Welcome to the 7th Grade

Dear Parents,
We hope you and your child have enjoyed a relaxing summer break. It is that time
again that we would like to welcome your child back for an exciting school year. We are
all very excited to have your child in our classes for the 2015-2016 school year. We will
be embarking on a journey together that will last a lifetime. We have a very busy school
year planned so it is very important your child comes ready to learn and is prepared
each and every day. Please remind your child that school rules state no cell phone usage
during class. If your child is caught with his/her phone during class we do have the right
to confiscate it. Parents will have come in to retrieve their childs phone at the end of
the school day. Also, your child may not be dropped off any earlier than 7:55 a.m. each
morning because there will not be any adult supervision.
Some supplies your child may bring to help him or her have a successful school
year include:

Highlighters
Colored Pencils
Notebooks/Notebook Paper
Pencils/Pens
3 Ring Binder

Since we will be spending the next 180 school days with your child we would like
to tell you a little about ourselves. Your childs English teacher will be Mrs. Legg. She
has taught at SMS for 5 years. She loves to read, travel, and spend time with her family.
Mrs. Smith will be your childs Science teacher and has taught at SMS for 12 years. She
loves to read, travel, and spend time gazing at the stars. Mr. Jones will be your childs
Math teacher and has been teaching at SMS for 2 years. He loves sports, cars, and
traveling. And lastly, Mrs. Hall will be your childs Social Studies teacher. She has taught
here at SMS for 17 years and was awarded The Teacher of the Year award in 2014. She
loves spending time with her dogs, her grandchildren, and traveling around the world.
Now that you know a little about us, we would like to know a little about your child
and what we can do to help your child have a meaningful, productive school year. Please
answer the following questionnaire and return it with your
child on the first day of school so that he or she can
participate in our Ice Cream Social event at the end of the
first 9 weeks. Your response is very important to us.
TOGETHER we make a TEAM! We are all looking forward to
a productive and successful school year with you and your
child. Should you have any questions, feel free to contact
us anytime through your childs EnGrade account.

Thank you,
7th Grade Teachers of SMS

Tell Me About Your Child

Childs Name: __________________________

4 Words that describe your child

1.

Any
_________________________

Nicknames:

2.
3.

Siblings? _______________________________

4.

______________________________________
What are your childs
strengths?
What are you
childs favorite
hobbies/interests
?

What areas would you like

to see your child improve
in?

/
Is there anything else you would like us to know about your
child?

Amanda Carpenter

9/3/15
Educ. 426-02

This teacher/parent communication is in the form of a beginning of the school welcome

letter. I would mail this letter to the parents a week or two before school started. If the school
was having an open house, I could even hand it out to the parents during open house. I feel
this is a great way to introduce all of the teachers to the parents. As a parent myself, I find
comfort in knowing a little about my childs teachers. I want to keep an open communication
with my students parents and this is a great first step in this process.
Upon writing this letter, I first collaborated with the Principal of the school to ensure I
was giving the proper rules regarding cell phone usage and the correct drop off time each
morning. Last year, cell phone usage during class was a major issue and the Principal has
asked all teachers get a jump on this problem early in the school year. We hoped by putting
this in the welcome letter, parents would see this rule and remind their child every morning to
keep their phones in their book bags. Also the Principal wanted parents to know not to drop
their child off any earlier than 7:55 each morning because there is no adult supervision any
earlier than this.
I also collaborated with all of the other 7th grade teachers. I had each teacher write a
brief bio so that parents would know a little bit about their childs teachers. I also had them to
write a short list of important school supplies the students would need for their classes. I
wanted to give parents the opportunity to complete their childs school shopping as soon as
possible. I also talked with the other teachers when creating the About Your Child questions.
We worked as a team to create questions we could use to help us create lesson plans and
activities for our classes.
Lastly, I am collaborating with each and every parent. I am counting on the parents to
complete the survey about their child so that we know a little bit about the students before the

school year begins. By the parents supplying us with their childs weaknesses and strengths,
we will know from the outset what areas we may need to spend less or more time teaching.
We also plan to take into account the students hobbies and interests while creating class
activities and lessons. Our goal is to try to keep our students as engaged as we can by
incorporating some of their hobbies and interests into the class lessons. This will help make
the lesson more engaging and more relatable.