Back to School Night - Open House!!

     Open house is either one of your FAVORITE days of one of your least favorite days!  We usually are on one side or the other.  But I'm excited to share with you some fun and unique ideas that will help you create a fun and EASY Open House that you and your students' families will enjoy!  Check out these great Back to School Night ideas!  :)

Paperless Scavenger Hunt

I <3 incorporating technology as much as possible into my Open House.  1 - to make it more fun!  and 2 - to save on paper!  I always do a scavenger hunt for my families (as many teachers do!) so I decided to put the scavenger hunt ON the iPads this time! :)  They simply take their iPad and scan the QR code to access the scavenger hunt page and they can begin!

On the scavenger hunt, students would get the chance to show their families around the room.  I would have items on the hunt such as:

*Find the reading area and pick out your favorite book bin/section

*Find the classroom rules and explain which one is the most important

*Find your favorite part of the room and share why it's your favorite

*Find the ______ bulletin board and explain to your family why it's important

These hunts are great to get the families in and moving around (and leaving you alone for a while!) ;)

Welcome Video & Classroom Forms

Keeping with the use of technology for Open House, I love creating a video of myself welcoming my families, telling a bit about myself and what to expect tonight.  I again link that to a QR code and let families watch the video together on their iPad.  I also give them a QR code to paperless Google Doc Classroom Forms!  This is the BEST way to collect that information you want/need from families but don't have to waste so much paper doing it!           **Note - if you do this, make sure you're giving your families the QR code that leads back to the scavenger hunt so they can find what they are supposed to do next!  (I learned this the hard way once!)

Use a Poll to Collect Information

You have a lot of questions to ask your parents that night, so why not ask them through a Poll?  There are a lot of great websites out there that allow you to create a free poll and then parents can simply give their input using their smartphones.  The question I always ask is:  How often would you like to be contacted by your child's teacher?  This gives me a general consensus and also allows me to see each individual family's answer.  

Create a Parent Station

This table has a lot going on.  Brochure information about reading, parent/teacher conference sign ups, a "How to Help Your Child at Home" reading paper and then the big one - the Practicing at Home board.  I plan to put it back out at conferences to parents can replenish if needed.  Basically it has 7 different games on it.  There's a small note to the parents on it that explains that these games will help enforce skills they will be learning here at school.  There are 4 math games, 2 reading and 1 writing.  Below are the links to all of the products/games I used to put this together.  Let me know if you have any questions about it!  :)

The 2 reading games are:  

Roll & Read Fry Phrases

Dice Games - Reading & Language Arts (Freebie!) by Common Core and So Much More!

The writing game is:

Roll & Write (Freebie) by Where the Wild Things Learn

The math games came from:

Fun with Math - 14 No Prep Math Games - from Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie

Rolling Through the Races (Freebie) - from ME :)  

I got a lot of great feedback about it from the parents.  I even had a small container of dice and paperclips for them to take so they had them at home to play the games.  I love knowing I can help them in any way I can :)  

Create a Giving Tree

I apologize for the horrible photo, but I made this my first year teaching (2008).  My husband set up the overhead projector and traced it, colored it, and all!  I can't get rid of it for sentimental reasons so I use it every year!  Basically, its a display of items that can/need donated to the classroom.  Parents take off an apple (or two) and then return the apple with the donated item at a later time.  I'm sure you have something like this for your Open House already but my tree is my favorite!     

So many fun ideas, I hope you found something that will help you create the BEST Open House/Back to School Night you can!  Remember to have fun and not to stress - it's about building relationships, not about having an amazing classroom or putting out the cutest displays.    

Loving these ideas and want to save them for later? 

Make sure to pin me!