My first 11 years of teaching were spent in middle school classrooms. It wasn’t until I made the transition to teaching in an elementary school in year 12 that I was introduced to weekly newsletters by my teammates. What a great, simple way to keep parents updated with class activities and important information! I will be the first to say that I should have been using these in my middle school classroom as well! If you are looking for a way to increase parent communication this year and want to better understand the importance of sending weekly newsletters, continue reading and don’t forget to download the FREE newsletter templates!
Why Send Weekly Newsletters?
- CONSISTENCY! Regular communication with families is important. I let parents know at the beginning of the year that we send a newsletter on Fridays between noon and 1pm through our Remind App. Having a consistent method of communication helps parents to know when they should expect to hear from us with important information.
- EXTENSION OF CLASS CONTENT! Let parents know about upcoming content and/or ways to extend the content with real-world experiences. Working on decimals? Ask parents to include their child in a purchase they make that week. How much change should you receive?
- STAY ORGANIZED! Newsletters help families stay updated, but they also help teachers stay organized and keep track of upcoming events, content, and class activities. Many families have an abundance of after school activities. Allowing them to know what to expect the following week will help everyone be better prepared!
- REMINDERS! Everyone is busy. It is easy to forget the dates of class parties, field trips, picture day, etc. We have a place in our newsletters with upcoming events to help families remember these dates.
- RAPPORT & PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT! Parents are more likely to be involved and supportive if they know what is going on at school. Regular communication will help develop this positive rapport with parents!
Tips to Getting Started!
Ok… so you are ready to use weekly newsletters in your class. Here are my top three tips for getting started!
- MAKE IT DIGITAL! Ever send home an important paper that a parent never receives? Yeah… me, too! In addition to being more eco-friendly, sending a digital newsletter allows it to go straight to the parent so that they can view it at a convenient time. Parents can also return to it as needed and won’t have to sift through a pile of papers to find it. I have used both Remind and Bloomz apps to do this.
- KEEP IT SHORT! Parents are busy. Ensure they have time to read your newsletter by highlighting only the most important information.
- VISUALLY APPEALING! Include simple clip art, color, and boxes so that it is organized and easy to read.
FREE Templates!
I want to make implementation of weekly newsletters as easy as possible for all educators, so I created a FREE download with 5 templates to get you started! Grab your FREE TEMPLATES HERE and get started today! While you are on my page, I would love for you to click the star to follow my store so that you can receive alerts when I add new items!
Templates for the Year
Additionally, I have created a set of 25 newsletter templates for educators to use throughout the year. If you like the FREE templates above, check out this product here and you won’t have to worry about starting a template from scratch for the whole year!
