We hold our Grandparents' Day in conjunction with our Book Fair. Our children arrive at school at the usual time and then grandparents arrive at 8:30 and we all attend chapel together (we are a religious school). Then, grandparents are free to visit the classrooms. Some of the classes had activities to do. Then, together the children and grandparents can go and have refreshments and then visit the book fair together. Last year, it was only a half day of school. Not sure if it will stay that way or not. It's a wonderful event but always hectic trying to organize that many people.(375 students plus their grandparents).
Shelly
We have a small school, so take from this what you can... The way we do Grandparents' Day is we have a little over an hour set aside per grade. We have the kids and grandparents in the cafeteria to do crafts and have a snack, which takes about 35-40 minutes, then the kids take their grandparents to see their classroom/meet their teacher.
We send home a form to sign up so we have an idea on attendance, and on that form we have grandparents volunteer to be a "special" grandparent for kids whose grandparents can't/won't come, so no one is left out.
We hold our grandparents day in conjunction with our Veteran's Day assembly in November. We offer donuts, muffins, danishes, coffee & tea in the morning as the grandparents are arriving and throughout the day. They then can proceed to their grandchild's classroom(s)to observe. We hold our assembly twice during the day (morning and afternoon) to accomodate a large number of people in a small, overcrowded gym/auditorium. The grandparents watch the Veteran's Day assembly and then afterward, are treated to a light lunch. We have done soup & tea sandwiches, fruit salad, chips, pretzels, punch, cookies. It requires a great number of volunteers to pull it off but it is very rewarding. Hope this helps.
I was just curious to see if anyone had an idea on how to run this. In previous years we would have the grandparents register in the morning and stay through lunch/recess. This is very hectic. We want to keep the event, just make it a little smaller/easier. HELP!
