Cure for winter blahs? In the midst of this extra chilly winter, the PTA at McKinley Elementary in Davenport, Iowa, had a smart idea when it hosted a summer program open house. Imagine how nice it must have been just to talk about summer! The group held the event at the school’s gym, and 15 local organizations were on hand to discuss their warm-weather programs. Ah, can you feel the gentle breeze?

Chocolate to combat stress? Yes, please. We asked our community about Teacher Appreciation gifts and loved this idea from Coleen Zeleny Fitch. It’s certainly a clever way to give chocolates! The label on the container reads: “The contents of this can are to be used purely for the treatment of stress due to teaching. When feeling such ailments, wait for recess, lock the door, hide under desk, and consume immediately!”

Keep them in the loop. On another Facebook thread this week, community members were discussing midyear checkins—the process of assessing how a PTO or PTA has been doing, and what it wants to do before year’s end. Dianna L. Flett shared that her group does a “State of the PTO” supplement to the newsletter to let the community know what the group had done to date and what goals it hopes to meet before the end of the school year. Flett says that providing information about the group’s activities is “the most important thing we do.’’