I need your opinion

[s.kindel]

What are your opinions on giving parents a daily report of their childs day? My students are 3-5 year olds and are with me 6-8hours a day. I just want mom and dad to know how they behaved, played, etc. I am having opposition from another teacher who states preschool is too young for this.

What do you think??

[SarahJ]

Why don't you have a large white board or pin board where you can stick up daily activities and/or pics the children have done and a few key phrases in bold bright colours? Pin up the pic of the best behaved child or those girls who played so nicely together today.

Perhaps the children can all tell you at the end of the day what they did that was their favourite or fun and each child has an A4 page with their pic on a pin board and you can write on each child's page 1 sentence per day and at the end of the term/month they can add it to their portfolio/take it home. Less time consuming and helps them to develop their oral/speaking skills

Or do like they do in daycares here. A daily or weekly report on whats happened in the week just finished, whats coming up next week, what they need to bring etc. Time consuming though.

[SarahJ]

crikey I sound confusing! lol, hope you can make sense of that!!

[Bananas]

If I had that group, I prepare a checklist with an area for comments. These are young children, so all the better to communicate daily with the parents in some manner. Rather than being too young, that is the time to do more of the communicating. As they get older, they are more capable of assuming the responsibility of talking about their needs and events.

6 to 8 hours is a good length of time to have them in your care. The parents wonder what has gone on in their child's life, and the checklist would simplify things. Anything notable or out-of-the-ordinary could be addressed in a comment section.

It really makes a different in the rest of the parents' and child's day in knowing the amount and time the child slept, the potty schedule and success, when and what the child ate, their mood and interactions, etc. It can outline the need of the child's bedtime, and set the tone for your following day with the child.

The other teacher might object as the other parents will request that for their children and the teacher might not want the time commitment.

Other places use spiral bound notebooks which go back and forth between home and school to alert both ends of vital, helpful information. What works best for you?

Do what will work best for you, not for the other teacher.

[busbus]

You might want to consider a weekly or monthly class newsletter. Once you set it up with the sections that you want, it might be an easy thing to do each week or month. If you have an aide or parent volunteer you might take turns updating it based on the schedule that you decide.

This might take a little time in the beginning; but, once you design it with the sections that you want, it should be a snap. Just keep it simple. A scanner might be helpful so that you can scan students' work to include in the newsletter.

[mopar]

It is a lot of work so just know what you are getting yourself into before you start. If you don't mind the extra work, it is a great idea. The parents will really appreciate it, especially at this level.

[Valordave]

I think that weekly reports would do. I worked in a preschool facility for 2 years, and the parents seemed very happy with my weekly reports. Half the time, they would not even take the papers home and would forget them in the cubby. I guess it matters to some more than others. You can always ask if they would prefer daily or weekly and work with each parent on a more intimate level that way. Not only will it appear that you are going above and beyond, but it will make it easier on yourself to know what and who you are going to write about.

[ginger11]

When I workede in daycare we sent home a daily report. It let the parents know how they played for the day, how good they ate snack and lunch, it told them how long they napped for, and over all what the childs mood was like. The parents really seemed to like it.

[durangoatemybaby]

absolutely, let the parents know how their children are doing . You can even on a daily basis just give them a smile for a good day, frown for bad day.explein why on bad days. Weekly send a newletter telling the parents how the kids have been, what they are doing and how they are following the rules.

[Boxcar]

I think it is very important to give the parents reports. I'm not talking academic reports, obviously. A parent needs to know what happen each day, however. Age has nothing to do with it. Even in the Infant Rooms, it is recorded how much the child ate/slept/soiled/played.

Notes don't have to go home everyday, but you should try to keep the parents informed. A teacher cannot always catch every parent at pick-up, and most parents are hurried at that point.

Maybe the other teacher disagree because s/he thinks you want to grade the children?

One last note: be careful with rating systems and children's names. If you do something like the Stoplight System on a public board, you may not be respecting confidentiality.

[Stacy B]

For the 3 - 5 year olds, I always started the school year sending a note home everyday. Then, as the year progressed, I started sending them home three days a week, then down to two days a week. I then had a dry erase board outside my room that I wrote on everyday stating what we did, notes, and information. I tried to get the parents in the habit of reading it everyday.

To save time, when I did send the notes home, I had a template already done. It included the date, the theme for the week, letter of the week, etc. I would fill one out for the day, then make enough copies for all of the children. I then had a comment section that I tried to write something personal about each child, something special he or she might have done. The goal with this age is to give the parents prompts to talk to their children about what they did at school that day.

[dangercat]

What are your opinions on giving parents a daily report of their childs day? My students are 3-5 year olds and are with me 6-8hours a day. I just want mom and dad to know how they behaved, played, etc. I am having opposition from another teacher who states preschool is too young for this.

What do you think??

My daughter's class has done a newsleter as well as each child having a journal where the teacher writes daily entries as well as putting in their artwork and photos in this journal. It's huge and the parents can take it home over the weekend and add the weekend activities to it.

[jsfowler]

I think this is a wonderful idea. When my son was in preschool, I received a note home every day. It was a form that the teacher filled out. It let me know what he had eaten that day for snack (the teacher provided the snack, we didn't have to pack it), when he took a nap, what centers he played in, the letter, color, number of the day, etc. It also informed us of upcoming events. There were only 10 students in the class and she had an assistant so this was reasonable. I don't know what your exact situation is but if this is possible, I would do it.

[MrsR]

When I taught Pre-K (4-5 year olds) I sent a note home daily with the kids. I wrote down what whole group activities we had done throughout the day, what the kids ate for lunch and how much they ate, if they took a nap and for how long, what our theme for the week was, any upcoming events, and during lunch since we all ate together I would ask each child what he/she liked about his/her morning and write that down as well. Most of the parents seemed to appreciate it.

[Miss T]

I think that every day is excessive. I like to call my parents frequently, whether they are doing well or doing poorly. It builds a relationship with the parents; that way you get the support that you need at home when you need it.

[Seabear]

If the snack and activities are the same for all, and you just have to change the template, I think it's a really nice thing to do, and shows the parents you truly care.