Families are the children's FIRST teachers. It is very important to engage with families (this means build relationships with them, talk to them, ask their opinions) so you can make sure you really get to know the children well. Only then can you properly plan for their learning.
Here are some ways you could gather information about children from their families and help to involve families in their children's learning.
All About Me Sheet or Family Book
You could give families a sheet to fill out all about their children, what they like to do at home, their favourite toys, whether they have brothers and sisters. This is an example of a sheet but you don't have to use one of these, you could just give the families a blank page to draw and decorate as they wish, just like Angela did with the Dolphin Family Book last year.
Letter to my child
You could get the parents to write a letter to their child about who they are at the beginning of the year (similar to the All About Me Sheet but a bit more personal) and also about what their hopes and dreams for their child are. They can write what they would like the child to learn at kinder.
Regular catch ups/chances to join in
You can have meetings with parents but the best catch ups are the informal (relaxed) ones like:
having chat at pick up time;
going to the Rocket Park for a play or get to know you day like we did with the Dolphins at the beginning of the year;
speaking at the Christmas Party;
inviting the dads, mums or grandparents to join in music on Mother's Day or Father's Day or Grandparents' Day;
inviting a parent to come to do an activity or read a story to the children.
Routines
A great way of including families is to create a routine that involves them and makes them feel welcome in your classroom.
For example:
You could have a book where you ask parents questions and they write things in the book like: what is your child's favourite song at the moment?
TASK:
Kate being on door duty is a great routine already in place at HEY in the Dolphin Room. You could make this routine better by telling a parent how their child's day went if you played with that child. You could tell a parent something amazing their child did. You could also use door duty to remind parents of an event coming up soon.
Can you think of some other ways you could talk to and include parents more? Talk to your mum or coach about this and write down your answers.
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