Bridging School and Home Through Family Nights

"Bridging School and Home Through Family Nights is a handy book that practitioners can readily pick up and select activities, ideas, and themes for including families in the learning process. This practical book offers thirteen self-contained units full of activities, sample invitations, agendas, charts-everything a staff member needs to plan a successful event."Susan N. Imamura, Principal Manoa Elementary School, Honolulu, HI  "The useful content, reader-friendly tone, and easy-to-understand style speak directly to teachers and school staff responsible for parent involvement activities. The family nights can be used as a series of yearlong family activities or school staff can pick and choose the family nights that fit their academic focus." Michele R. Dean, Principal Montalvo Elementary School, Ventura, CA

Improve student achievement through academically focused family nights! Research confirms the link between family involvement and academic success. Yet, as student populations become increasingly diverse, educators face a daunting challenge in establishing close connections with families. Bridging School and Home Through Family Nights: Ready-to-Use Plans for Grades K-8 offers all the information, materials, and resources for planning and implementing events that build effective relationships. Drawing on their own experiences and extensive research, the authors include information on adapting events for special populations, issues around providing food and incentives, cost-saving ideas, and additional resources. Each of the book′s thirteen family night chapters is a self-contained unit that provides event procedures, needed materials, connections with national standards, and numerous reproducibles, including:

• Invitations
• Agendas
• Sign-in sheets
• Evaluation forms
• Activity worksheets
• Handouts
• Overheads

Productive family night experiences offer an enjoyable and meaningful way for schools to reach out to families and get them involved. This book is appropriate for K-8 teachers and principals or anyone in the school or district responsible for family events.