During the years that I taught
grades K to 5 I created a parent newsletter that was outrageously
successful. Parents commented that they loved knowing what their
children would be doing for the week.
Benefits
to Parents
- Aware of upcoming events
- Ability to encourage their child on skills being covered
- Parenting tips
- All weekly information in one place
Benefits to Teacher
- Ongoing communication with parents
- Parents help in practicing skills with their child
- Homework schedule in parents’ hands
My newsletters changed throughout the years depending on the skill level of the children and the grade level I was teaching.
I started with a template that included a title bar at the
top with a picture, my name at the bottom of the title bar and a place to add
the date weekly. The rest of the boxes
had different borders and subtitles that I could easily change when needed.
Some of the regular sections included: Reading, Math, Homework, Spelling, Teacher
Tip or Educational Quote, Special News, Social Studies, Science, and Student of
the Week.
Every Sunday afternoon I would sit down at my computer with
my plan book and fill in the template adding cute pictures where
appropriate. At the time I would copy
the newsletter to be sent home every Monday, but now you could post it online
for parents. My newsletter was a two
sided single sheet.
When my school had Open House I would explain to parents how
the parent newsletter could help their child.
They would know:
- Weekly homework
- Spelling words
- How they could help their child in reading and math
- Their child’s activity schedule
It is a lot of work, but the benefits outweigh the time
spent working on the newsletter.
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