• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

April 21, 2015 Child Development

Engaging Parents From School To Home

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Paula Kay Glass

Paula has a Masters degree in education with an emphasis on child development and child behavior. She has been an educator for 22 years. She founded a private elementary school in 2003 and is now working through the Moore Public School District in Moore, Oklahoma as a special education teacher. Paula is also a contributing writer to The Huffington Post and has a children's book published. Paula has three grown children and resides in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. You can contact her at glass foundations@sbcglobal.net or paulaglass@moorepublicschools.com.
  • Staying Within Law: Special Education Teachers and IDEA - September 1, 2020
  • Teaching With Minecraft EDU - April 3, 2019
  • Self-Care Is Priority One for This Teacher - February 13, 2019
  • Preparing Students For Teacher Absences - February 12, 2019
  • Respect in the Classroom: Earned, Not Expected - February 11, 2019
  • Dissing the Family Crazies: A Christmas Story - January 6, 2019
  • Band-Aiding The Mental Health of Our Children - November 23, 2018
  • We Must Love Them - November 5, 2018
  • Take One For the Team: The Need for Self-Care - August 19, 2018
  • The New Teacher Smell - August 19, 2018

The school to home link is very important to me. Many people view today’s education as starting and stopping in the classroom. Learning is an ongoing process and needs to continue from the classroom to home and back again.

But parents tell me all the time that they don’t know how to ‘teach’ their children, forgetting that they were their child’s first teacher. In order to help with this misnomer I have several school to home activities that I provide for my families.

To continue social studies concepts and topics, Gilligan the Traveling Gator goes home with a student on Friday of each week. Gilligan contains cards directing his weekend family as to what they need to collect. For example as we were going through the regions of the United States Gilligan would want to collect items that were indigenous to the specific regions.

When we were focused on basic geography skills Gilligan would seek out examples of landforms or certain vocabulary. As we moved into the wars Gilligan would request pictures of items from our historical timeline. Activities like this are not only fun for the younger students, but also bring the parents up to speed on what we are talking about in class.

I also send home what I call ‘Baggy Books’. These are books that have been a little well-loved in my classroom library that I have sorted through and categorized according to reading levels. I simply put several of the same-level books into a gallon-size ziplock baggy, put a label on the front with the date and the child’s name and a place for the parent to sign that the baggy has been read aloud. The child returns the baggy and I send another set home. These titles are also included on the child’s monthly book list. One hundred books read equals a trophy. Parents don’t have to worry about having to find their own books to read or choosing too easy or too difficult books for their child.

Another item I send home on a regular basis are ‘Skill Bags’. Again, these are games that I have either made out of lost pieces, purchased with my scholastic points, or are file folder games that were left over after that center trend passed (did anyone else stay up FOR HOURS coloring, cutting and laminating all of those pieces???). I simply put one game in a gallon-size ziplock bag (we go through a lot of these), label the concept it covers, include a label with the date, child’s name and a signature line and send it home. The kids love these! I love the fact that not only do these cover concepts that need to be reviewed, but it also gets the kids away from digital devices. Some of the games also require a partner, which helps get the parent or an older sibling involved in some quality time. When the Skill Bag is returned, I send another one home.

We are on a constant rotation of all of these bags and yes, it does take time to organize and send them all home. Once a routine is established the process goes quickly. And not every child is returning a bag every day. Some students will keep a baggy for a couple of days, others may keep it for a week. Since I have a collection on the front of the baggy I also have an at-a-glance visual for who has had each bag so it’s not duplicated.

 

How do you encourage the school-to-home link?

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Teaching With Minecraft EDU Taking the Anxiety Out of Student Placement in Special Education The Importance Of Early Intervention The Importance of Communication For IEP Students and Parents
« Flipped Learning: Let Your Students Grade You
Ending Sexual Stereotyping »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • A Q&A with Baltimore Teachers Union President, Diamonté Brown
  • 6 Reasons to Use Read-Alouds Daily
  • The Secret Ingredients of Lesson Planning
  • The Exhaustion of Black Educators on Another "Day After"

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.