Hello! I love reading all of the great ideas on this board! We are ready to plan our year and are looking for something new.
We have had and will keep our movie night, ice cream social, craft night, end of year celebration and our 2 fundraisers--bingo with raffle baskets and our walk-athon. We did not have much success with reading night and things fell thru with our 2nd science night.
I am wondering if we could pull off a game night but I am worried about having enough volunteers. I love the idea of bunco and even deal or no deal but I figure we will have to have a lot of other activites all going at the same time.
I am open to any new ideas......
Thanks!

We did a Family Game Night with Deal or No Deal and bingo utilizing only 4 adult volunteers and 10 junior high volunteers. The jr. hi helpers were all girls who served as the "models" and then helped with the food and games. The game nights are loads of fun and something families will remember and talk about for a long time. We offered board games in the cafeteria for the folks who wanted to be sedentary, but our big push was the active games in the gym-we got those from the PTOtoday game night packet.

Here are some of the events we do...


Fall Festival
Jingle Bell Jog
Muffins/Moms
Donuts/Dads
Karate Kamp
Talent Show (with the music teacher)
Book Club (One school - One book)
Math 24 Club
Chess Club
Dinner and a Movie
Dreamcatchers Day (for our special needs children)
Legacy Fund Ice Cream sales
Sham Grams for St. Patty's Day
Dr. Seuss Day
Alumni Night (6th graders/parents return to visit the 5th graders and share pizza and ask questions)
Swim Night (rent a local pool for our families for the night).
Baseball Day (go to the local single A team for the game)


d

Our best events each year are:

Back to School Ice Cream Party

Harvest Hoopla (Halloween Party)

Husky Hearts Family Social (Valentine's Party)

Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader Family Night(s)

Field Day

If I was to recommend just one, it would be Field Day. If your school does not have one this would be a big addition. Many schools run this without the control of the PTO, and if that's the case then I would recommend:

The Back to School event. This is a great way to start off the new school year.

But of all of the events that we hold, the one that the kids seem to love the most, is our annual Halloween Party (Harvest Hoopla). We allow the kids and parents to come dressed, if they would like. We have had party games, such as bean bag toss, ring toss on pumpkin stems, DJ games and best yet, a spook house (age appropriate). In year's past the spook house has consisted of a witche's Den, Gypsies, A Wizard and a Mad Scientist. This year we are going to even try an older kids actual "haunted House". Again age appropriate, but fun. Nor gore, but things that the older kids (8 and 9) would like.

If you want to go with a family game night, try an Are You Smarter evening for your older kids. We do it for 3rd and 4th grade, while the younger grades have their own evening playing BINGO. This has been a huge hit. I've posted something on the File Share section here.

Hope this all helps,
presidentJim

Thank you all very much for the ideas!!!!
Also dlf--what is the dreamcatcher day? We have 2 classes of special needs.

Have a Noah's Ark stuff-n-fluff workshop. The kids absolutely love it! Parents are tired of candles, gift wrap, and home decor. Although it may make some money for the school, it doesn;t get the kids involved. Having a Noah's Ark workshop is a great fun night. The kids make their own stuffed animals, paint t-shirts for their animals & have a great time socializing. My school even printed up little t-shirts with the schools name/logo on them for the animals. We all took a picture infront of the school & got our picture ont he paper. They also have come up with a "GO GREEN" Night where the kids learn about conserving energy, water, trees, etc. so the night is both educational & fun! Let me know if you want contact info. you can email me at efgogola at aol dot com