My first grade team worked together to create a power point of school rules and first grade expectations. We add our own personal information and expectations and end with questions. I like to end with a scavenger hunt families can explore the room and our day and have a slot to meet with the teacher. It has gone very well the past several years.

We only have Open House in August before school starts. This year, we had a paper for the parents to complete about their child.

3 things we should know about your child
2 wishes for this school year
1 word to describe your child.

I get these out every few weeks to read and refocus.

Our open house is at the beginning of the school year. I have a powerpoint presentation that I share with parents. I discuss Champs, apps that we will be using and reading expectations. I also talk about homework and how the parents can communicate with me. I make sure that my parents know how to sign up for Remind. This is used a lot for parent communication from me and the principal. I also answer any questions that the parents may have. I also ask how their child will be getting to school.

Our open house is also in August, and the one thing I started doing that was an absolute game changer is to put out a index card with the student’s name on top of their stack of information and paperwork. I wrote the name that is in our school system. I tell parents when they come in that they will take all of the paperwork and leave the index card AND if their child goes by something different than what is written on the card to write their preferred name underneath. For example, my own daughter’s name is Margaret but she goes by Maggie. This way I can see quickly who attended and who did not. It also saved so much time changing all the names written around the room when you have to make that change. I also started waiting to do all my labeling until after meet the teacher. Live and learn!