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Family Literacy Nights are evening events during which community members are invited to school for a celebration of literacy achievements through read alouds, rich literature and enrichment activities. These nights strengthen attitudes concerning reading, writing and speaking, and improve parent/teacher relationships. Parents are able to view the skills of their youngsters. Parents and children enjoy their time together. These nights contribute to achieving school goals, bring together a diverse school community, create community partnerships, and increase classroom success. Family Literacy Nights show that learning is fun!
Creating Fun-Filled Family Literacy Nights Eighty Kindergarten and Grade One students at- tend each Family Literacy Night at Eastford Road School in Southbridge, Massachusetts. This year we will host Feeling Big, Bingo Night, and So- cial Studies Night. Each of these programs sup- port classroom lesson plans, encourage intercul- turai understanding, align with the Kindergarten and Grade one curricula, and so much more! The four essential components for a successful Family Literacy Night include, but are not limited to, a theme, publicity, activities and community involvement. These nights provide the children with tools that allow them to examine closely the importance of literature in their lives.
The themes which have been used focus on school-wide read alouds, seasonal activities, literature genres, character development, setting, fiction and nonfiction, as well as content areas such as Math, Science, Social Studies and English Language Arts. Skills such as listening, writing, reading, reciting, drawing, constructing, recording, predicting, cutting, collaborating, and so much more are developed, challenged and explored with a partner as well as with a parent or a sibling. These nights are super-involved fun!
An invitational letter is sent home with each youngster in our school which explains in great detail each particular Family Literacy Night. Two follow up letters are sent home with the children who will be attending the program in the form of a confirmation as well as a "night before" reminder. Each classroom teacher is given information which explains the program with instructions concerning how to return parental responses. These Family Literacy Nights are simply ideal for our younger, school age population.
Each Family Literacy Night is posted on our school's monthly calendar with a detailed explanation of the event in our monthly Parent Teacher Association (PTA)...