Family Engagement

"At every tier of the Pyramid Model, practitioners and programs should consider what strategies might be used to welcome and support diverse families; how to create opportunities to learn from families; strategies for partnering with families to promote child outcomes; and providing the supports and services that families might need to promote their child’s skill development."

Source: Implementing partnerships with families to promote the social and emotional competence of young children. (Fox & Swett, 2017, p. 86).

Positive Solutions Workshop Series

Join Parent Educators from throughout MN in exploring the updated Positive Solutions 7 session workshop series from NCPMI! We will meet for three one-hour virtual sessions to discuss how you might want to role out Positive Solutions in your program! Click on the image to the right for additional details.

Positive Solutions for Families Flyer 2023

NEW: Pyramid At Home Series

Engaging Families with the Pyramid Model

Wondering how to engage families in Pyramid Model strategies and enhance the home/school connection? Checkout the new Pyramid at Home series, designed to provide Implementation Sites with easy to use handouts to share with families that include helpful hints on how to support social emotional development at home and in the community. There are two options for using this resource:

Download the handouts to the left and print them out or share electronically with families and caregivers.
Personalize each of the handouts by clicking on the CANVA template below and personalizing it to your program:

CANVA Template for Pyramid at Home: Emotions

CANVA Template for Pyramid at Home: Routines

Canva is a graphic design platform with hundreds of templates for infographics, newsletters, and more. You can access and edit these handouts to personalize them to your program by creating a free Canva account.

Learn how to create an account and edit a template by watching these short videos.

Step 1: Create a Free Canva Account (watch from beginning to 3:55 min)
Step 2: How to Access a Template that someone shared with you in Canva (watch from 1:49-3:54)

NCPMI Teacher Guides-English/Hmong/Somali/Spanish

Take advantage of this new resource from NCPMI. Each Teacher Guide is designed to support families in strengthening their interactions with children around specific social emotional topics.

Guides include the following:

Handout for teachers on how to use the resource
Handout for families describing the topic and ways to promote it (translated versions available)
A Family Engagement Activity sheet to promote use of the topic area (translated versions available)

Family Engagement Planning

As you create your Family Engagement Plan, it is helpful to consider:

How will you introduce new families to the Pyramid Model?
What information will you include?
What information about social-emotional development might you share to create strong home/school partnerships? When will each resource be shared? How will it be shared?
Can you add Pyramid Model information to current family engagement activities?
How will ensure all families can access the information?
How will you seek input and feedback from families about the Pyramid Model and social-emotional learning?
When children need individual supports, how will you meaningfully partner with families to create support plans? What steps will staff take? When in the process will families be included?

young boy and his mother sitting at a table with the teacher looking happily at his project

NCPMI_family_factsheet_web.pdf

Information for New Families

Also available in Spanish

Communicating-with-Families-PM Resource.pdf

Communication Tips

Ideas to ensure equal access to information

Copy of PTRYC_what-to-expect.pdf

PTR-YC Information

Creating a partnership for individual child support

Family Survey Templates

Family Engagement Survey

The Pyramid Model State Implementation team has created a Family Survey template to help your program better understand the family perspective of Pyramid Model implementation, and can also provide insight into families communication preferences. In addition, the survey template provides the opportunity for a family to provide feedback on Pyramid Model implementation at your site.

There are a few considerations that should be made before sending out this survey:

Add your school logo/branding as you see fit to customize this survey for your site.
Add/remove questions as needed to meet your site’s needs.
If you are sending this to a family where English is not their primary language, or to families that may struggle with written communication- please provide appropriate assistance to them to complete the survey.

Please feel free to contact your PDF with any questions you may have regarding the use of this survey.

Short & Sweet Survey to Families at End of Year

Thank you to Perham Dent for sharing the questions they send in a survey to families at the end of each school year. Five simple questions, but such great feedback to receive.

Family Engagement Resources

Visual Schedules , Solution Toolkits, and Problem Solving Steps for the Home

Solution Toolkit: Home Edition

***Now available in English, Spanish, Somali, Hmong, and Ojibwe.***

Parent educators and teaching team members may want to consider supporting families in creating their own Visual Schedule, Problem Solving Steps, and Solution Toolkit for home use.

How might you introduce these strategies to families?
How can you support families in understanding how these strategies are used at home and the similarities/differences in how they are used at school?
How will you individualize these strategies for specific children and families?
Might some families need these resources translated into another language? How can you make that happen?

Creating a Visual Schedule to Use at Home

We Can Be Problem Solvers at Home Social Story

Problem Solving Steps Wrist Cards

Both of these resources are now available in English, Spanish, Somali, Hmong, and Ojibwe by clicking on the links embedded.

Supporting parents in helping their children use calming strategies at home?

Creating a Calm Down Area at Home

Calm-Down_Poster_EN.pdf

Toddler version now available in Spanish, Hmong, and Somali.

Additional Resources to Share with Families

Activity Ideas to Share with Families.pdf

Family Strategies Poster.pdf

Transition Warning Strategies for Families

screenshot of addressing behavior handout in Spanish, linked to webiste

Backpack Series

The Backpack Series can be found at NCPMI. Documents are available in English, and Spanish.

screenshot of bedtime routine linked to website

Making Life Easier Series

The Making LIfe Easier Series can be found at NCPMI. Documents are available in English, Spanish and Chinese.

Family Article Series

The Family Article Series can be found at NCPMI.

Social_Emotional Videos for Families to Watch.docx

Thank you to NCPMI and Vanderbilt University for these resources to share with families!

FBSApp

FBSApp Spotlight.pdf

To learn more about the FBSApp, designed for use by parents with young children (2-5) with disabilities and challenging behaviors, click on the slides to the left or visit the Barton Lab at Vanderbilt's Peabody College.

How Can Your Program Use Seesaw to Promote Social Emotional Learning?

Pyramid Model Activities-See Saw.pdf

Pyramid Model templates available on Seesaw

A big thank you to Mackenzie Meuleners from the Monticello Pyramid Model Team for submitting these templates to be added to the community of templates available on Seesaw! You can access each of these by clicking on the image to the left.

Checkout this Example of a Teacher Using SeeSaw to Engage Families in Problem Solving with their children.

Thank you to Johanna Taylor in Edina for sharing this creative idea!

Sharing Site Specific Pyramid Model Resources with Families

Check out Pine City's Early Childhood Program presentation at our Spring 2023 Retreat around Community Engagement with the Dragon Wagon! Lots of creativity in action when thinking about bringing social emotional learning to the local community!

Dragon Wagon and Community Engagement-Pine City.pdf

Robbinsdale Pyramid Model Brochure

Thank you to the Robbinsdale Pyramid Model team for sharing their Pyramid Model program brochure that they share with families.

How does your Pyramid Model site share information regarding the Pyramid Model with new families?
What information would be important to include on a parent flyer like this?
What additional languages would you want to print this flyer in?
How else might you communicate this information to families?

Thank you Milaca for sharing a picture of your Parents Den! What a great idea to be able to share information about the Pyramid Model with caretakers who are walking through your building!

Do you have a place in your building where parents can access information regarding your Pyramid Model efforts?
What information would you want to display on this board?
How might your team coordinate these efforts and involve all staff?

Thank you Milaca for sharing your super creative Tucker Goes to School Social Story! What a fun idea to print these books out for families who will be joining your program!

Click in the top left corner of the box below to see a variety of additional flyers, handouts, and other correspondence Pyramid Model teams have shared with caretakers in their programs around introducing behavior expectations/rules, theme of the month, what PBC is, monthly Parent Newsletters, etc. Thank you to the following programs for contributing to these resources: North Branch, Prior Lake Savage, and Virginia.