Our district hosts a "Back to School Bash" All schools are represented.
All schools hold an "Open House." At our school the PTO provides refreshments. We keep it simple so we don't wear our parents out before Christmas, at least.
Tell me more about the Halloween Party/Haunted Hallways event that you do. We do a Fall Festival at the end of October which usually takes on a Halloween theme. I'm always looking for ways to freshen it up.
Good question - I like seeing the other responses. Starting to generate some thoughts for our group.
We kind of hit the ground running and don't have a specific large event to "kick-off" the year.
Our first "get the school together" event is Curriculum Night, which usually occurs 3-4 weeks into the school year (end of Sept/early Oct). Parents, Kids and Staff are expected to come. It starts with a General PTO meeting with reports from the Exec Bd, the Principal and Assistant Principal, but no votes or other business conducted. After the meeting is ajourned, Parents and kids go to the classrooms to meet the teachers, hear about what is expected to be taught (hence Curriculum Night) and answer any general questions about the classrooms. Often Parent-Teach conferences are scheduled for later.
The second full-school event is our Halloween Party/Haunted Hallway which is about 10 dats before the 31st.
When I said we hit the ground running, I meant that we have a bunch of more focussed activities before Curriculum Night. School starts on a Wed., so the first PTO meeting is the following Tues. Early on we have our New Parent Coffee, Room Parent/Teacher Tea, our Giftwrap fundraiser (our largest fundraiser of the year) and our Family Literacy Committee have all eaither happened or are in full swing by the time Curriculum Night rolls around.
But seeing all these nifty "back to school kickoff" type events makes me think we are missing something. We talked briefly last spring about starting an informal back to school picnic - maybe I'll push the idea to the board and Principal before school starts and see if we can throw something simple together.
kellyraek--could you tell me more about the passport idea? I would like to try this at our school this year. What do the passports look like? are they like the real thing? Do you stamp them with something? is this held in a classroom or a cafeteria? any other info you could give me would be great. thanks for your help.
kellyraek--could you tell me more about the passport idea? I would like to try this at our school this year. What do the passports look like? are they like the real thing? Do you stamp them with something? is this held in a classroom or a cafeteria? any other info you could give me would be great. thanks for your help.
