I wish I was at your school. It sounds like such a fun challenge.
I suggest looking around at different adult hobby clubs who might want to do demonstrations. I have wanted to bring a radio controlled airplane group to our school. You could begin by explaining the forces of wind direction, lift from the wings and radio signals as well as how the plains are built so light in order to be able to fly. This could be done with a microphone outdoors in front of 100 students at a time.
How about other retired adult hobby groups like old fashioned music played with spoons and a saw?
How about a square dance group doing a demonstration and then teaching the kids how to do it? Yes, end the day with an all school dance.
Think of groups looking for an audience - that the children have not been exposed to. I'll bet most would come out for free.
How about some quiet reading time, they never seem to have enough time for that. Have fifth graders read to the kindergarten and first grade classes.
How about having the kids do a project to show their appreciation to their teachers when they come back?
I would think it would be mandatory to have at least 2 adults per class. Good luck!
Linda
ONE GREAT WAY TO FILL IN AT LEAST AN HOUR
OF THE DAY W/ 400 CHILDREN IS TO TREAT THEM TO
AN HOUR OF WHAT IS AT THE TOP OF THEIR "I LIKE"
LIST..A MAGICIAN.
YOU COULD HIRE ONE OR FIND ONE WHO MIGHT DO IT PRO BONO.
THIS WOULD HAVE TO BE DONE IN AN AUDITORIUM SETTING.
ALSO,YOU COULD TRY SOME PUPPETEERING GROUPS,TO FILL IN ANOTHER 45 MINUTES OR SO.
LARGE GROUPS OF CHILDREN RESPOND GREAT TO THESE TWO TYPES OF ACTIVITIES.
THIS WOULD LEAVE THE REMAINDER OF THE TIME TO
BREAK UP INTO GRADE LEVEL GROUPS FOR OTHER ACTIVITIES YOU MIGHT HAVE AND THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN SUGGESTED.
A GREAT MOVIE THAT KIDS ADORE AND KEEPS THEM SPELLBOUND IS THE CLASSIC"THE RED BALLOON"'
THEY CAN WATCH THIS FILM OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
AFTERWARDS,THEY CAN GO BACK TO THEIR GRADE LEVEL GROUPS AND ILLUSTRATE THEIR OWN VERSION OF THEIR
FAVORITE COLOR BALLOON AND TELL THEIR OWN STORY
ABOUT IT.YOU'LL BE SURPRISED HOW CREATIVE THEY'LL
BECOME.
OR YOU MIGHT SCHEDULE ALL OF THESE ACTIVITIES ON A ROTATING BASIS IN A BLOCK SCHEDULE FOR THE VARIOUS GRADES OR COMBINATION OF GRADES.
This is my pat answer when additional volunteers are needed - high school honor society members are required to do a certain number of community service hours. Some high schools require that ALL of their students do community service in order to graduate. I suggest contacting the advisor at the high school that you feed into and asking them for suggestions. Honor society kids also have to be "well rounded" so some may be able to help with sports in the gym while others help with science projects, making fun math games for others, arts & crafts, or music oriented projects. Contact your local arts & crafts stores (Michaels, Hobby Lobby?) and home improvement stores (Lowes, Home Depot?) for potential donations of "project" materials or even employee team members as additional volunteers. If you are organized as a not-for-profit their donations can be considered tax deductible. Good luck and let us know how it all pans out for you - we can probably learn from each other!
Our teachers really get whatever they want from the PTO. They know they are members but don't like attending the meetings. We are going to start attending the faculty meetings and updating them on what is happening and this new principal is great... we are very excited. Just nervous about taking on this BIG endeavor.
Thanks Lisa. We are looking at keeping costs down and utilizing our parents... baker would bake, creative memories consultant doing scrapbooks, etc... Your ideas are great too and we may be able to use some but my biggest dilemma is how to get 400 kids to where they need to be and have enough volunteers to help enrich and monitor. Remember... the teachers will be gone.
I think our principal did this before with Middle School aged kids but 5 & 6 year olds might be different. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
