Maybe that’s because there’s so much that I can do to help once they start, but I don’t often get to work with families before they start attending. If you know any children who will be starting preschool this fall, whether they’re your own children, new students that will be in your class, or even just friends’ children, here are a few things that parents can do to help little ones prepare for those first few days: Talk about it…
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Ideas for streamlining parent communication
One of the teaching tasks that I dread is parent communication. I go overboard trying to get parents’ attention. I share messages in every possible way that I can, hoping that one of them will make it’s mark. Nothing seems to work, and I know I’m not alone in this because I work with teachers everyday, and they all tell me the same thing. But, I’ve had a thought – an epiphany if you will. I’ve been thinking a lot about routines lately (see yesterday’s post), specifically, how routines are just as important for adults as they are for children. If I develop a routine for communicating with parents, not only…
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Great app to share with families
I am a self-proclaimed family engagement queen, I tend to collect ideas and resources for sharing with families and not have enough opportunities to share all of them! This one must be shared with all of you because it is amazing!!! Go check out Vroom – do it right now! This site is all about building parents up and reminding them that they have what it takes to help their child’s brain grow and develop. From the videos and information on the site itself, to the great materials that families can download, to the free app that gives them daily activities personalized for their child’s age, this site is an…
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Using Sign Up Genius for your Class party
In my Party Planning Tips post yesterday, I mentioned a site that is new to me (so probably old news at this point… ha!) it’s call Sign Up Genius. While I was checking out the site I came across their blog post that talks about how to use Sign Up Genius as you plan a class party, and it made me laugh out loud because it is spot on! You can read it here. The idea behind Sign Up Genius is that you log on, create your sign up sheet (it can be for anything – conference time slots, party treats, field trip chaperones, soccer game snacks, carpool, you name…
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Building Relationships with your Students Families
Communicating with parents and families is always easier when you've built a relationship with those families. This can be really hard if you rarely. See them - whether you have student who ride the bus to and from school every day, or you aren't the teacher in charge when your students are dropped off or picked up, there are a million reasons that you might not get as much time with parents as you would like.You can still build relationships with families that will make them feel like they are involved in the activities and events that take place in the classroom. Here are some ideas: Invite parents to participate.…
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The Best Way to Communicate with Parents
That’s a pretty intriguing title isn’t it – what is the best way to communicate with parents? Unfortunately, you’re probably not going to like my answer; there isn’t one best way to communicate with parents. What worked for you last year might not work this year and that’s because each group of parents is very different. That doesn't mean that you have to use your precious time covering all of the possible means of communication. When I realized how much time I was spending on parent communication (newsletters, notes home, emails, phone calls, and posted messages in the classroom) I started something that made my job a million times easier…
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Freebie Friday
Ugh. I know its only the middle of July, but I am feeling the summer slipping away – maybe it’s worse this week because it was so chilly, I wore a sweatshirt on Tuesday! That must be what’s got me thinking about school. Today’s freebie is a cute idea for back to school, this template is from Amber Polk, and it is designed so that you can add your contact information and print as a business card or magnet to hand out to parents. This would be a cute, easy way to make sure that parents are able to get a hold of you, and express that you want to…
