1. DO COLLECTION SHEETS. this saves you counting, etc. Make sheets so you can bundle the sheets in 50 (ie do 10 on a half sheet, then just staple 5 of them together to make your bundle.)
2. Do a coloring contest (make the collection sheet your coloring page). KIDS LOVE IT!.
We just ran our very first and very successful contest! We put brown lunch bags in each teachers class with a fun store name on the bag (for example, Ms. Balta was labeled "Balta's BJ's" to symbolize a local BJ's Wholesale Club we have. The kids had 3 weeks to bring in as many labels as they could. We kept a talley board up in the school for each class and each week we updated it with who was winning besides sending notes home in students take-home folders. The kids really got into the competition. The prize was $50 and a pizza party for the 1st place class (we got a local pizza shop to donate the pizza) and $20 for 2nd place class and goodie bags for the 3rd place. The students within the winning classes were then given certificates of achievement. This was our way to get the word out and in 3 weeks we exceeded our annual goal! Now we collect in the brown bags on a monthly basis.
Our school just started a quick competition. The boxes in each classroom were cleared out. The class with the most boxtops by next Friday gets a donut party. As a general rule we put 10 % of the money earned back into prizes.
