Parents Night

It is always a good idea to let your students’

parents/guardians know what you are working

on with your students in class. Keeping them

informed of the learning objectives of your

classwork allows them to become better

acquainted with your goals for your students

and often results in much more support for

what you are trying to do in class.

A Parent’s Night presentation, added into a planned Open House or Back-to-School Night, is a great way to let your parents/guardians see what you and your students have been working on throughout their natural disaster lessons.

With a little planning you can make this night an important showcase of student work. (An extra benefit is that parents and guardians may find out valuable information about the health risks of natural disasters and how to stay safe in emergency conditions.)

If there isn’t an Open House or Back-to-School night scheduled, you can still display student work at school and invite parents/guardians to see their child’s work.

Checklist/Tips

►Get your administration on board early. Have a clear picture of what you want to do, what activities your classes will be investigating, the goals and objectives of the projects, and standards that will be met.

Your school’s administration will more likely agree with the idea if they see the project plan from start to finish. They may even be willing to help with details such as scheduling, supplies, announcements in the school newsletter, and set-up.

Keep them informed of the status along the way to ensure continued interest in the project. Hopefully, they will see it as great publicity for the school’s science program.

►Plan ahead. If you know when the Open House will be held, make sure you schedule your class lessons with enough time to complete several activities that will showcase student work.

If you are going to display several classes’ work, consider choosing a sampling of each activity so that parents know exactly what each class studied.

►Let your students know you will be displaying their work. They may be more engaged in the projects and more excited about learning about natural disasters if they know their work will be showcased on a Parents Night.

►Gather work throughout the projects. Keeping student work throughout the lessons will let you have a large sampling from which to choose when you create the display. Keep this in mind when you assess the work; you don’t want student grades showing on the work. Try as much as possible to have at least some of each student’s work represented. Every parent will want to see what their child has done.

►Prepare a brief introduction/welcome to the display. Your administration may want you to introduce the display in any opening remarks that may be scheduled, but make sure you have a brief intro/description in the display area. Also, clearly label each class’s work as to class and period so that parents and guardians can easily find their student’s work.

►Let your students shine! If possible, have your students give mini-presentations in front of their work during Parent Night/Open House. Students could present the findings of activities, give brief overviews of posters they created while working on a PBL or extension, or explain how to build an emergency kit for a natural disaster.

NOTE: You can size the Parent Night presentation to fit your needs or schedule. You can set up more displays and have student presentations and demonstrations or you can simply hang student work in the hall or classroom for display. Any type of display will showcase your goals and objectives for the lessons and let your students’ parents/guardians see that you are bringing relevant, real-world issues to your science classroom.

You can find a variety of extensions and activities in the corresponding tab in the top menu bar.