Holly you and I must be cut from the same "cone"...or maybe I got the idea from you from someplace and used it but we did (are doing) EXACTLY the same thing. We started with a cone for each class at orienation and the children who had parents that joined got to put their colored scoops on the cones. We kept the "golden cone" for the teachers and staff and had them up there as well. We are going to take the cones to the front hallway so parent can see them and then we have our Ice Cream Social on the 20th of September -- the cones will be up there for one last push at membership (we had 116 families join at orientation). The only thing we are doing as well is having colored dots for the name tags of the parents that correspond with their class color so that parents of same age children can identify one another. We got Dairy Queen to give us the ice cream for 58 cents a cup (their plastic cups) and a parent has donated the toppings...we'll do a quick PTO meeting to introduce the board and will have a table running concurrently for the children to "build their own" ice cream cones from precut paper and decorate it to stay busy. We're hoping this is the start of a fun year for us....
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We had our Ice Cream Social/General Meeting last night with 250+ in attendance! We were bursting at the seams! After telling the parents all about PTA, the choir performed, then ice cream was served.
We had parents introduce themselves to one another with suggested topics (from this board!) like "In my spare time, I like to..etc." We also put paper on the tables with markers so the little ones could draw.
We had ice cream donated and volunteer scoopers from the National Junior Honor Society from our local middle school (with whip cream, syrup and sprinkles of course!)
We even handed out a paper where parents would get their paper stamped after they visited each of 7 tables we had set up (Membership, Box Tops, Fundraiser, Volunteer Opportunities, School Savings, Three for Me). When it was finished, it spelled PTA ROCKS. There was a drawing at the end of the meeting for a $25 gift card.
It was a great turnout and we even used the great PTO Manager to recruit parents. I cannot tell you how happy I am with it. We even had the PTO Banner outside saying we are A Parent Involvement School! Thank you PTO Today and everyone for your input!
Thats good, my old school we had 1285 students and about 200 members. Now I am with a charter school and the enrollment now is about 250 so we will see what the membership is like once it get underway.
When you taught Kindergarten, did your school have a parent orientation??? We would like to hold a "meeting" with all the incoming parents to answer all questions and make everyone feel more comfortable about turning their little ones over to the school. I am sending my second child to school this year and remember all too well when my oldest started. All the questions!!! Anyway, just looking for thoughts ideas on this.
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