First grade teachers Sarah Josephson, Katie Meadows, and Sophia Walter recently hosted a First Grade Family Night designed to strengthen that bridge. The event aimed to demystify the academic expectations of a pivotal year and provide parents with the physical tools needed to help their children thrive.

“We presented information about academic expectations, benchmark assessments, curriculum, daily classroom routines, and our instructional philosophies,” Josephson said.

The highlight of the presentation was a student-centered video where the children themselves explained what they were learning.

“Families loved watching a video created by teachers that featured students explaining first grade academic expectations,” Walter noted, adding that the video helped make the rigorous information both engaging and student-centered.

First grade teachers Sarah Josephson and Sophia Walter demonstrate a standard first-grade structured literacy lesson for their students’ families.

The team recognized that understanding the “what” of first grade is only half the battle; families also need to know the “how.” To bridge this gap, the night transitioned into a hands-on workshop.

“The primary goal of our First Grade Family Night was to inform families about first grade academic expectations and equip them with tools and strategies to support learning at home,” Josephson said.

Families were given pre-made resources, including sight word and nonsense word flashcards, math fluency practice sheets, and reading passages.

Students then acted as the teachers, using the materials to “practice skills alongside their families and demonstrate how these materials are used in the classroom,” according to Josephson.

The teachers purposefully designed these activities so that they could be “easily replicated at home,” Meadows said. “To keep the momentum going, families were invited to submit videos of their children practicing at home through TalkingPoints to earn ClassDojo points.”

Family involvement is crucial to an already critical stage for literacy development, the teachers explained, as students work to strengthen phonics skills, develop fluency, expand their sight word knowledge, and begin to comprehend and respond to texts with greater depth.

The feedback from the event suggests that families are ready to take on the challenge. Many attendees expressed appreciation for the clear explanations and the resources they could use immediately.

“We hoped families would leave the event feeling informed, confident, and capable of supporting their child’s learning at home,” Walter said. “Family involvement during this stage is especially important, as consistent practice and reinforcement at home can significantly accelerate reading growth and confidence.”