back to school welcome letter?

[km51571]

What should every back to school welcome letter include?

I'm still writing mine and I just don't know what to include!

[TeacherSandra]

I have PreSchoolers, so my Welcome letter is LONG!

I include an introduction, expectations and encourage parents to stay in contact with me if they have any questions, etc...

[missk83]

Is this a letter you will give to students? Or is is a letter for the parents that you want to use to explain your policies?
I plan on writing to both, a short letter to the kids, and a longer letter to parents explaining policies. I would say just make each as long as they need to be to cover what needs to be covered. I would def include your behavior and homework policies, as well as the school policies on absences etc.
Good Luck!

[holliday]

I always hide a *mistake* in my letter (I'm an English teacher) and challenge the kids to find it. Since my letter is fairly long, I want to make sure they actually read it all the way through. This is one way to encourage them to do so.

[DaTeach]

I do both. In parents' I include a daily schedule, information about Boxtops for Education, my discipline/homework policy (I mentioned Homeworkopoly), AR goals and expectations, contact information (website, school phone, etc), binder information, conference times,...weekly test schedule, when I send work home, snacks, arrival/departure, how I do each subject....anything that I think will be helpful to parents. I try to begin and end positively. This year I used a newsletter format instead of a letter. I got a lot of ideas from other teacher webpages. Here are some places to look:
http://www.melodyshaw.com/TopSites.html
http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/classsiteofthemonth.htm
http://pub48.bravenet.com/freelink/s...num=4095418472

In the students' letter, I typed a half/page letter with cute clipart welcoming them to my class, we're going to have fun and learn a lot, blah, blah, blah, the usual....

[Goldie]

Both letters are kept to a page each. The kids includes a welcome, we'll have fun this year, what to bring the first day
(a pic of something they did this summer and a favorite read aloud book), and first day info. on start time and lunch. The parent letter includes a welcome, working together, start/end times, and lunch. There is a third sheet...student info. sheet for parents to complete with currents numbers, etc. So many times the office info. is out dated. Parents get a four-6 page handout on Parent Night (Thurs. of the first week) with details on rules, curriculum, etc.

[MissFroggy]

I used to write a LONG letter (6 pages) at the beginning of every year, but parents never seemed to remember or actually do everything I ask.

So I made a very brief letter-- lunches, homework, backpacks, attendance, anything relevant to the very first week and a half of school. I am going to be sending more information each week and linking it to my website. It's helpful that it's now on a website, but people don't need to do that. Each week I am going to give them a classroom update and a little chunk of the most relevant information for that time. As we start one thing I'll add the information for the parents.

I think this will be a lot easier for them, and hopefully they won't be so overwhelmed! I am going to keep each letter to one page!