To the Family of...

This is a sample introductory letter, written in response to a class assignment.

Greetings from your fourth grade teacher! Soon we will be gathering at .... Elementary to begin our year as Adventurers and Explorers. I've had a wonderful summer with my family and friends, and I hope you have too. Still, I'm getting excited about meeting you and beginning our year together. Because I'm new to this school, I thought I'd take a minute to introduce myself. I was born on a farm in Colorado, and I've lived all over the US -- and even overseas. My family and I moved here when my husband retired from the Navy. I really like the friendly people and relaxed life style in the South. In my free time I love traveling, reading, hiking, music, writing, and learning new things. Playing the violin is one of my newest activities.

I'm especially happy to be teaching fourth grade this year, because it's all about adventurous people and interesting discoveries. We'll be learning about our country's history from its settlement by Native Americans through the movement West. If you like nature and the outdoors you will enjoy our Biome Project in November. It's not too early to start planning for this project by thinking about your favorite animal and how it survives in the wild. If you've always wanted to invent something, you'll have a chance to do that this spring during our "Invention Convention". I'll also be challenging you to read a lot this year. If you don't love reading yet, I want to help you find some books that will change your mind. Fourth grade is a year full of hard work, but I think learning can almost always be interesting and fun --- I hope you'll agree with me before our year together is done.

I'm enclosing the list of supplies for our grade level. Please have them here before the first week of school is over. We will be spending our first few days getting to know each other better, and creating rules for our class. So come with some ideas on what rules you would like to see in our classroom. I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas and getting to know you better!

I'll see you soon,

Mrs. Kelsey