First-Grade Classroom News
Strengthening the Home-School Connection with a Biweekly Newsletter (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 0: Foundation for LiteracyStage 1: Beginning Literacy
Stage 2: Consolidation / Fluency
Ages:
4-9
Grade Range:
K 1st 2nd 3rdFood Groups:
Primary: Classroom Tips Secondary: Motivation for Literacy
Transcript
One of the things that I take time to do because I think it is crucial is communicating with parents. I have a newsletter that goes home every two weeks. I take the time to tell the parents what we are working on in each subject. Sometimes I ask them to do certain activities or things with their child. In language, I educate my parents about strategies that we are working on in the classroom. For example, when I introduce new strategies in the CAF literacy menu, sometimes I describe that strategy in the newsletter so they can actually use it at home when they are reading with their child. This particular one was the last one that went home and is telling parents about predictions and how they can stop when they're reading a story and ask their child to predict what may happen next and tell them "okay, I say this because" and they have to explain their prediction. That way, parents get really involved in whatever we are working on in the classroom, and they love it. Parents love this. It also has pictures of their children doing work so it's a way of showing them what they're doing. This is a great way of communicating with their children because in the First Grade, usually when they ask "what did you do today at school?", they would say "nothing" or "I forget". Here, when they get this newsletter, they read it and say "oh, I see that you're working on this, can you tell me about this?" and then they start a whole conversation about the themes that we did in the classroom. So it becomes a really meaningful conversation. Also of course, I have a section with important information about field trips or anything that we have to work on and that I need their support. It would be in that section. To me communicating with parents is crucial, and this works nicely.
Related References
b>Additional Links:
Reading Rockets: Weekly Classroom Newsletter Templates http://www.readingrockets.org/article/classsroom-templates
Activity Objective
The goal of First-Grade Classroom News: Strengthening the Home-School Connection with a Biweekly Newsletter (Virtual Tour) is to keep parents informed about what is going on in class to foster meaningful conversations at home about what their child is learning in class. This helps parents to reinforce reading, writing and comprehension strategies while spending time with their child at home.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- For older grades, you can begin to involve your students in preparing the newsletter. - You can also include special events, student accomplishments and field trips.
Other Recipes by this Teacher
What are We Doing in Class Today?: Motivating Beginning Readers with a Daily Schedule (Virtual Tour)
K - 6th
Literacy CAFE in First Grade: Fostering Independence using a Menu of Strategies (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
The Daily 5 in First Grade: Engaging Students with a Balanced Literacy Approach (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
Predicting and Inferring: Scaffolding Comprehension Strategies using an Explicit Framework (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
Revising and Editing in First Grade: Using Success Criteria to Focus the Writing Process (Virtual Tour)
K - 6th
