What are your favorite ways to engage with families around the holidays?

I have a parent who contacted me today and wants to help in the classroom, but I’m not sure how to have them help. Any suggestions?

How do you manage difficult parents that seem to blame teachers for their child's behavior and absences?

I am setting up an Amazon wishlist for families to purchase items (optionally!) for our classroom. What are items I should include on that wishlist?

March is reading month! This year our reading month theme is - board games! What theme is your school using for reading month? And do you have a family night - if so, what type of evening do you plan with your families?

🎥 Family Book Trailer Challenge
What it is: Families work together to create a short video trailer for a favorite children’s book.
How to use: Share through Seesaw, Padlet, or Wakelet. Adds media literacy + excitement.
Our families utilized this as an extension after Reading Month in March.
How do you encourage students and their families to continue to celebrate reading - even after Reading Mont has ended?

Once a year our district partners with the local Great Start Family Coalition and we put on a Parent Academy - an evening where families can come to learn more about supporting their child/children at home to develop language and literacy skills. Local businesses provide supplies i.e. puppets, playdough, books etc. and parents rotate through interactive centers. In these centers they learn how to create reading spaces in their homes and so much more!
What are some effective ways to engage families in supporting their child’s literacy development at home?

Does your school or district plan an open house prior to the first day of school, on the night of the first day of school, or sometime afterwards?

Celebrating Reading Month with Families! Check out all of the FREE literacy activities at: https://www.ginapepin.com/blank-10-1-1

🌱 "Story Roots" Project
What it is: Families trace a favorite story or folktale from their cultural or linguistic background.
How to use: Students share the origin, language, or meaning behind the story and retell it (via video, audio, drawing, or writing).
Bonus: Builds home-school connections and honors multilingualism.
This is one of the projects our upper elementary students are using with their families.
What unique projects are families in your area doing?

How do you celebrate student birthdays or other celebrations?

Consider a teacher who wants to introduce a text that includes content that might be sensitive or upsetting for some students. How should the teacher prepare to address potential issues that students might have due to their prior experiences, while also fostering a sense of safety and respect in the classroom? What steps would you recommend for the teacher to take in order to ensure that both students and parents are adequately prepared for the content of the text?

Michigan Department of Education shares several resources for family literacy and home to school connections. It is entitled: Family Engagement for Literacy. Here are a few of the documents included:
Supporting Families in the Essential Practice of Read Alouds; Sharing Why the Read Aloud Is an Essential Practice With Families

Does your state department of education share valuable resources you can use to collaborate and build understanding with families?

https://www.michigan.gov/mde/-/media/Project/Websites/mde/Literacy/Family-Engagement-for-Literacy/Read_Alouds_PreK.pdf?rev=1ffd01da0ed9486aac4d307f4db1ab9a&hash=9DB690D9E8E36F4A24C999450AEB71C8

https://www.michigan.gov/mde/services/academic-standards/literacy/family-engagement-for-literacy

How do you structure parent/teacher conferences?
Do students attend or lead the conference or do you just meet with caregivers?
What information do you share during the conference?