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Sunday, August 25, 2013

Parent Letter Homework

WARNING!  This assignment could possibly cause tears, laughter, tug of heart strings and many more feelings that you never thought you would feel for students you have only known for a few days.

Okay!  Now that that tid bit of information is out of the way, lets get to the good stuff... homework for parents!  This wonderful idea was given to me by my newest team member and I absolutely love it and will be doing it every year from now on.  The assignment is very simple and I'm sure some of you might already do this.  As a team, we sent a letter home to the parents on the second day of school asking them, in a million words or less, to send in a letter telling us all about their child.  I already have that section on my student's information cards that says, "If you would like me to know anything about your child please tell me here," so I thought the letters would be similar to those responses.  BOY WAS I WRONG!

Almost all of my parents returned their letters (I gave them a week to complete them) and they were beyond moving.  I read them in one night and some had me laughing out loud, some had me tearing up, a lot had me smiling and a good majority had me saying "Oh my gosh."  There are things in those letters that these kids would have never told me because they were too shy or I might have found out later on in the year by circumstances popping up.  All the letters I got were at least one whole page and they were some of the most heartfelt and beautiful things I've ever read.  I wish these kids knew how much they are loved.  Even though these students are "my kids" since the second I see their name on my list, this made them all the more mine and I just wanted to protect them and make sure they had the best year ever.  I loved them all the more because of what their parents said and hopefully I'll remember these letters when we're having a rough day! LOL

Some of you might be thinking, "this would not happen at my school" but I work at a Title 1 school and got incredible support with this assignment.  I think it really helped to show the parents that I do care and am not just a passing person in their child's life.  If you would like to do this as well, I've attached a copy of the letter we sent home.  Just fill in your information where needed :o)  I hope you have as wonderful an outcome as I did!




10 comments:

  1. OH gosh that is awesome!! definitely on the to do list next school year!!!
    Thanks
    Erin
    The E-Z Class

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  2. Oh what a fabulous idea! I love it! I am definitely going to try that - I think it would be a great way to get to know the kids and their parents. Plus, I am going to put it in their portfolio to take home at the end of the year as a wonderful keepsake.

    Thanks for the idea, Sabra! :)

    ~Jessica
    Joy in the Journey

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing this, I love it! It's also perfect timing as our first day with students is tomorrow...thanks again! =)

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  4. I LOVE this idea and Jessica's idea to send it home at the end of the year. Definitely adding it to my list for next week when school starts!

    Jennifer
    Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

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  5. This is brilliant! I do a parent homework sheet but a letter is a great idea, I might have to make it part of their "homework packet" lol.

    Liz
    Floating Through Fifth

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  6. This is a great idea! Have you ever given them back to the students then? I was thinking it would be wonderful to put it in their 'end of year - memory book'.

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  7. We've had our parents write a letter every year... it's fantastic! Some are very short and some are a mini-novel but it really does help us to get to know the students so much faster! We love it! It's a great assignment :)

    Amanda
    My Shoe String Life
    Follow Me on Bloglovin'

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  8. Sabra, that is amazing! I love the response you got! I am going to send this home over the long weekend and can't wait to read the letters:)

    Thanks for sharing,
    Tammy
    The Resourceful Apple

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  9. That is such a neat idea! I think it also helps the parents to see how much you actually care about their child AND that you value them as the parents.

    Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late
    Follow me on Bloglovin!

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