Now that Fountas & Pinnell Classroom™ is up and running in your classroom, you might be looking for ways to collaborate with parents and caregivers to keep your students engaged when they go home. As you continue to plan your lessons, think about ways to actively engage parents and caregivers in the literacy lives of their children. Your students will benefit greatly from communication between home and school.
Here are some ways that parents and caregivers can support their children at home.
- Listen to the books their children bring home to read
- Read books aloud to their children
- Talk about books together
- Go to the library
- Encourage their children to write for authentic purposes (such as a grocery list, a letter, or directions)
- Sing songs together
- Recite nursery rhymes or poetry together
- Talk with their children about a variety of topics
- Encourage their children to play outside every day
- Encourage play in which their children use imagination.
You may also want to invite parents and caregivers into the classroom throughout the year for special literacy occasions, such as:
- Listening to their children participate in Reader's Theater
- A reading celebration in which parents and caregivers listen to their children read or they read to their children
- Watching a puppet show or simple play the children have written and perform
- Creating a literacy museum where children dress up as a character from a book and share the book with their parent or caregiver.
As you actively and creatively engage parents and caregivers in the literacy lives of their children, each child and family knows that their traditions and cultures are honored and the collaborative partnership between home and school is valued.
Some parents might not be comfortable approaching you or the school, or perhaps they are unsure about how to support their children in their learning. Finding effective and creative ways to engage all parents and caregivers is likely to be a yearlong endeavor, but the benefits are worth it.
~The Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ Team
