Our school does a Literacy night. We have teachers to volunteer to read a story and do a craft or make a snack that goes along with the book. We usually have 5 or 6 different books read, 2 teachers per story. We have the students sign up when they enter the rooms to hear the story, and we draw for door prizes (books). Literacy night usually lasts about 1 1/2 hours, enough time for every child to go to 3 stories. This has been a huge family activity in our school! Even the parents and children that come to nothing else will show up for this activity!
We do 2 big Literacy nights, where all grades attend (our school goes to 4th grade) and each grade K through 4 also do 1 or 2 Literacy nights just for that grade. The PTO funds this activity, it costs our school about $1500 a year. We pay the teachers $50 to do the literacy nights, that includes anything they have to buy for their story. It is well worth the money!

Our school does host funtions by grades and each has its own planning committee. For example, the K function is a dessert held in the evening which is a really good way for families to meet each other. This event is held early in the year and is attended by both of our K teachers as well as the principal. First grade holds a covered dish dinner (hosted by other that first grade parents) and also brings families together. Examples of upper grade events would be Grandparents Day, parent-student luncheons, ect. These events are all separate from the quarterly PTG meetings that are held. The PTG meeting however, tends to be poorly attended which we are presently trying to remedy through a family survey.

During our Family Game Night we do lots of different things that everyone can enjoy and participate in. We have various competitions between just the kids (same age groups), the kids vs their parents (such as scooter board riding - which is very hard to fit on if your an adult!), kids vs. their teachers, and kids and their parents vs. other kids and their parents. We also had board games set up for people to play while they were waiting. If you would like, I can send you a copy of the flyer we sent out, which might help you get a few ideas. This cost us nothing to do and we got soooooo many compliments on it. Try this! It is a blast!

2children,
Don't be discouraged! You did have people volunteer, remember? There is no reason you have to make all these decisions yourself! If the decisions pertain to one of the standing committees, have a comm. mtg. The people who volunteered would probably appreciate being in on the decision making. When you have a group together, the ideas can really start flowing! Then, break down the various things that need to be done (publicity, food, bringing games, etc..) and make sure you have at least one person to organize that subcommittee. If you have other members of the comm. who couldn't come to the mtg, be sure to share their names with all the subcomm. chair.

As far as teachers, from what our principal has said, I think if the teachers come to a PTO event, they don't really like to be confronted by parents about a particular child. I think it makes them feel like they've been blindsided. Our teachers try to let the parents know how they can be contacted with any questions & concerns and they are quite accessible.

We have at least one or two teachers at each of our PTO meetings. They give a feel for some of the different projects they do with the kids. The parents really LOVE it! I'm sure our principal strongly encourages them to come to at least one meeting a year.

LauraNTwo,
Would you be able to give more details about your family game night? We're planning our first one for Oct & I'm not really sure whether to just have people bring board games or what. Since you've already done it, I'd love some of your ideas.

Thanks,
Jo

[This message has been edited by MightyJo (edited 10-15-2001).]

When you have your family game night what games do you play, that k-8 can all participate in? Our Bylaws suggest the meeting for each grade level and we have what is called PPP. I'm not sure what it stands for but an example of a PPP function last year was where each student in the second grade picked an animal and made a habitate to display for the parents. All the parents came to see what their child did and then left! It took all of 15 minutes! I thought that we could have a PTO function included with each grades PPP function. But I just can't seem to come up with any ideas of how to combine the two. Our PTO is hitting rock bottom! We have one member who is money hungry! She thinks that everything we do should be to raise money! I thought that by sponsering a fun event, the PTO would get parents and teachers together and the teachers could give the parents tips on what they are teaching our children in the class room and parents could tell the teachers how Timmy and Tammy are coping at home. We have 15 minute parent teacher conferences at grade card time, hardly enough time to find out how Timmy is really doing in class. I must have been dreaming when I thought I could make a difference! Somebody slap me!!!!!!!!!

I'm not so sure if I like the each grade level thing or not. Our goal is to bring as many people together as possible, from each grade (K-6). We try to do something at least one night a month. We have a Fall Festival each October which includes a chilli or spaghetti supper, haunted house, costume contest, raffle, games etc. One of the best events during the fall festival is the pumpkin decorating contest. We give each classroom a pumpkin about 1 week prior to the festival to decorate anyway they want. Then at the festival each pumpkin receives votes using canned goods. We also do a Bingo night, usually in February, where everyone gets free popcorn and punch and win prizes, not cash. One event we started last year was family game night....what a HUGH success!!! We were totally amazed by the turnout of children and parents from all grades. We had contests between kids, parents and kids and parents together. We also had board games set up so they could play those as well. It was sooooo much fun. We also do music night, science night, and lots of other fun stuff and always get plenty of positive feedback from parents.