Kindergarten - Grade 2

Just like in any relationship, communication is key. As soon as you have your roster for the year, begin reaching out to your students' families! Parents and guardians appreciate this initiative to welcome and introduce yourself to the students and their families.

There are many ways you can contact families of your K-2 grade students:

• Email - Emails are a quick and easy way to reach out, and they do not take long to send.

• ParentSquare (or your school district's preferred communication method) - Some schools have a district wide communication platform that allow you to send a message your students' families as a whole group or individually. This is a simple and fast way to welcome families and share information throughout the school year.

• Welcome Newsletter - Besides sending a simple email or message, you can add a creative element such a welcome newsletter to introduce yourself and the class. Depending on how in-depth you choose to make your newsletter, you may spend anywhere from an hour to a day designing it. For newsletter ideas and tips, scroll down to the section, "Send Out Classroom Newsletters."

• Welcome Video - Another creative way to welcome students and families is to create a video where you introduce yourself and share what students and their grown-ups can expect in the coming year. Developing a welcome video is the most time consuming of this list of options. You can expect to spend anywhere from 30 minutes for a simple recording, to one to two days for a video that requires scripting, filming, and editing.

Below are two different video introductions that you may be interested in:

• • • A teacher created a less than a minute video to introduce herself to the families she will be working with as an ESL teacher.

    • Another teacher wrote a song to welcome his students to Kindergarten.

Families need to know how you'll share information with them and how they can best contact you. Whether it's through phone calls, emails, a school district wide app, newsletters, or even a classroom website, make sure families have a clear picture of what communication will look like throughout the school year. It takes less than 15 minutes to reach out to each family to ask their preference.

How can you learn family communication preferences?

• Ask for families' contact preferences when you reach out at the start of the year

• Have families fill out a communication sheet during parent night or open house

• Send out family surveys (more on this in the next section)

How can you make sure families know how to contact you?

• Share your name, classroom number, and school email when you reach out at the start of the year

• Sign your name with your school email below on every communication handout you send throughout the year

One way to get to know families is to ask them about themselves. You can send out a survey to parents and families at the beginning of the school year, throughout the year, at the end of the year, or whenever you see best fit.

Surveys are beneficial in that you can customize them for you and your classroom. The information you receive will help you better know your students and their families which allows you to adapt lessons and communications as needed. You can expect to spend an hour or two designing and distributing your survey.

Some questions you may consider including:

• What is the best method to contact you?

• Is there anything in particular that you would like me to contact you about?

• What do you hope your child takes away from this school year?

• What was your experience like in this grade?

• What language(s) do you speak at home?

• Which traditions and holidays are special to your family? 

• What hobbies or activities does your family enjoy doing together?

• What does your child enjoy doing in their free time?

• What are some of your child's strengths?

• What are some of your child's weaknesses?

• Would you be interested in volunteering in the classroom?

• Would you be interested in sharing with our class about an aspect of your job, culture, etc.?

• What obstacles may prevent you from attending class or school events?

• What goal(s) do you have for your child this school year?

• How do you see your role in your child's education?

• How can I best support you and your child throughout the school year?

• Is there anything you think is important that I know about your child?

• Is there anything you think is important that I know about your family?

Parents and guardians appreciate updates about their child. A lot of times, they only hear about behavior issues or failure to meet expectations. Make sure to also share the positives of your students.

What positives can you share with families?

• Acts of kindness

• Positive character (integrity, perseverance, determination, etc.)

• Academic improvements

• High quality work

Recognizing positive behaviors or improvement can do a lot for your students too. You build your students up by telling them the things they are doing that are good. It only takes a minute or two to share a positive with your students. Let them know that you are going to let their parents or guardians know about the positive character or work you saw. You can even write a note that your student can bring home to share with their family.

Make sure to keep a log of the communication you have with families. Logs will help you see if there is a student whose positive actions have been going unnoticed, and you can make sure to pay more attention to their behavior. Even if a student has been having a difficult time in class, do your best to notice and comment on their small wins. Even the littlest positive remark can go a long way.

Classroom newsletters are a great way to keep families up to date on the happenings in the classroom. You can send them out weekly, every other week, or even monthly. There are numerous ways to design and customize them to best fit your classroom. 

Examples of information you may want to include to share with families:

• Upcoming events (holidays, no school days, class parties, student birthdays, etc.)

• What students are learning about (make sure to keep it short and simple because families may be too busy to read a whole paragraph)

• Reminders of your contact information (your name, email address, grade level, room number, etc.)

• Other important information to share (spelling words list, bring sneakers on gym days, recess clothing reminders, etc.)

• QR codes to scan any links (Amazon classroom wishlist, class website, etc.)

Classroom newsletters are fairly easy to create, especially if you use a consistent template throughout the school year. Depending on how in-depth your newsletter is, it should only take an hour or two to design.

If you would like to use the newsletter method as a way to welcome students and families to your classroom at the start of the year, take a look at the third newsletter image for "Meet the Teacher" ideas.

With the rise of technology in the classroom, websites are a popular option for teachers to keep families in the loop of happenings in the classroom. A website is a great place to provide links and pictures of classroom materials for parents and guardians to check out what their child is learning. You customize the information to best fit you, your students, and students' families.

Many districts are using Google Classroom or other class website platforms that allow students (and their parents) to access online assignments and view class announcements, just to name two. Websites make communication easy by allowing teachers to upload assignments and announcements quickly and store important information all in one place. Additionally, websites can build a stronger community when they have options for group work, collaboration, and discussions amongst teachers, students, and families. 

Predesigned educational classroom websites such as Google Classroom take half an hour to an hour to initially set up and post your first few materials. If you are designing your website from scratch, you can expect to spend around two or three hours.

If you prefer to not use Google Classroom, check out this list of alternative websites.

What should you include on your website?

• If your website is private for only your students and their families to see, include a class picture to create the sense of a class family

• If your website is private for only your students and their families to see, include a photo gallery for families to see what their children are up to at school

• Teacher information - Meet the Teacher section, contact information

• Parent volunteer information - Allows families to see who else besides district teachers and staff work with their children

• Classroom supply lists, link to Amazon classroom wishlist

• Spelling lists and vocabulary words

• Extra math or reading practice assignments - flash cards, worksheets, fluency pages

• Classroom calendar

• Student drawings (without names)

• Class assignments

• PowerPoint slides from class lessons

• Homework information (See "Provide Families with Homework Help" section below)

• Links to interactive sites

• Links to district or state standards

• Link to student handbook

Inviting parents or guardians into the classroom is much less common nowadays. Teachers are fearful of parents being too attached to their own child, going against the teacher's instruction, being a hinderance more than a help, and the list goes on. However, parents can be a useful resource in the classroom. They can share their cultural background or traditions with students, lead stations, work one-on-one with a child, or help teachers with material prep. Some families would love to help in any way they can, so do your best to lean into those requests while also setting firm boundaries.

How can you manage and organize family volunteers?

• Invite families to volunteer in the classroom

  • • Let families know that you want their help in your classroom. You can share a volunteer form with families when you first introduce yourself before the school year starts, during open house, during family-teacher conferences, or through an email.

    • For a parent volunteer form, see the file at the bottom of this section.

• Provide a space for volunteers' belongings

  • • This allows volunteers to focus on working with kids or completing their task instead of monitoring their belongings to make sure they are safe and are not in the way.

• Introduce volunteers

  • • Help volunteers feel welcome by introducing them to the class. You can make introductions fun by playing games such as two truths and a lie.

• Give volunteers space to develop relationships with students

  • • Invite your volunteers to walk around and ask kids questions to get to know them. Observe those interactions from a distance to see volunteers' comfort levels in the classroom and if they would be a better fit working with a small group or one-on-one.

• Allow volunteers to set their schedule

  • • Have volunteers come into the classroom when they can. Some family members who want to be involved in the classroom may only have a short time available during a work break.

• Set clear expectations immediately

  • • Provide volunteers a list of expectations that they must follow. Make sure to include basic dress code expectations, expectations for language, and expectations for adult-student interactions. You can also require volunteers to sign your expectations sheet to make sure they understand what is expected of them.

• Use volunteers' talents to add to your classroom

  • • You can prepare work for you volunteers to do, but make sure to learn what their interests and skills are and ask them what tasks they would be willing to help with. Volunteers are more comfortable when they feel comfortable and equipped for a task.

Developing and adjusting your strategy for managing family volunteers can take several weeks as you learn more about your volunteers and as volunteers get adjusted to their best fit roles in your classroom. It takes a lot of time and commitment at the beginning of the year, but as the year progresses, you can expect to see benefits in your students and ideally less stress for you as the teacher.

Students' homework load has been significantly decreasing, to the point where many teachers, especially K through grade 2 teachers, do not even send children home with work to complete. Work or projects are completed during class time, allowing children to focus on responsibilities they have at home and to enjoy being a kid. No homework also reduces stress for children and their parents. There are pros and cons to whichever you choose, homework or no homework.

Some teachers prefer that families teach their children life skills as a homework assignment. When parents teach their children even the smallest of tasks, such as making your bed, tying a shoe, packing a school snack, and making a schedule for the day, teachers have noticed that those children have a much easier time at school. You can include a new skill you would like families to focus on in email communications, in a section of your classroom newsletter, or posted on your website. You can expect to spend half an hour or less formulating and typing out these skills to share with families.

If you happen to assign homework, you can reduce stress for everyone by providing families with tools that explain and help them understand what is being asked of their child. You can find or make your own videos to show families example questions that mirror what your students have been learning. Finding your own videos will not take as long as it would to make your own video. If you choose the latter option, you will most likely spend around an hour recording, editing, and sharing your homework tutorial. Make sure that families know that homework should not be a time of tears and fighting if their child is trying their best but still struggling to understand. Have a family member write a note or send a email about the homework experience so that you know what areas you may need to work on more with a child.

Sometimes, parents or guardians may struggle to connect with their child. As teachers, you can send home conversation cards or activities that will encourage conversations between children and their grown-ups. Depending on how in-depth the activities you put together are, you can expect to spend two to three hours.

Some conversation activities you can send home with your students are:

• Conversation cards - Write a different question on each card that a parent can ask their child. This age group will also benefit from cards that can double as a parent to child question or a child to parent question to encourage back and forth conversations. Explain to parents that they or their child can choose a card to answer on the drive to or from school, during other car rides, at a family meal time, or before going to bed.

• Conversation dice - You can purchase dry erase dice (Dry Erase Dice on Amazon.com) and send one home with each student, along with a list of questions. Families can choose one question from the list to write on each side of their dice. Once each side has a question, they can roll the dice and answer the questions. 

  • • As an alternative you can use regular dice. Write out a list of numbered questions that each correspond to a number on the dice you are using. Explain to parents that they or their child can take turns rolling the dice and answering the numbered question that matches the number rolled. You can also provide additional questions in case families want to change up the questions.

• Conversation games - An additional way to make family conversations fun is to create a conversation game. You can make your own board game to send home with your students. Your game does not need to be super detailed! A simple laminated piece of paper with question spaces will do just fine. Take a look at the example game board I have created for your inspiration.

  • • There are also many conversation card games that have already been created. Another option is to purchase some of these games for your students and have the games rotate from family to family every month. There is always the risk that you will not get these games back at the end of the year, so make sure to buy cheaper games that you are okay with not having returned.

Family activity packets can be a great way to encourage conversations at home and have parents get involved in their child's learning. Activity packets can be sent home monthly, weekly, or however you see best fit. They can relate to topics your students are learning or topics you want families to take the lead on teaching. The possibilities are endless.

Putting together activity packets and sorting all of the necessary supplies for each family can be time consuming, but well worth it. If you design the activities and packets yourself, you may be spending three to four hours putting everything together.

Some parents or guardians may let you take the lead in teaching or ask you to teach their child additional skills because they do not have the knowledge or confidence to teach their own child. To help families feel equipped, you can host or point families toward beneficial workshops and trainings. 

Beneficial family workshop topics that you may consider sharing with parents are...

• Communication skills

• Parenting styles: why do you parent the way you do?

• Helping children adjust to parent separation or divorce

• Managing stress and trauma

• Strengthening families

• Disciplining children

• Anger management for children and families

• Teaching life skills

• Teaching empathy and social skills

• Parenting in the digital age

• Online safety and social media

• Parent burnout

• Nutrition and healthy habits

• How to show children you love and care for them

The Cornell Cooperative Extension offers parenting worships and events. To access the program's offerings, click here.

Developing and hosting workshops for families at your school will be time consuming. Working with other school staff members to put these programs together can help lighten the load. You can expect to spend several hours organizing, and depending on the length of the workshop, you may be spending several additional hours leading or presenting at the sessions.

Another way to help families is to point them to resources that may help them in whatever situation they may be facing. Whether families have unmet basic needs, are struggling to find work, need access to health services or specialists, or simply want a place to connect and learn from other parents, there are resources in your school or community to help. Everyone does better when the community works together.

A great resource you can share with families in need is your local 211 website, which offers a list of local resources for a variety of needs. For the Cortland area, you can find the website here. It only takes a few minutes to email this link or the names of additional resources to families.