Elementary Meet the Teacher Activities
Engage parents and students in fun activities for meet the teacher day at your elementary school. Create activities and presentations to let your parents know that their children are safe with you. Build a trusting relationship with the parents of your students so that what you teach your students at school carries over to their life at home.
Other People Are Reading
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Powerpoint
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Let your parents know exactly what goes on during the day in your classroom. Create a Powerpoint presentation that goes over classroom rules and guidelines, a typical day's activities, learning goals, curriculum and school policy. Put sample homework and classroom problems in the presentation as well as upcoming projects and quiz or test days so parents will know what to expect. Highlight the strengths of the class as a whole and what you need from the parents, such as encouragement on homework and assignments or volunteers for special class days like holiday parties or field trips.
Creative Activity
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Surprise the parents coming in for meet the teacher night with paper cut-outs of their children. During the day, have your students trace the outline of their bodies. Unroll a giant roll of butcher paper and tape it to the floor. Have children work in pairs and trace each other's outlines. They can bend their arms and legs for different outlines. After they are done tracing, students can enjoy drawing and coloring facial features, clothing and hair for their paper doubles. Help students cut out their doubles when they are finished. Position each paper student on the chair where the actual student sits before meet the teacher night. Parents will come in and see where their children sit and what they have been working on.
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Portfolio
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Make a portfolio of each of your student's work before parents arrive. During the day, have students decorate a blank manila folder any way they like. They may use a glitter pen or marker to write their name, color in their folder, write a small message to their family on the inside of the folder or draw a picture. Before parents come in, fill the portfolio with homework assignments, quizzes and tests, art projects and creative assignments that your students have been working on since the beginning of the year. Highlight some of their best work. For students whose work you would like to see improve, include some of their poorer assignments and talk to parents about ways they can help their child succeed. Place the portfolios on the students' desks for parents to look through during meet the teacher day.
Question and Answer
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Leave time at the end of meet the teacher day for a question-and-answer session. Throughout the course of meet the teacher day, let parents know they will have time to ask questions at the end so you can go through everything you need to during the meeting first. At the end, leave enough time for the parents to raise all questions and concerns. Parents may have questions about homework assignments, expectations for students, class structure and more. Encourage them to ask questions about your teaching experience and history so parents know more about you. Parents will appreciate the opportunity to get to know the person their children spend eight hours a day with at school.
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References
- Photo Credit apple for teacher image by max blain from Fotolia.com
