I think that Boo Hoo Breakfast sounds like the cutest thing. I was thinking about doing something along these lines for the whole school. Just have a table out in front of the school where the carpool line is and pass out donuts on the first day of school. We may do something extra special for kindergarten. Love the idea.
Shelly
We don't do an elaborate breakfast for our parents, but we do have a "Cry Room". Its usually located in the counselors room since its quite large and next to the Kindergarten classes. We have coffee or juice, and just let parents talk amongst themselves, meet other K parents and feel better about leaving their little one. We don't do a whole lot of PTO soliciting at this...its meant to be a support sign for our parents, nothing more. Love the idea of the Boo Hoo Breakfast though!!
We had our first "Tea and Tissue" get together the first day of school. A flyer goes home in each new kindergartener's packet of information (registration). On the first day, we make an announcement just before school welcoming all new students and parents (because new students aren't just in kinder!). We physically go to the kindergarten classes and lead them down to the cafeteria (I say that because many parents want to linger in the classroom and the teachers welcome us helping to make that transition). We have coffee, tea, pastries and, of course, tissues. All the PTA members are there, as well as the principal, to answer questions about picking up, activities, reassurances, etc. We got lots of great feedback from the parents and several have gotten involved in activities around the school. In fact, I think the people that enjoyed it most were the parents who had been there for a while. It's great meeting new parents and letting them know what a great school we have.
We started our Boo-Hoo breakfast two years ago and the parents love it. The first time we mention it is at kindergarten round-up-we include a little note in the PTO pamphlet that is distributed. At registration, we have signs on the doors with our "Calendar of Events" for the beginning of the year and we hand out a small "calendar" to every parent. At Open House we put signs up all over the school.
We make sure to emphasize that the event is for ALL parents. The signs I made usually had some comment about "tears of sadness and tears of joy". We have boxes of Kleenex sitting on the tables, a basket of Hershey Hugs and Kisses(to tide you over until your child gets home) and note pads and pens for parents to jot down the names and numbers of anyone they may meet at the event. We also have PTO pamphlets and most of the board members are present to meet and greet.
Serendipity......can you send me the flyer ...or at least what your going to say on it....Have you all come with centerpiece ideas for your tables....I want to do something with Kleenex but my artistic talents are on overload right now...lol. Also maybe the letter will be sending out.
Thanks
Cristi This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Hi! We are going to do our first one this coming year. Our school has paper work that gets mailed to the parents in August. We are going to add a flyer inviting the kindergarten parents to the "Boo Hoo Breakfast". That morning we will also put up some posters outside the school inviting them to come. We will have juice, coffee, tea, bagels, donuts, & fruit. Some of it we will get for free and some of it we are getting at cost. Just go to your local places and see what you can get from who. At the breakfast we will talk to them about what we do and what events will go on during the year. We will inform them about all the ways they can help and get involved. They will be able to ask us any questions they have and share any ideas they may have with us. Overall we want to welcome them into our school family and make them feel really welcome and comfortable in getting involved.
