You might want to consider getting some items imprinted with your school name/logo & 50th Anniversary. Items that come to mind are Pennants, Tote Bags, T Shirts, Pens, Car Magnets, Awareness Bracelets.
Get a committee together to focus on getting everything organized. You could get a hold of alumni and ask for donations of memorabilia for a display. Have your bulletin board display the theme from each decade. Photos from the school/events if possible, and even if the teachers weren't in the district/school then (as I can imagine), you could post pictures of teachers to show the kids what their teacher was like "way back when." You could have a student show, with each class/grade doing songs/skit to represent each decade--perhaps with a theme showing how your principal/teachers ended up there at the school.
Our parent group or principal didn't start planning until a few weeks before the "celebration" and as a result it's becoming apparent that the event will be uneventful, to say the least. The principal INSISTS upon having full control over things like this, so we're really at her mercy.
To get the kids involved- how about having them put up "50" of something (every class do something different).
You could do 50 stars.50 smiles, 50 books (with the name of your school), 50 balloons, 50 anything. They could be posted on the bulletin boards of each class.
our school had our 50th year 2 years ago. We placed an ad in our town newsletter asking for members of the community who attended our school during the early years. We were able to learn that our Fire Chief was in the first kindergarten class at our school.Our Police Chief was also a student.
We made up a "50 Years" board that is still hanging inour halls. We interveiw a mother daughter teacher team(mom started out as a volunteer.) and added pictures that were kept during the years.
Good Luck.
We did a play last year about the history of our community and school. It was wonderful!!! Everyone dug deep and found old photos that we had blown up and displayed them on bulletin boards through out the school. We had special guest who had lived in the community during that time and they came and told their stories. Pictures were taken and put on CD with background music and played in the lunchroom where refreshments were served before and after the play. It was a great and very proud time. You can never go wrong showing community pride and showcasing your students in a school play. You could follow the play with your sock hop. You have great ideas!! I could go on and on about doing the 50's but that's another story! ha ha
We too are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. We are trying to come up with several ideas that are new and different. For us, the difficulty is finding the alumni from the past number of years. We have considered a Homecoming Dance, a Sock Hop, an old fashioned carnival. One thing that we are seriously considering is a tile wall. Each family can purchase a tile, paint it, it is cured in a kiln, and then the tiles will be hung on a wall in the school.
