Keep Parents Informed
When I started teaching in 2010 I immediately starting brainstorming a way to keep parents informed as to what was going on in the classroom. I knew that as a third grade teacher I would need their help each week preparing students for weekly assessments, and having students copy homework down in an agenda just wasn’t enough for me. I just couldn’t rely on students copying important information into their agenda each maybe. What if they were tardy or absent, or still had handwriting that was hard to read. I still had students write in their agenda, but it was more for them, not for me or their parents.
I laugh looking back on my newsletters from my first year of teaching. On Monday morning (Friday afternoon) I would type up what topics were going to be cover in each subject that week, along with important information, like the book fair or a field trip. I’ve changed a lot since I started teaching 12 years ago, and I’ve gone from 3rd grade, to 1st, back to 3rd, back to 1st, kindergarten, and then 5th, but one thing that has not changed is that I still create and send home newsletters every week.
Keep it Exciting
Over the 12 years of using newsletters I’ve found that they can become quite mundane to parents week after week, so to make sure that they were being reviewed I added few things: I started recording daily behavior (that requires parent initials); I started adding little games, such as “Tell Mrs. Craven how many “t’s” you found on this news letter, for a prize; I changed the look of the newsletter each week so that it would stand out; and I told parents exactly how they could help me by supporting their child’s learning the classroom. Creating newsletters that the students could color or decorate had students looking forward to their new newsletter each week.
Great Communication Tool
The newsletters become another way for parents and I to communicate, and typically are the most used resource for communication. Students and parents know to keep the newsletter in the child’s homework folder, and each Monday morning the old newsletters are filed away in case I ever need to look back at something specific.
Free 50 page editable Newsletter Pack
I’ve created a 50 page editable newsletter pack (that you can get HERE) that I’m so excited to use this year. It has everything from months, season, holidays, and educational topics, all while providing the space for me to add important information and record daily behavior. The best part is because is it editable you are able to use it as you see fit within your classroom, subject, and grade level. Be sure to follow me on tpt to get more fun freebies for your classroom!
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