PTO Today

We have a fall and spring bingo night at our school. Just looking for some new ideas for these nights. We do 16 different games (blackout, big X, four corners, etc.) during the two hours and have a snack bar with pop/water and popcorn available to purchase for a minimal. It's not a money maker for us, more of just a family fun night. Any ideas?

Hello

I'm new to the message boards. I was wondering how you work those. Bingo night has been something a few of us have discussed. Do you have a nice turn-out?

We had our first BINGO night of the year last night and it went amazingly well. We separate the nights by grade, so last night was for the first grade only. We had over 200 people there, which was better than I expected.

We run it as a free evening, with pizza, salad and beverages provided. We also provide every student with a book at the end of the night (they get to pick one they want).

As far as the BINGO itself, we run 6 games, though the last one is a double, meaning a regular BINGO winner, and then "Blackout" (meaning the first one to get every box filled in wins). We purchase a bunch of prizes that the kids will love (we have a member who works at Hasbro and can get us discounted games/toys, etc.).

In addition, after the 2nd and fourth games, we have a parent only question where the first adult to raise their hand and answers the question correctly wins school spirit items (a coffee mug, magnet with the school logo, sports bottle and a ball cap.

We had them answer a 4th grade "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" question, which we took right from the Scholastic book.

Night went very smooth and was a great success!

Hope this helps,
PresidentJim

We do a bingo night in the Fall-- we charge 4.00 per person and we have it for the whole school-- we play several games of bingo, sell raffle tickets for chances to win 2-3 gift baskets that go along with whatever our theme is for the night-- we also have a 50/50.
We put out small pieces of candy on the tables and bowls of chips-- and each person gets 1 pop and 1 ice cream ticket to be used at a half way point in the night-- we have a great caller--- which really makes the difference in a fun night or not- and each contestant goes up to win prizes for their bingo's-- most prizes are for the kids-- after 4-5 games, we ask that anyone child that has not had a bingo yet-- go up and get a prize.... it's a fun night be all.

We have a bingo in the fall and in the winter. They are on Saturday afternoons for all ages and they usually provide a great turnout. We alternate teacher volunteers as callers which make it fun for the kids. In the fall it was a Halloween theme this year. We had costumes and even a "what 's in the box game" complete with brains and eyeballs. Admission is free but cards are 25 cents each. There are various prizes that are donated but we also use cash prizes for some of the games with the big money game being last. We have hot dogs, chips and soda available for purchase as well. There is also the candy guessing game of how many are in the jar.

How do you do bingo with cash prizes? We've done bingo with donated prizes, but it's getting exhausting to keep asking for prizes. I'd love some input on the cash prize route.

Since we charge 25 cents per card we use some of our earnings from this for various prizes throughout the event. They range anywhere from $5 to our big prize of either $40 or $50 at the end, which is always a coverall game. We simply throw them in every 3rd game or so. the kids love it!

Hey! We have Bingo night every March at our school but it has a little twist! We also raffel off themed gift baskets. A few weeks before the even, we assign each class room a them such as Family Movie night, chocolate lover, bakers basket, Ice cream basket, reading basket, craft basket sports lovers basket, etc. Each child (or most anyway) bring an item or two to contribute to their class basket. Some times we duplicate a basket and make two of the same thing. The week of the even, volunteers gather all of the items and baskets and assemble them with clear cleo wrap. Most of the time the baskets are HUGE! We usualy end up with at least 30 baskets FULL of GREAT STUFF some valued at over $100.00! We also speak to several local business owners and restraunts and get them to donate items like gift certs for dinner, free carpet cleaning, bikes etc. On the night of the event, We sell "raffel" tickets (double roll of tickest)for $1.00 each. We put a paper bag in front if each basket and item up for raffel. The kids and grownups keep one ticket and put the matching one in any bag they choose. Then we draw a winner from the bag later twards the end of the night.
We start out with a (no longer than) 10 minute PTO meeting. ( Have to take advantage of a captive audience.) Then we serve pizza and drinks along with chips and cookies ( We take reservations in advance to get an estimate on how much we should order).We play actual BINGO for about an hour and then read all of the winning raffel ticket numbers and hand out the baskets/prizes at the end ( about 30 minutes). Bingo is fun but the Baskets are the BEST! Everyone loves this event and we have a great turn out. We made over $1,200 this year after all was said and done. The cost is very low for this event and turn out is hight! It is easy to set up and take down.

Does anyone have a bingo card they could email me for our bingo night? We have a hard copy but our district wants it on email so they can print it. If anyone has one to share please email to houserptopresident@gmail.com.

Thank you

We also have a Bingo Night in March. It's a Free Event!! We have it 6-8pm on a Friday night just for 2nd and 3rd graders. Parents are incuraged to drop and go. We have a budget of 200.00 for snacks, drinks and lots of prizes. Webkinz have been the prizes to win for the last two years. It's lots of fun, we have just played the tradional one line any way Bingo and after we have one winner we will continue to call more balls until we have a couple more. We have each and every child win one to two prizes.