if you have student teachers they are great for volunteering, most of the time they are required to put in some time on after school projects/events and this is something fun.
Oh, and , maybe offer the teachers with the top 3 costumes, as voted on by the board, to win a $100 pto funds certificate for classrm supplies of their choice. that should bring em out of the woodwork.
If someone has mentioned this please forgive me...hey Laura, why not ask the kids to volunteer? If each sixth grader was asked to work two hour shifts and still be allowed to play. Ask parents for donations of candy to supply candy and to sign-up to stay and help. To the volunteers that help with set-up and clean-up FREE LUNCH! OH YEAH, either a special pizza party for the helpers or just prizes with a special thanks.
What about the teachers? Seriously...has anyone ever included them? OOHHHH and a friendly compition between the sixth grade classes for the most volunteers could make this fun!!
Yes, I do take my own advise on this one! I have chaired our Halloween party at church for six years and have had a blast working with the youth group (6-8 graders). They are too old to participate in the games but have a blast playing/working the games with the "little" kids. I give them each their own bag of candy (helps keep their hands out of the candy while working) and a free dinner during their break. They also earn volunteer credits towards confirmation.
I would love some help and ideas for the Halloween carnival. Sounds like you guys have had a lot of success with them!! This is the first year we have planned to have one!!! We really want to make it a free event to bring our families together.
Thanks!!
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Thanks for the great ideas. The thought of scaling back or canceling our school's Halloween event has been tossed around because of the overwhelming work. Just not sure if I want to be MUD around there since I'm the PTO prez!
The school I came from always did some sort of Halloween/Fall Festival event. It had a great turn out. I thought about doing one here at our school. But with a twist. At our old school the classroom parents were always in charge of the event that happened in their rooms. (Haunted room, games, etc.) But at the school my children attend now, the parent group has nothing to do with the room parents. It is all seperate. Here is my twist...
Have the entire profit from the room games go back to the rooms. Every teacher is asked to fill out a 'Wish List' at the beginning of the school year. For each classroom that participates in the festival, the money from the wristbands/tickets will be divided between them. The money off of bake sale/food will go to the parent group to match the help match funds. For instance say we have 15 classrooms participate and we sell $700 in tickets/wristbands that is almost $47.00 back to each classroom. And the parent group will match funds. Making it $94.00 for the teacher to spend through their wishlist..... Most items on the lists are not more that $100.00 total.
It is just in the beginning stages. But any thoughts, would be great..
