Free printable · Template 18
Six paragraphs already on the page, in plain words you can edit into your own. Because a blank letter in the second week of August does not get written.
A letter home · first week
Dear families,
I am so glad your child is joining us this year. I have been getting the room ready all week, and there is a labeled desk waiting for every one of them.
Here is what our days look like. We read every morning, work in small groups through the middle of the day, and end with something hands on. I will send a newsletter home each Friday so you always know what we are working on.
A few things that help us start well. Please send a water bottle and a snack each day. Reading logs go home Monday and come back Friday, and twenty minutes a night is the goal. If your child rides a different way home on a given day, send me a note that morning.
The fastest way to reach me is email, and I answer within a school day. If something is worrying you, please tell me early. I would much rather hear about it in September than in November.
I am looking forward to a good year with your family.
Warmly,
Your Teacher
Nothing is saved and nothing is emailed. Type, watch the page change, then print it.
Want a file instead? Choose Save as PDF in the print window.
August is never one page. Pick the next one and it comes out matching this one.
Print as many of these as you like, and the next one will match this one. But this letter is signed with your name and written in my voice. Small groups in the middle of the day, a newsletter on Fridays, twenty minutes a night. If your room does not work like that, the first thing a family reads from you is not true.
The pass is $39, once, and yours to keep.
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The second week of August is the worst week of a teacher's year. The room is half unpacked, the class list changed twice, and there are meetings about meetings.
A template that hands you an empty page and a nice border is asking for the one thing you do not have, which is an hour to think about tone. So this letter arrives written. Six paragraphs, plain words, nothing gushing.
Change what is wrong and keep what is right. Most teachers rewrite two sentences and send it, and a letter that goes home beats a better one that never gets finished.
The letter that gets sent is worth more than the letter you meant to write.
A desk is waiting. The first thing a nervous family wants to know is that their child is expected.
Here is what our days look like. Routine, not philosophy. Nobody reads a mission statement in August.
Tell me early. The most useful sentence in the letter. It is an invitation, and it is the reason some families email you in September instead of complaining in November.
The draft is deliberately general so it fits any classroom. That also makes it forgettable if you send it as is.
One sentence about something only your room has fixes that. The reading corner you built. The class pet. The thing you do on Fridays. It takes a minute and it is the sentence a family remembers when they meet you.