Ideas are flowing...
Contact your library and have the children's library director come to read a winter/holiday story to small groups of children and their parents. Then have craft tables set up where they (parent & child) will go to do a craft based on the story. (With the parents assisting their child, this will require perhaps only one volunteer to keep supplies on the tables)
Depending on the age range of your students have parents and students stand in a large circle:
- Play "Icy Snowball" (like hot potato, only with a styrofoam ball made to look like a snowball) or
- older kids variation: pass snowball by holding it between your cheek and shoulder (kinda like a telephone)
When the music stops, whoever is caught with the snowball is out, and the last one left gets a prize.
Does your gym teacher have scooters? Have "sled" races, where the kids have to push the grown-ups (who are sitting on the "sleds") around an obstacle course. Give ribbons as prizes, since you will probably have lots of participants and prizes can get expensive.
Get donations from businesses for gift basket raffles, and give away "wintery" door prizes: a fuzzy fleece throw and box of cocoa, a school-spirit sweatshirt and a hat & mittens, "coupons" for dads to redeem to get out of shoveling the walk and instead make a snowman with his kids, and on and on and on.
Candy jar guesses are always popular with the kids. (Fill a jar with candies and take guesses on the number of candies in the jar.)
Have a couple of outside craft vendors, a bake-sale table, hotdogs, chili, etc.
Have someone from your local chapter of Highway Safety come in and have booth on roadway safety in the winter.
Have the local fire company, Coast Guard, or DNR come in and do a presentation on ice safety if you have any lakes, ponds or rivers in your area.
Have someone (maybe from your local police dept. a local elected official, school board member, teacher, or other willing volunteer) dress up as a snowman, a reindeer, or Santa for pictures.
Does your local police dept. have a K-9 unit? Ask them if their dog and officer would like to do a short presentation for the families. (Our K-9 dog likes to chase bubbles and does tricks for the kids and they LOVE IT! Plus they do brief search presentations as well.)
Would your fire company be willing to bring a truck out for short rides? While they are there, ask them to do a brief presentation on fire safety and prevention (to reinforce what they learned last month during Fire Prevention Week).
The more you can get outside agencies, businesses, and individuals to come in and do, the less work your volunteers will be strapped with and the more time they will get to spend with their own families.
