Parent Night

The first round of conferences the past few years have driven me INSANE! I mean, I absolutely love meeting with my students families and learning more about them. It really is an eye opening experience. The reason it makes me crazy is that I answer the exact same question at conference after conference after conference.. 

after conference..

after conference...

What can I do to help my child at home?

At some point I feel as if I should record myself and just play the prerecorded response to keep my sanity. 

Do the homework, read 20 minutes every day, memorize math facts.. 

Don't get me wrong - I am so happy that parents want to be involved in their child's education and help their child achieve success. The frustrating part is saying the same thing over and over and over and over again. 

Well, I am a problem solver and tried to figure something out. I want the parents to have their questions answered, but I don't want to repeat myself 15 times in one night. I realized, we don't do an open house where I can talk about these kinds of things. Well, why NOT do one? If I have to stay late one night and answer parents questions then it'll hopefully save me from answering the same question over and over and over again in one night.  Soo.. I got one of my team mates on board and out came 2nd Grade Parent Night!

I wish I had time to make a cute cover. It's on the to do list for next year! The pictures in this post are of the handouts we gave the parents. 

We opened the evening up to all of the parents at the grade level and had a great turn out - my room was completely PACKED! We had to grab chairs from other classrooms. It was a GREAT turnout!

P.S. - We had food donated from Macayos. People LOVE free food, and businesses love to donate to education. If you need a good turn out - make sure you offer free food! A big thank you to Macayos for feeding me the parents at Parent Night!

Suggestions for parents to help their child. Click the image if you want to download this freebie from www.teacherstakeout.blogspot.com

I still get nervous speaking in front of  group of adults, especially parents. I guess I have a hard time telling them things to do with their child at home and offer parenting tips since I don't have kids of my own. Once I got started talking about the content though I was good to go!

We discussed the reading, math, and field trips for the year. We went over the goals, expectations, common errors students make at this age, and ideas for activities to do at home. It wasn't anything too fancy, but a lot of parents have said that it was a great event. They said they thought all grade levels should have one, and they were disappointed that the grade levels where the siblings were didn't have something like this.

I think this is a great visual to show the importance of reading 20 minutes at home. It is in English and Spanish on the opposite side, and I cannot remember where I got it. If this is yours please please PLEASE let me know so I can add your link!

Dolch Word List

This is a game that comes with my math curriculum. It's really good practice with money, and it can be made more challenging or easier depending on the age and ability level of the child.

Similar to Collect 25 cents, but the subtraction version. 

This sheet included the field trips for the year with the cost per student and chaperone. We did not collect money from anyone at this time, but since I teach at a Title 1 school it is easiest to give the families plenty of advance notice when we are asking for money.

I'd LOVE to hear from other teachers about what you do for your Open House/Curriculum Night/whateveryouwanttocallit. What activities do you do? What do you give the parents? I'd love to hear all of the wonderful ideas out there to add to my list for next year.

P.S. - I had to take pictures of the handouts from home. I completely forgot to take pictures of how we set everything up. I promise I will remember the pictures next year, or even later in the year if I get to host a Reading Night!