One of the things my mentor taught me my first year teaching is how to use weekly take home folders for students. As both a teacher and a parent, I can say that I love this routine! Keep reading to see what I mean.
How to Use the Take Home Folders
To start out, I’m going to explain I use my weekly folders. Many of the teachers at my school use a similar system to simplify their papers home.
Send take home folders every Friday.
In my class, I send my folders home on Friday. This way, students have a few days to remember their folders need signed. Plus the kids know their take home folder has a clear “due date” on Monday. This way, the routine becomes habit for both students and parents as the school year goes on and its a great way to sum up the week at home.
Folders include graded and ungraded assignments, tests, and important notes.
Yes, I send home ALL of the work from the week on Friday, instead of throughout the week!
As a teacher, I like that the papers are making it home to families instead of getting lost in desks, mailboxes, or backpacks.
As a parent, I love that I only have a stack of papers to look over once a week! For example, my daughter used to bring home seat work each day in kindergarten. Because I emptied her folder each evening while cooking dinner, I rarely made time to look through it and it stacked up on my counters.
Also, I include my newsletter in my weekly folder. Then I know parents get it in a timely manner and it’s not lost in a backpack.
However, I do send home papers from the office on a daily basis in their homework folders.
Parents must sign folders and/or papers.
You could have a sheet in the folder for parents to sign, to prove that they saw their child’s tests and papers. At our school, parents sign the tests themselves and send them back. Parents keep seat work at home.
File seat work into folders.
My mentor teacher has a cubby system behind her desk that she loves for keeping papers handy for her weekly folders. I prefer to file tests in hanging file folders. For ungraded seat work, I file it in a portable file box throughout the week. This is also great job for student or parent helpers!
Then on Friday, I just grab each hanging file and put them in the students’ folders.
How to Make Weekly Take Home Folders
Choose distinct folders.
Use a distinct color of folder (like black) to help it stand out and make it less likely for the students to forget or lose their folder. Plastic folders usually hold up longer, and are also more likely to stand out to the student.
Label your folders.
I just use a sharpie to write names on the folders, but the inside I clearly label the pockets so parents know what papers to return and which papers to keep at home.
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