Our local skating rink is kind enough to let PTO hold a skate night (K-5)once a month. Each month being a different theme. PTO receives $1.00 for every child in attendance. A coke party is awarded for the class having the most attendance along with a golden skate to set in their room until the next month. If the teacher of a class attends they count as 5 students. An incentive for the teachers to be a part of the event. We have donated door prizes and ususally try to put pictures in the local paper. It is a very fun fundraiser.
We have assemblies for the children just about every other month or more. Our PTO feels the work we do and the money we generate should benefit the kids. We are proud we are able to bring different performers, professionals, etc. to our school and expose the kids to something they may not have the opportunity to otherwise (ie. endangered wildlife, gameshows, geology, fine arts programs, traveling museums) We do spend about $4,000 a year on assemblies, but when you break it down to the cost per student, it isn't much. In fact, its much less than if you took all these kids on a field trip! The kids get more out of it because they are more attentive and excited something is being performed just for them. We have also incorporated a family night with some of the daytime assemblies and that works out great because the kids love to come back with their parents to show them what they learned or saw during the day.
Hi, we have something called "4th Fri Family Fun Night". I was a part of that this year. Next year I will be heading up Programs. We had a Fun Night almost every month. Maybe you can alternate. Perhaps 2 every month is too much. We had a Bingo Night, Karoake with Chili/Dogs, Hawaii Laua theme, etc. They are alot of fun. We even had door prizes. Most of our prizes and food was donated.
This year I am most excited about doing Programs. I am PTA, and they have trainers/ speakers who will come to the school for free. You can also look at peopletrainers.com. He comes and speaks for free, just asks that he can sell his tapes at the event. I am also thinking about madscience.org for a science night, and a place called youngaudiences in Dallas. But they have that all over the US. I also want to do a craft night! I read someone suggested a scavenger hunt-and you can base it on either math or science so its educational.
You can call your local zoo and museums and see what kind of outreach /education programs they have. Many colleges also get involved. Some charge, others dont.
Hope some of this inspires you!
Lisa @ Tx
In regards to the question about having a professional come and teach parents, We have a child psychologists that teaches a parenting class. She runs this 6 week course twice a year and there is always a waiting list of parents to take it. She donates her time to the school, we do not have to pay her, but if we did, we would. It is a great service to all our parents and especially the kids.
Our PTO has one event each month (father daughter dance, mother son basketball, spring fair, etc..) however we have not (at least since I've been on the board) arranged for any assemblies or family fun nights. When I asked the board about this they replied that the city holds something once a month for families. We are far from a poor PTO and money is not an issue.
How many events and functions do other PTO/PTA's have? Am I being unreasonable about wanting to add some assemblies/family fun nights? I read in one post about science/math nights... I would love something like this.
Also, does anyone have an opinion on paying a professional to come to the school for a workshop for the parents? I wanted to implement something like "how to discipline a difficult child" or "stress management" but this has never been done before so I've gotten a negative feedback from the veteran board members.
