we did the scavengar hunt last year as well with a funny rhyme of riddles to lead them thru the shcool. I am wondering how do u do your scavengar hunt? Any other simple ideas like this since ours is an afternoon come and go to get class assignments....

You've all seen the sticky back post-it note pads in the letters of the alphabet. Come up with a very short statement JOIN THE PTO for example. Buy the corresponding letter pads making sure to buy 2 pads of O's and T's since they are duplicated. Reinforce the pad onto the hiding spot so that the first person who finds it doesn't pull it off. If you have duplicate letters in your statement put them side-by-side in the hiding place and in the instructions tell them to take 2 O's that there isn't another hiding place with an O.

Give everyone an instruction sheet - make it easy to follow and to complete. The first student to figure it out, using all of the letters, wins a prize.

This is the perfect entertainment.........self promotion, a fun challenge for the kids and parent involvement.

I love the DJ idea. We did decide as a Board yesterday to do Pizza, Popsicles, and Prizes. We will do another scavenger hunt (more like "get to know your school) and then have 15 drawings for a school tie died T-shirt. There will be about 10 other booths giving out information to the parents. And we will have music playing in the gym. It should be fun, easy, and enjoyable to all.

We have an ice cream social before starts, it falls on the same day the school posts the class room lists, so the kids see what teacher they have and talk to their friends about how they have-- we are going to add a DJ and possibly some type of game during the event.
But a DJ playing music, bounce abouts, kinds of an end of summer party I think would be a lot of fun.

Thank you for ALL the great ideas!! We are having a "pool side" Board meeting today and I will share all these.

Last year we didn't have a craft table, but what we did was to put long pieces of paper on the floor with "Welcome Back" on it. Then we just put a lot of markers on the floor and let the kids sign it or draw on it. We put it up in the hallway on the first day of school. The kids thought that was fun.

We have parents bring in side dishes and desserts for our event. Maybe you could do that. Your PTO can order pizzas or grill hamburgers this year. You can have popcorn this year instead of chips and you can give out popsicles. You can also go to Sam's Club and buy cases of assorted chips for everyone to eat.

For an activity for the kids, you can do an obstacle course inside or outside. You can buy things from the dollar store to use for the obstacle course like hoola hoops that the kids can step in or crawl through.

You can also have an arts and crafts table set up for the kids.