I posted about my Open House in my position as a Literacy Specialist and the amount of DM’s I got was crazy! Even though it’s my third year in this position…due to C*vid it’s my FIRST Open House. Many Lit Specialists aren’t sure what to do for Open House and I get it.
We aren’t in a typical classroom, we don’t have really have art/work to display – it’s quite different!
I treated it like a parent education/information night – here are some things I did to make it successful!
TALK IT UP to your students, make them excited to bring their parents by your room ( they will want to anyway because they love you so much ) I even made sure I had a little prize that went along with my theme to give them that night which they loved of course. I also asked the teachers of the kids I service to add me to their brochure as a place to check off that they visit so I wouldn’t get missed.
Lay out manipulatives you use with your groups, games etc. so they get a good idea of what you do. Many parents have no idea how indepth our work is in literacy.
I encouraged families to take out their phones and take lots of pictures! That way they had the literacy game ideas I shared in their phones and they could keep that momentum going over the summer.
If it works out use a theme to make your Open House stand out as well as appear cohesive. So for instance our school’s theme this year was BUILD them UP ( after c*vid ) with Lego bricks. So, I went with it! I had a full on LEGO theme and I think it worked out perfectly.
Here are some other pictures of my room:
You can grab my syllable division posters here as well as that adorable sight word blanket from shop birdy boutique hanging off my rocking chair.
You can grab the SCIENCE of READING board here.
You can grab the TODAY a READER…board here.
I have a LEGO themed bulletin board you can grab here.
Be sure to have some things written down that happen in Literacy so if the room gets busy and you don’t get the chance to talk to everyone they can look at those anchor charts. I added pictures too so the kids can see it and share with their parents – starting a discussion on some things we do in our small groups.
My Affirmation Station with the super cute tapestry from shop birdy boutique
I hope this helped a little to give you some guidance on how you can make your Open House as a lit specialist informational, meaningful and memorable for your students and families.
Happy Teaching!
