1. Reading Morning
Every Monday morning my parents come into class from 8.50 – 9.10am to read and play reading games with their children. It gives me the opportunity to mill about and model how to segment and blend to read, amongst other reading skills. It has been very successful and always sets the day off to a great start!
We put out a selection of fiction and non-fiction books, guided reading texts and reading games such as Bingo and Treasure & Trash. We also put a reading game on the interactive whiteboard and class computer.
2. Maths Morning
We have recently started to alternate our reading mornings with maths mornings. We have seen amazing results with progression in reading and phonics, but numeracy doesn’t seem to have as high a profile.
We set out a selection of board games, number ordering activities, counting and number recognition activities, games on the computer and Numicon activities.
3. This is another amazing way to engage with parents. Tapestry has a function which allows parents to respond to observations as well as upload their own observations from home. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
4. Mystery Reader
My TA came back from a course with this fab idea, which we implemented immediately. Every week or couple of weeks a parent will sign up to be our mystery reader. They can choose to either read a story or talk about their jobs or their culture. So far we have had several stories in English, one in Urdu, a mum in to talk about Channukah, an Auntie in to play the violin and a dad in to talk about his work as a builder, complete with his tool box!
The exciting thing is that we keep it top secret, so that their child has no idea they are coming in. When I get word from the office that our mystery reader has arrived the children sit down and cover their eyes. They then count down from 10 and when they open their eyes the mystery reader is sitting in my chair.
The look on their child’s face is priceless and something I always try to catch on camera. It has been such a success; the children love it and the parents are continually signing up.
5. Parent Volunteers
If they are willing and you are comfortable having parents in your class, get them in and get them involved! They are such an amazing resource and quickly understand and learn about how their children learn through play.
Do you have any other fab ideas for getting parents involved in your EYFS setting? If so, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you 🙂
Rock My Classroom 
We went on a course, and we are going to do home learning bags. Zip lock bags with lots of different resources in each eg. Cornflour, a cloak, a puzzle, Pruitt stick and some shiny paper. Each activity has a sheet with learning information, and instructions if needed, to make cornflour for instance. Each time it has a feedback form for parents to comment. Busy resourcing at the moment.
Also have a parent facebook group, invitation only, very active.
Also planning to do tapestry! We’re busy!
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That sounds fab, but a LOT of work! Watch you don’t burn yourself out x
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We have snuggle and share sessions where the children (who are 3) share their learning journeys with their parents or grandparents in their favourite place in our setting,inside or out. We ask the parents to write a note to the children to celebrate their learning. These run over a week each term and parents pop in just before pick up or stay after drop off. They are so popular as they fit into the parents week. The children are so proud.
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I love that it’s called ‘snuggle and share’ – so cute! 🙂
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Hi there! Thank you for posting this! Some fabulous ideas! We have Learning Celebration Assemblies, where the children showcase their learning in front of all their parents. We performed our talk for write on The Three Little Pigs, sang phonics songs and number songs. We had a PPT showcasing examples of children in their play and their work. Afterwards, the children and parents do wake and shake together and then find a space and read through their learning journies together. We love doing it as a unit and the children get so excited, as do the parents!
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Lovely ideas, thank you for sharing 🙂
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