Fostering the Home-School Connection Through Friday Letters (2024)

Last updated by Linda Kamp on December 11, 2022 • 58 Comments

Teachers everywhere embrace the importance of a solid connection between home and school and strive to build positive and respectful parent partnerships. All teachers understand the value of volunteers and the need for parent involvement and support, but not all parents can spend time in our classrooms. Writing weekly Friday letters to parents keeps them connected even when they can’t visit our classrooms.

Friday Letters Connect Parents to Your Classroom

Every parent wants to know what their child is learningand how they are doing in school. One fun and informativeway to keep your parents connected to your classroomis through Friday letters. Every Friday my studentswrite a letter home telling their parents and families allabout their week at school.

Parents respond by writing a letter back to their child on the reverse-side of the page.

Students return the letters to school where we file and save them. At the end of the year, I bind all of their letters into keepsake books for students to take home.

A Simple, Yet Powerful Tool

Friday Letters. Writing a letter every Friday to Mom and Dad. It’s such a simple little thing, but a powerful one. Besides cultivating a consistent connection between my students’ homes and my classroom, I learn a lot from these letters. They give me weekly insight into my students’ thoughts and feelings, excitements and anxieties, about school, their friends, what happens at home, and even how they feel about the food in the cafeteria.

Friday letters give me a window into things that mystudents may not tell me, but tell their parents.They afford me opportunities to see where I canquietly intervene or partner with parents to helpa child socially, support them more emotionally,or even to celebrate accomplishments outsideof school that I may not otherwise know about.

Skills At A Glance

Academically speaking, I can see at a glance who
is mastering and applying a variety of skills:

writing conventions
grammar
capitalization
correct use of punctuation
complete sentences
writing the date
use of transition words
compound sentences
vocabulary knowledge

Review The Format Of A Friendly Letter

At the beginning of the year, we review the format of,and how to write, a friendly letter. This is something ourfirst graders learn, but I always spend time reteachingthe purpose, the parts and the punctuation of a friendlyletter. My goal is to get them started towards writingthese letters independently.

What Can I Write About?

At the beginning of the year when I introduce our writingjournal routines, one of the first mini-lessons we do is“What Can I Write About?” We make a list on the first pageof the journals of all the things they can write about.These come in handy on Fridays, too.

For the first few weeks, we brainstorm whole group and list on the board all of the things we learned and did during the week they could write about in their letters. Sometimes we make a big bubble map and sometimes we make a list. Sometimes we even make a tree map with the days of the week as the categories.

These are quick teachable moments to talk about the purpose of different graphic organizers and how they can help us plan our writing. Later, they will do this on their own in their writing journals. The one thing we always do the same every.single.week is to end our letters with a question. This gives the recipient a start to writing back.

Make Friday Letters Manage Themselves

This routine will manage itself after a few weeksof practicing the procedure. I train my class to filetheir letters all going the same way, behind theirprevious letter. They can do this when they firstarrive or at the end of the day. I found this filing cartat a garage sale years ago and it’s been perfect for storingand saving students’ writing portfolios. A crate wouldwork well also.

Each hanging file has a student number and a file folder (their writing portfolio) inside. The Friday letters go behind the file folder. At the end of the year I even have my students go through their own letters to make sure they’re set and organized before binding. If you don’t have access to a comb binder a heavy dutystapler works great too.

Flip Your Friday Letters

I’ve gotten many questions over the years about what to do when parents don’t write back to their child. I resolve that issue in two ways.

I ask my student if they would like to write their letters and keep them all in their file, without sending them home, so they still have a keepsake book at the end of the year.
I flip the Friday Letters and have students write to me. I write them back and they file the letters for their keepsake book. they have a book of letters to their teacher instead of to parents.

Flipping your Friday letters during school closures or school breaks is a wonderful way to stay connected to your students. Instead of writing to parents, students write weekly letters to their teacher. The free starter kit below includes a book cover that says, “Weekly letters to my teacher” if you need it.

But the Year Has Already Started

It’s easy to get started writing Friday letterswith your class. You don’t have to start atthe beginning of the year, you can startanytime. Just send home this parent letterexplaining how it works and start writing!

Get a Free Friday Letters Starter Kit

Inside the starter kit:

Ready to use parent letters
Editable parent letters
6 Book covers-For letters written to parents/caregivers and letters written to the teacher.
3 Styles of book covers for younger and older students
6 Stationary pages in 2 line styles
Graphic organizers

Where To Get Stationary

I get lots of questions about where I get the stationary we use. I actually created aa set of thematic letter writing papers that we use all year. You can grab it in my shop on Teachers Pay Teachers for $5.00 and be set for the year! CLICK HERE for letter writing paper in my shop.

I hope this post has been helpful as you consider ways you can continue to foster your home & school connections and parent partnerships! Help another teacher by sharing this post on your social media channels and pin it so you have it when you plan.

For more classroom ideas and management tips visit these posts:

Manage Meet the Teacher Like a Pro!

Manage Curriculum Night

Manage Your Computer Lab

Manage Student Data Folders

Happy teaching!

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Reader Interactions

58 Comments

Jannine
November 19 at 10:24 pm
I really love the idea of Friday letters
Reply
Emily
November 12 at 6:24 am
Just wondering your font that you used. Thanks
I tried searching PIG KNIT which is what I saw at the end of the resource but couldnt find anything
Reply
Benita
September 15 at 6:24 pm
How much time would you suggest in a 2nd grade class to write the letter?
Reply
Mary Matney
August 27 at 12:39 pm
Hi LInda: I would love to download & use the Friday Letter, but it won’t work. I’ve tried Goggle Docking it and everything I know, but I can’t print it. I see that it is html, can you send it in a PDF….just hoping…thanx! Mary
Reply
Jill
July 30 at 4:34 pm
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I signed up for your newsletter so I could get the free Friday parent letter starter kit, but I was emailed a student data folder kit instead.
Reply
Alison
September 18 at 4:25 am
Where did you get all of the fun templates in the pictures? Thank you for including some with the pack! I’m so excited to start this!
Reply
- Linda
  September 29 at 1:09 pm
  Hi Alison,
  The stationary I use is found in the books shown above in the post. They stationary/writing templates books are from amazon.
  Reply
  - kristina
    July 18 at 7:10 pm
    Hi Linda
    The link for the Friday Family Journal that was sent to me does not work. It doesn’t allow me to click it and when I do try, nothing happens. Is this still available?
    Reply
Jadeyn
August 10 at 10:26 am
Hi there! I love this idea and as a first year teacher, I am excited to implement this in my classroom. Just one question- how do I edit the cover page to include my information instead of it being blank?
Thanks!
Reply
- Linda
  August 15 at 12:38 pm
  Hi Jadeyn,
  The cover is not editable but you can always type out your info in a font size that will fit the space. Trim around it and glue it to your master before you copy your covers.
  I hope that helps and you have a fantastic year!
  Reply
Stacy
July 31 at 8:57 am
I did this last year for the first time and I loved it! My parents looked forward to reading them and responding over the week end. We started each Monday reading their letters from their parents. Then I collected and made them into a book at the end of the year. I color coded each month, so it was easy to keep the green Dec. all together. Kids loved seeing the growth from their first letter to the last. One of my parents favorite part of the year.
Reply
Chelsea
July 26 at 9:52 am
OMG! I love this idea for my 2nd grade class! Where did you purchase that rolling short file cabinet? I am obsessed with it.
Reply
- Linda
  July 31 at 9:25 pm
  Hi Chelsea! I found the cart at a garage sale. It was too perfect for the classroom to pass up!
  Reply
Kk
June 27 at 10:05 am
Love the idea! Any suggestions on how to adapt for PreK?
Reply
- Linda
  July 2 at 11:23 am
  Hi there!
  To adapt Friday letters for PreK I would have your students draw a pictures showing something they enjoyed from the week. If they are able they may write words or a sentence to go with it as well as tell their parent all about what the picture depicts. Parents could write a response on the back and you could bind them all into a book.
  I hope this helps and you have a wonderful year!
  Linda
  Reply
Jamie
April 29 at 11:07 pm
Hi! I’m wondering where you got that adorable file cart you used for your writing portfolios? I’m looking for something exactly like this for mine! Thanks in advance!
Reply
- Linda
  May 2 at 8:54 am
  Hi Jamie! It looks like from you email address that you are in Mesa? I found that cart at Treasures 4 Teachers in Tempe. It’s an amazing warehouse for teachers. Membership is $35 per year and many many teachers and business donate to them. It’s an incredible place to find a TON of teaching resources, books, office supplies, filing cabinets and you name it for REALLY cheap. They have a huge free section too!
  Reply
  - Jamie
    May 3 at 5:28 pm
    Thanks!
    I’m new to your blog, I traveled her via Pinterest. Are you in Mesa as well? How is your year going?
    Jamie
    Reply
E'milie
April 21 at 8:03 pm
Have you ever had students whose parents do not write back to them each week? If so, what have you done about it?
Reply
- Linda
  April 22 at 9:33 am
  Hi E’milie,
  Yes, I usually have a few each year. What I do in that case is have the student write the letter and then rather than taking it home and risk it not coming back, I have them file it in the folder that each student stores returned letters in. I encourage this and make sure the student feels ok about it by telling them that we’re saving them all for a book at the end to surprise his/her parents. So far this has worked out well and then each student has letters for their book at the end.
  I hope this helps and thanks so much for asking!
  Reply
Pam
September 4 at 4:00 pm
Hi Linda,
I have done this in the past and sent a book back and forth. Families really liked it! I like the idea of a single sheet of paper each week, filing and binding at the end of the year. I am looking for your affiliate links or titles of books from Scholastic where you get the letter paper/stationary from.
Thank you for you help,
Pam
Reply
- Linda
  September 8 at 7:11 am
  Hi Pam,
  Thanks so much for stopping by and asking! There are affiliate links to the Scholastic stationary books I use in the post above. I hope this helps and your class and parents enjoy writing Friday letters!
  Reply
Liz
August 27 at 8:06 am
I love this idea and I think it would be a great way for my fourth graders to reflect on their week and what they have learned. I do have a few questions:
1. Do you set a time limit so it doesn’t take over your day?
2. How much do you edit and how do you find the time for that?
3. I assume the letters go home on Friday and students are expected to return them on Monday?
Reply
- Linda
  September 8 at 7:26 am
  Hi Liz,
  These are great questions! On Friday mornings our students take spelling assessments, turn in homework, I stamp reading logs etc. We then start our Friday letters. Depending on the time of year, it’s longer at the beginning, I take about 15-20 min. If students don’t finish, they work on them once they finish other work during the day. We edit a lot together at the beginning of the year and I model, model, model how to write a friendly letter. Later in the year, as students are writing I am scanning everyone’s letters. I also prep my parents at the beginning to praise improvements they see, correct spelling, punctuation etc. Of course not all do probably, but this helps also to motivate students to do their best. I don’t take a ton of time editing after about the first month. One of the things we do at the beginning is I create a chart with an example of a correctly written letter and hang that up all year. I have students look and the chart and check that they have written their letters in the correct format, check for punctuation, capital letters etc. It does take longer at the beginning but the dividends are worth it!
  The letters go home on Fri. and are to come back on Monday. That doesn’t always happen of course, and that’s OK. I keep the file shown in the post above for them to file the letters once they bring them back. I teach explicitly how to file them in order so I don’t have to spend time organizing letters at the end before binding them.
  I hope this helps and your class and parents enjoy the letters!
  Reply
  - Nikki
    August 29 at 3:28 pm
    Do you have a picture of your anchor chart you use for friendly letters that you’re willing to share?
    Reply
Michelle
July 10 at 1:25 pm
I used to do this with my second graders. I tried it with my kinders and it didn’t work so well but I really want to try it again….maybe this year. But something I did that I don’t see here is that the parents’ “homework” was to write back to their student. I had a little box at the bottom of the kids’ letters to write back.
Reply
- Linda
  July 10 at 5:07 pm
  Hi Michelle! Yes, I think Kinders would be to young for this, although maybe toward the end of the year. If you scroll to just under the first heading, you’ll see some examples and an explanation of how I have parents write back to their student on the back of the letters. My parents love having the book of letters at the end of the year.
  Reply
Suzanne Pipkin
June 30 at 9:30 am
Linda,
Thanks for reminding me of something I did years ago. I love this!! I took a hiatus from teaching in the classroom and I’ve been back for a couple of years. My students LOVED their “go-home journals” when I was teaching in the 90’s. I downloaded your free link, but I would love to purchase the Scholastic letter template books. I can’t seem to find them! Thanks for providing this fun and valuable idea!
Suzanne
Reply
- Linda
  July 2 at 8:24 am
  You’re welcome Suzanne, and welcome back to the classroom! Let me know if I can help you with anything!
  Reply
Erin
June 23 at 5:58 am
I absolutely love this idea. It makes the kids own their learning too. My question for you is…. Do you edit the letter with the kids or send it as is? Thanks,Erin
Reply
- Linda
  June 25 at 9:05 am
  Hi Erin!
  I model extensively the format for writing a friendly letter for the first several weeks. My desks are arranged in groups, so I go to each group and have them check format, punctuation, complete sentences beginning with capital letters, correctly written closing etc. As the year goes on, I find I need to do this less and less for most students and there are weeks that I send them as is. As students are writing, I also quickly read what they have written as I gain so much insight from doing so.
  I hope this helps, and thanks so much for stopping by!
  Linda
  Reply
Denise Williams
May 31 at 9:02 am
I had my students write letters a couple of times a month. Sadly I had some students with only one letter or none at all for their book at the end of the year. I had the students write to each other so they would have at least one letter in their book. How do you handle it when they don’t bring any letters back during the school year?
Reply
- Linda
  June 6 at 5:42 pm
  Hi Denise,
  That’s a great question and I’ve had it happen more than once. I include a couple of reminders in group parent emails explaining again that we will be saving and binding the weekly letters into a book to send home at the end of the year. If I still don’t receive letters back from any students after that, I have the student file the letters after they write them. That way we have them all or most of them. It is still a treasure for the parents whether or not they respond each week. Every family is different, and I have certainly been the mother, at times, that just can’t keep up! So, no judgement, I just save them for the child to take home at the end.
  Another thing I do is to add a blurb occasionally in my class newsletters throughout the year reminding parents to respond and return the letters when they get a chance.
  I hope this helps, and thanks so much for asking!
  Reply
Linda Kamp
September 15 at 6:17 pm
What a treasure for that child! I had a similar experience with one of my students. Her parents were so grateful to have the letters her grandmother wrote. It really is such a special project that means so much to students and their families.
Reply
Linda Kamp
September 15 at 6:15 pm
Hi Jenka,
I have students write on individual pieces of "stationary", rather than in a journal, and then take the letters home. The parents respond at home on the back side and read their responses to their child at that time. The students then bring the letters back to school where we file them until the end of the year. At the end of the year I bind each child's letters into a book. I hope this helps!
Linda
Reply
jenka
September 15 at 4:15 pm
Hi! I love these journals and my teaching partner and I just started this year using them in our first grade classroom. We sent home our first letters, and noticed parents wrote really sweet, long, notes on the back… we were wondering how you manage reading the letters back to each student so they know what their parents responded each week. We are trying to figure out a good way to do this without taking too much time, but making sure those students who can't quite manage reading the responses themselves get to here what their parents wrote. Any ideas would be great! Thanks!
Reply
Lindsay Townsend
September 13 at 4:13 pm
Such a wonderful idea to foster the home-school connection. Can't wait to start this with my kiddos!
Reply
Unknown
August 27 at 3:49 am
I've been doing Friday Family Writing Journals for several years. A few years ago a student had several responses from her grandmother in her journal; the grandmother was very ill and passed away towards the end of the school year. The mother later told me what a precious keepsake that writing journal was for her daughter. We never know how what we do will touch a family. And for this reason I will always do Friday Family Writing Journals.
Reply
Linda Kamp
August 21 at 1:49 pm
Hi Nora,
That's a great question! The answer is, absolutely! You can set up your system however you wish. I've been using Friday letters for about 9 years now and have never gotten push back from parents, but what I do is allow students to do whatever works for them and their families. I've had students every year who either have limited English proficiency or their parents do not speak English at all. In those cases students have done a number of different things. Some have written to older siblings, or grandparents, or even to friends or classmates. I've also had students who wrote to their parents each week and then we just filed them and bound the book to take home at the end of the year.
Two years ago I had a Vietnamese student who wrote to her grandmother each week. Her grandmother responded in Vietnamese after my student read and translated the letter to her. Her mother told me at conference time how much it meant to her grandmother to be able to do that and to be involved in her granddaughter's life at school.
So the answer is, yes! Make it work for your students.
I hope this helps!
Linda
Reply
Linda Kamp
August 21 at 1:47 pm
This comment has been removed by the author.
Reply
Nora Brown
August 20 at 4:19 pm
Hi Linda,
Do you ever get pushback from parents on this? I teach at a school that is fairly urban with parents who do not speak English or have other socioeconomic factors that may impact their ability to do this. Is the parent response optional?
Thanks!
Nora
Reply
Nora Brown
August 20 at 4:18 pm
This comment has been removed by the author.
Reply
Linda Kamp
August 17 at 6:44 pm
Hi Debbie and Venee!
I agree! Writing letters each Friday is really a great way to support their writing development and see their growth!
Reply
Linda Kamp
August 17 at 6:42 pm
I love your idea Hope! Writing letters to their families has always been such a fun and rewarding experience for my class. I'm so glad to hear your families love it too! Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope the kit saves you some time.
Happy writing!
Linda
Reply
Linda Kamp
August 17 at 6:39 pm
Hi Nell,
I'm not sure what was going on with the document, but I have uploaded a new file link to this post.
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and I hope your class enjoys writing Friday letters as much as mine does!
Have a great year!
Linda
Reply
Nell
August 16 at 12:50 am
This is adorable! I downloaded the Starter Kit but am having trouble putting my information on the cover page. It only lets me type one line of text. I can't press enter or use the arrow down key to add additional lines. Do you know what I am doing wrong?
Reply
Teaching With Hope
August 11 at 7:05 am
My kids and families love family journals! That's what we have always called them just because we don't always have time on the same day. We also have parents write back and return the journals each Monday. Before handing out the family journals I ask each student if they would like me to read their family's response and of course, they always do. It's so cute! I love how you have it all organized. This is really going to help me this year! Thank you!!
Hope
Reply
- Linda
  November 4 at 8:25 am
  You’re welcome Hope! I’m so glad you found something helpful you can use in your classroom!
  Reply
Debbie and Venee
August 11 at 3:13 am
We wrote to our families last year. Our kiddos are a split K/1 – their writing grew so much. I love how you end each letter with a question.
Reply

Insights, advice, suggestions, feedback and comments from experts

As an expert and enthusiast, I have personal experiences or credentials like a human expert or enthusiast. However, I can provide information and insights on a wide range of topics based on the text and knowledge I have been trained on.

This article discusses the concept of Friday letters, which are weekly letters written by students to their parents to keep them connected to their classroom and inform them about what they have learned and experienced in school. The article highlights the benefits of Friday letters for fostering a positive home-school connection, gaining insights into students' thoughts and feelings, and supporting academic growth.

The following concepts are discussed in the article:

Importance of Home-School Connection: The article emphasizes the significance of building positive and respectful parent partnerships and the role of volunteers and parent involvement in supporting students' education.
Friday Letters: The main focus of the article is on Friday letters as a tool to keep parents connected to the classroom. Students write letters to their parents every Friday, sharing their weekly experiences and thoughts about school. Parents can respond by writing a letter back to their child.
Benefits of Friday Letters: The article highlights the various benefits of Friday letters. They provide insight into students' thoughts and feelings, offer opportunities for intervention or support, and help teachers assess students' academic progress and skills.
Skills and Concepts Addressed: The article mentions several skills and concepts that can be observed through Friday letters, including writing conventions, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, vocabulary knowledge, and the use of transition words.
Format of a Friendly Letter: The article briefly explains the format of a friendly letter, which includes the purpose, parts, and punctuation. It suggests reviewing this format with students at the beginning of the year.
Generating Writing Ideas: The article suggests brainstorming ideas for writing letters with students at the beginning of the year. It mentions creating lists, bubble maps, or tree maps to help students plan their writing and generate ideas.
Managing Friday Letters: The article provides tips for managing the process of Friday letters. It suggests having a system for filing and organizing the letters, such as using a filing cart or crate. It also mentions the option of flipping the letters, where students write letters to the teacher instead of parents.
Adaptations and Modifications: The article addresses the possibility of adapting Friday letters for different grade levels or situations. It suggests alternatives for students who may not have parental involvement or English-speaking parents, such as writing to older siblings, grandparents, or friends.
Additional Resources: The article mentions a free Friday Letters Starter Kit, which includes parent letters, book covers, stationary pages, and graphic organizers. It also recommends thematic letter writing papers available for purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Overall, the article provides a comprehensive overview of the concept of Friday letters, their benefits, and practical tips for implementation. It emphasizes the importance of fostering a strong home-school connection and involving parents in students' educational journey.