Seventh Grade Orientation Activity for Parents

For several years I have been doing an activity that really gets my year off to a great start! It is a homework assignment called "In a Million Words or Less..." and I assign it to the parents not the kids. However, they can help their parents is if they need to.

In A million Words or Less

The assignment: Parents you are to write an essay or letter to me telling me about your child. It can be on any thing that you feel will allow me to better know your child and help them to succeed. The requirements for an A paper are listed below:

1. You can NOT use more than one million words! However, you may use less.
2. The essay must help me to get to know your child. It can be about their academic achievements, hobbies, personality, emotional issues, etc.. The sky is the limit!
3. This assignment can be typed or handwritten.
4. An exemplary essay will have minimal grammatical and punctuation errors.
5. This assignment is due by ___________________. 

You may email me your assignment at ____________________________,  or you may send it in with your child. Often parents like to drive their kids a little crazy after all of the teasing and send it in  a sealed envelope to keep their essay confidential. This is perfectly okay and I will not betray your trust.

Please remember that you are being watched carefully by your child. This is a great opportunity to model what you consider to be appropriate student behavior. Thank you so much for sharing your child with me and participating in our classroom. Good luck!


You should be able to just copy and paste this on to a document. I always get positive responses from parents and the information I collect is invaluable!!!