Together We Are Better: Parent Communication LINKY

I am linking up this month with some incredible bloggers to bring you ideas about....

I believe parent communication is VITAL to a successful school year. Every year I change, add, and revamp my parent communication to best meet the needs of my "clientele." Some years I have a group of parents that love email. Other years, I have parents that need paper reminders sent home. But there are a few things that remain consistent with my parent communication that I want to share with all of you. 

1. Weekly Behavior Charts: 

I use a color chart for behavior management in my classroom. Each day my students fill out their behavior chart with their corresponding color. Then, on Fridays they take their chart home. Parents sign the chart and the child brings the chart back on Monday. I reward signed behavior charts with tickets for our classroom prize box. 

Parents love knowing the charts are coming home. I love that they don't have to come ask me how their child is behaving in class. It's a win-win! 

Some teachers prefer monthly behavior charts. This way they can go into a folder and notes can be added if needed. It is important to find a way that works for you and that you can manage. I have created a set of monthly EDITABLE charts too.

2. Parent Conferences: 

Communicating with parents about their child's academic and social success is also a key part of parent communication. Before I created my Parent Teacher Conference Binder, I had different papers and information all over the place. Grades were in my grade book or on the computer, student work for their portfolios was in file folders, etc. 

After I created my conference binder, all the notes and information I needed to send out were in one place. I keep the master in a plastic sleeve and make colored copies of the forms I need to send to parents and put them into the sleeve as well. 

 My favorite form of all is this:

There are several variations included in the packet to meet your needs. I LOVE that it has boxes to check off and a few lines for comments. Everything I need to tell a parent about their child is right there at my fingertips. Just a quick glance and I can elaborate in certain areas, if needed. I make 2 copies of the form. One for my records and one for the parent to take home with them. 

3. Print and Go Parent Notes & Newsletter:

At the beginning of the year, there is so much information that needs to be sent home to parents. Forms from you, the office, parents etc. Being organized and prepared is so important. I use this packet of forms to help with that. I also create a monthly newsletter to keep parents informed of special events, projects, and things going on in class and at school. Parents then post it on their refrigerator at home or other special spot, so they know about early dismissals, events and more!

Have you ever needed a last minute note to send home with the kids to remind them and their parents about something for the next day, but you just don't have time to sit down and type it up before the bell rings for the end of the day? This used to happen to me all-the-time! I needed to put a stop to it and QUICK! So, I create my Don't Miss the Boat Parent Notes and Reminders packet. Now, I have all the forms I could possibly need in a notebook, copied, and ready to go at a moment's notice. This saves time and the parents appreciate the reminders too!

Be sure to join in the fun and link up your parent communication ideas too!

Weekend Warriors Link Up: Open House and More!

                               

The Weekend Warriors are back this month with a whole NEW look and theme! Weekend Warriors is also inviting each of you to link up too! That's right! Just grab the image and monthly banner and create your own blog post about your Open House ideas and more and join in on all the fun!  There is a different theme the last weekend of every month.

We just had our Open House last week and there are a few things that I just LOVE about it. I love watching the kids show off all their learning throughout the year to their parents. I love the twinkle in the parents' eyes as they realize how hard their kids have been working all year long! I love the sense of community too! It's usually a night of overwhelming "warm fuzzies"!

 Every year I have the kids reflect on how far they have come since the first day of school. Sometimes I get it completed by Open House and sometimes I don't. This year I was clearly on top of things because they were on display for the BIG night! HA! The kids wrote about why their future is so bright and what they have to look forward to. You can grab the writing prompts and craft templates HERE.

When the kids brought their families to the classroom, they each found a pair of sunglasses with this little tag attached. You should have seen their faces light up and make the connection between their writing and the surprise! Priceless! Thank you to Molly from Lessons With Laughter for the adorable tags!

I also enjoy having the kids create self portraits of themselves. I did a directed drawing lesson with them and look how fabulous they all turned out! I decided to hide each student's name. Instead, I put a sticker that said, "Who Am I?" on the front. When the parents came into the room, they had to find their child among the portraits. It was so sweet to see the kids give clues to their parents. Some found their child on the first try! 

Each student also created their own Math About Me board to display for Open House. You can read a more detailed post HERE and grab a FREEBIE too!  The kids loved presenting their posters to the class and explaining the important numbers in their lives.

Even if your school doesn't have any event called "Open House", link up and share your ideas and pictures from Parent Night, Family Night, Back To School Night and more! I'd love to see what ideas you have too!

Stress Free GIVEAWAY!

I am joining a FABULOUS group of bloggers to bring you a giveaway you won't want to STRESS out about because it is easy-peasy! This time of year is cray-cray and we are all stressed on our own without any extra help. So, we have decided to bring you a giveaway that will help your stress disappear!  

All you have to do is follow each of our TpT stores and you will be entered to win one of FOUR prizes: $75 Amazon gift card, $40 to Target, $25 TpT gift card, or $20 to Starbucks! How AWESOME is that? Now just sit back, relax and enjoy the rewards- STRESS FREE! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Math About ME

Open House was this week and I was so excited for my students to show off all that they had learned so far this school year.I have a TON of pictures to share with you, but that blog post will be coming. In the meantime, I wanted to share a project I had my kids do (with some guidance from their parents) for our big event! I call it MATH ABOUT ME. Each child gets a foam poster board and finds pictures of himself or herself. They decorate the board with the pictures and items that represent their personality. Next, they write captions using NUMBERS about their life. For example, one child took a picture of all 57 books they had in their bedroom. Another child smiled in a picture to show 8 teeth had already fallen out. The kids get very creative with the things they can show with numbers in their life. 

Here are a couple sample posters.

 
This student showed the number of people in her family, her birthday etc...

This student used numbers to show the number of teeth he has lost, number of friends, how much he weighs etc.

This student showed their favorite number is 102, their phone number, number of books they own etc.

I always look forward to how the kids are going to represent themselves on their posters. The parents and kids also love looking at the different posters at Open House. It gives them an opportunity to learn more about one another. If you would like the project directions and a copy of the letter I send home, just click HERE for your FREE copy.

I make sure to tell all the kids that the questions are just suggestions of ideas they can use. They don't have to answer all the questions. They can create their own questions and make it meaningful to them. I hope you guys have fun with this project and look forward to seeing what your students create. Enjoy!

Together We Are Better Linky!

I am so excited to be linking up with Ashley and Angie, as well as, some awesome bloggers this month. We are starting this month linky off strong with the topic of ....

First and foremost, a general schedule is so important to establish starting on the first day of school. Kids love to know what is going to be happening throughout the day. I always post our specific agenda on the board each day. I also have a general agenda posted by the door. 

Here is an example:

1. OPENING: 

This is when the kids turn in their homework, eat breakfast (yes, this is served by the teacher, in the classroom) and work on their warm up. Their warm up consistent of various activities as the year goes on. I get these resources from TpT. I use the second grade morning work packet from Second Store Window. I also use close reading passages later in the year from Primarily Speaking and Lucky to Be in First.  My students have a folder in their desk with the warm up for the week. They know to do the next page in their packet. After warm-up time, we review and go over the answers together.

2. LANGUAGE ARTS: 

The rest of the morning is devoted to our language arts program. We are mandated by our district to use our scripted program California Treasures. I definitely pick a choose the components I will spend more and less time on depending on the level of my class each year. I also HEAVILY supplement with TpT materials I have created and found online. 

3. WRITING/GRAMMAR/SMALL GROUP TIME:

Depending on the lessons for the week, this sometimes gets pushed to the afternoon. But it is a good time for us to use our reading and language interactive notebooks. I also get time to pull students for fluency checks and an intervention that is needed. This time period flies by fast, so it needs to be well planned out. It is the perfect amount of time to have a short directed lesson for writing. And then it gives the students an opportunity to practice the skill on their own.

4.MATH:

We come in from lunch and have a 5 minute "rest" time. The lights are off and I play lullaby music for the kids. This gives them time to calm down from the craziness of lunch before they must focus on our math lesson. Our district math series is Envision. I follow our district pacing plan and HEAVILY supplement it, as well. I use math centers I have created to supplement the lessons. I also love using task cards to review skills with the kids. Once or twice a week, we also work in our interactive notebooks.

5. SOCIAL STUDIES/SCIENCE: (usually 2-3 times a week)

On many days, this gets integrated into our language arts time. On the days we have P.E,, art, music etc. I don't usually get to a formal lesson. For science, we are supplied with FOSS kits and we have a social studies series that I don't rely one because there is no text for each student to use. So again, I HEAVILY supplement, thanks to TpT.

The rest of the day is review and closing the day. We go over homework and pack up. Ta-dah! What does your schedule look like? Make sure to link up and share it with all of us too!

An InLinkz Link-up