Open House Student Information Sheet

Our first day of school is on a Wednesday.  On the Sunday before we have an open house so the students can come and see the classroom with their parents for the first time.  Parents can bring the requested school supplies to the room on this day, so the children will not have to lug it all on Wednesday.  This is also a time for me to provide information to the parents on how a typical day will go and procedures they will need to be aware of while their child is in my classroom.  Since I am learning school rules and procedures myself, I am trying to be proactive about planning my open house to ensure the best result possible.

Today I was thinking that it is going to be most important for me to get personal student information from the parents on this day as well.  I have seen teachers handle this in different ways, but I think having a paper they can fill out will be the best way.  I am going to create files on each of the students and I can easily put the sheet into their file once the form is returned to me.  I have included a copy of my "student information sheet" below. 

One thing that I want to note is that an important thing to know about a student is their "special food requests."  Most teachers think to ask about food allergies, but since we have such diversity in schools today, that is not all that needs to be accounted for.  At a previous school that I was an assistant at, we served snack to Kindergarten students daily.  One day we served dinosaur chicken nuggets as snack.  One child went home and told her mom what she ate and the mom was very upset with that decision.  It turns out, the child lived in a vegetarian-only home.  She had never eaten meat in her life.  The mom felt betrayed by the school for providing her child with a food that she wished she not eat.  In that particular case, the teacher had never been told previously about the vegetarian household.  In order to avoid any kind of conflict, I was sure to include a spot about special food requests.