Newsletter topics???

This year my Principal is mandating we all send home weekly or bi-weekly newsletters to parents.

I have gotten away without them the last 2 years but now I have no idea :

1) how to make them?

2) what to put in them? (I'm 3rd gr. butu any suggestions would be helpful!)

Re: Newsletter topics???

I just made one. I bought with bonus points from scholastic printshop and it has templates. but i think ms word also has them, too. Once a week, though???Yikes. I was planning to do it once a month.

As for topics, well, here are some ideas...

what we've done
what we're going to do
field trips
school activities
birthday wishes
congratulations to...
projects due
money needed
things to do
websites to visit
books of interest

Re: Newsletter topics???

yeah ...one of our school "goals" this year is to increase parent involvement and that starts with the teachers becoming more involved.

Thanks for your ideas...I had to make a newsletter once for college but I couldnt remember the program I used

Re: Newsletter topics???

agree with the above post re: content. also, i give parents info. on the state tests when it's time, an assessment i'm doing (I teach special ed.). I also give school news, important dates, etc. etc. i also talk a lot about the curriculum and the class' growth.

i just make mine on micorsoft word... you don't need a special program. just set the page into columns and a headline if you want to make it look like a newspaper.

Re: Newsletter topics???

I also agree with the pp about topics. I always just do mine in Word with a little clip art and a border.

I feel like parents will sometimes ignore things if they are too long or etc, so I keep it short. Some weeks, I even bullet my happenings.

I love the news and notes (what I call mine). I can reference it when talking with parents. It gets sent home every Monday, so they kids know it is there and the parents know it is coming home.

Re: Newsletter topics???

i would list what you are doing the coming week in each subject and maybe make a list of the things parents need to continue working with their child at home

you can also list upcoming events and etc.

i would be stressed out though having to do them every week, i do mine monthly and thats stressful haha