PTO Today

Not sure what your parent group should do for the Halloween holiday? Consider these activities for a scary good time:

Costume swap
A few weeks before Halloween, plan a time when families can trade their old princess and superhero outfits for something new to their kids.

Pumpkin carving contest
During any October event, invite families to carve (or simply decorate) pumpkins together. Then display the spooky creations at school.

Trunk or treat
It’s trick-or-treating right in the school parking lot. Families pop open their trunks, which are decorated according to a theme. Costumed kids collect goodies at each car.

Well it’s officially autumn now! Happy Friday to all our hard-working friends. Just did a scan of the news this week and a few headlines caught my eye. Perhaps these parent group stories will inspire new events or ideas for your group.

Walk-a-thon raises $12,179

2,500 volunteers get things done on Day of Caring

PTO car show growing in popularity

Fun fest brings families together

Kamp-out in Redlands offered stars, tents and s’mores

Have a fabulous first weekend of fall! As always, if your PTO or PTA is in the news let us know.

If you asked me what one question we get asked the most by parent group leaders, I would say without hesitation: “How do I get more parents involved in our parent group and school?”  This is the topic of our video blog this week. Tim talks about his top 3 things PTO or PTA leaders can do to encourage more parents to volunteer and get involved this school year.

As Tim mentions in the video, we have tons of information about these tips on our site. Here are some links to get you started:

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/120-make-your-family-night-a-winner

http://www.ptotoday.com/sfn/SFN_homepage_parent.php

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/816-what-i-know-about-fundraising

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/1004-9-tips-to-increase-fundraising-sales

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/1009-is-your-pto-fun-enough

http://www.ptotoday.com/boards/25-involvement-ideas-and-challenges/151885-volunteer-fun-factor-do-you-have-it

We wish you the best of luck this new school year. Hope it’s the best year yet for parent involvement!

Woot!  Excited to be putting up our very first “Rock Star” blog post. I will doing these periodically to feature the best content from PTO Today Rock Stars in our message boards. Here are two incredibly helpful posts from two terrific community members.

In the Fundraising Forum Rachel offered details that add up to one marvelous math-a-thon:

We ran a Math Challenge this year rather than a math-a-thon. The idea was that it’s hard to get kids excited about doing pages upon pages of problems and the idea was first to get kids excited about math (this school’s math scores are not to be envied and the attitude of the teachers, parents, and students about math in general was pretty poor). We had three levels: 4K-5K, 1-3, and 4-6. In hind sight we should have had a different level for each grade because skills are so different at these ages. Students worked in groups of 4-5 students. It lasted for one hour. At the start time, the principal made an announcement that it was to begin. Each team received their packet.

There were the 1 point questions – simple, quick, varied between math facts and trivia like what is Pi and there were between 75-150 depending on the level.

Then there were the ‘challenge’ questions. These took longer and there were about 10 (worth 5pts each) – word problems, logic based, needed more thinking and generally had multiple answers required.

Every 10 minutes (there were 5), the principal came over the loud speaker and gave a different ‘movement’ question. They varied in difficultly based on grade level and the student needed to go to one part of the building to obtain information and then perform a math funtion (one example was go to the front of the building and find the year the building was built and the number address of the school – for 1-3 they had to add the numbers together, for 4-6 they had to multiply them). These were also worth 5pts each and every team member had to have a chance to do one.

All the volunteers got a t-shirt, all the students got a smart smencil (although we had trouble with ours so I would necessarily recommend unless you have plenty of times (many weeks) to deal with smencils if they are incorrect). It was a fundraiser but this school it terrible with fundraisers so it didn’t do very well as a whole school. However, the students that did participate in the fundraising portion did VERY well collecting pledges.

We set it up like any catalog fund-raiser – a certain dollar amount raised gets a certain incentive so it was a pledge drive for the donor but the students got more than just ‘knowing they helped their school.’

$25 t-shirt like the volunteers (kids loved them because they were different, a great color rather than grey, and the logo was professionally designed – donated).

$50 a math drill calculator

$100 Equate math board game

$125 extra Equate tiles

$250 electronic handheld math game (either stand alone or a cartridge for a handheld system like DS – they choose)

$500 either zoo pass or family four pack to a local water park (both about $100 value)

Prizes were cummulative so you could get some serious stuff if you tried. Some did! Next time I would have smaller prizes for the inbetween amounts but that is based on your school (this one is very much ‘what do I get’ and fewer-better doesn’t resonate, they want more more more).

Teachers were excited about it but didn’t help. Some of the lower grades did because they needed an adult for each team but the upper levels used it as a planning period and offered no help with the organization of the event. It was a lot of work but the school buzzed with excitment the whole hour and the kids loved it. They were very excited to hear their scores and results as well, announced over the course of a week to build excitment since there were classroom prizes as well.

Good luck – math is a great thing and I wish fewer people were scared of it!!

In the School Family Events Forum Barb R offered some excellent advice to a community member thinking about organizing an art show:

Our PTO pays for the entire art program at our school. As part of that one of the fundraisers is focused on art and we ALWAYS do an art show at the end of the year to highlight the kids accomplishments.

We normally chose one week night, normally a Tuesday or Thursday, in April or May. The show runs for about 2 hours or less. We post the art work in the hallway by the child’s classroom, normally 3 to 4 pieces, depending on how/what was done. The easiest way is to put the child’s name on a card at the top and all of the art work under it so it is easy to identify per student. The kids normally do 6 or so projects but normally only the best 3 or 4 are posted. There are signs put up with each grade level telling what the art is or why it was done. Last year was the first year that we gave ribbons for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place per classroom. A grand prize and a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd (I think) were then chosen from those pieces and highlighted at the front of the entrance on a special table. (They were later framed and hung in the school lobby. The ribbons are just paper clipped to the edge of the picture for simplicity sake. We normally offer some light refreshments. (Last year were pretzels, m&m’s and lemonade… some years have been cakes and fruit, it varies.) And we have also started involving different musical (instrumental) artists in the community and have them come in and provide atmosphere music for the event. One year it was the kids for the talent show, another year a few kids from the high school orchestra. It varies, depending on timing, etc.

One year we also had an “exhibition guide” which shared information about the type of art, classes, etc. So that can always be another option.

Congrats Barb R & Rachel and thanks for being team players.  We appreciate each and every one of the questions and comments posted in our community. It’s a lot of fun connecting with all of you and even more fun keeping an eye out for “rocking” posts!

NOTE: If their posts have inspired you to take on an art or math program at your school, check out these links:

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/88-how-ptos-foster-math-skills

http://www.ptotoday.com/answers/question/12414-sunshine-math-club

http://www.ptotoday.com/answers/question/11263-family-math-night

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/1018-pto-program-puts-art-into-action

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/147-bringing-art-appreciation-to-students

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/853-make-it-an-a-plus-year

Did you see Tim on TV this past Monday talking about the good work of  PTOs and PTAs and about Schools Serves‘ efforts to bring schools together to make a dent in childhood hunger? If you missed it, check out this clip then be sure to sign up to be part of this impactful program.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a weekly round-up. Not a lot of news over the summer about parent groups… which is a good thing because parent group leaders need (and deserve) time to re-charge.

For many of you, you have been back to school for weeks now. For the New England folks, the first day of school is just around the corner. I can feel the back-to-school energy building.  On our message boards and Facebook page, activity is ramping up and excitement is evident!

In the news, it’s apparent that many PTOs  & PTAs are already busy:

• fundraising for new school signs
• advocating for more comfortable learning environments for kids
• educating families on the importance of parent involvement
• creating websites to keep parents in the loop
• kicking off the school year with memorable family events

What is your PTO or PTA busy with this back-to-school season? We’re always interested in hearing about your events and programs!

Over the past year, we’ve enjoyed hearing about how so many of you are helping your school go green. Whether it’s details about your successful Go Green Night, or how you started a green team, these stories and ideas are too good not to share! So, we decided to create a Go Green group. This is your place to exchange tips, ideas, and photos on ways you are making your school and your group more environmentally friendly.

Pop on over to our new Go Green Group and join the conversation. Also, we’d love to see photos of your green initiatives or your Go Green Night event! The first 5 community members to upload an album of at least 5 photographs* of your green school event or program will get a $25 Lowe’s gift card!

Thanks in advance for taking the time to share your experience in our new group. This is such an important topic for parent groups. Not only are you helping the environment but you are sending an important message to our children — and setting a great example.

*Please chose photos that show other leaders how you set up your green event or programs. General photos that don’t relate to green initiatives do not qualify. One gift card per school.

Summer is waning and for some PTO or PTA leaders one task is weighing heavy on their mind–  the big back-to-school speech.  So here’s our advice: maintain a summer attitude and don’t make a bigger deal out of this speech than it needs to be. You probably have two major goals, right?

1). Make a good first impression.
2).  Inspire more people to volunteer this school year.

We’ve got you covered. Watch Tim’s video blog for some simple advice on how to approach the speech to help you accomplish both goals. Look below the video for some helpful links.  Last piece of advice is take deep breaths, smile and try to relax. You are going to do great!

Helpful links:

http://www.ptotoday.com/2hourpower/

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/137-7-steps-to-grow-involvement

http://www.ptotoday.com/filesharing/document/325-volunteer-form-for-start-of-year-detailed-two-parent

http://www.ptotoday.com/filesharing/document/389-five-reasons-to-get-involved-a-great-handout-for-parents

Middle school involvement is different. How is that for stating the obvious? The million dollar question is how do you adapt your parent group approach to parent involvement, when the kids don’t want you there in the first place? In this week’s video blog Tim talks about how to get past the resistance of kids,  how to build strong parent involvement, and offers examples of successful middle school events.

Starting to think about back to school and getting parents involved? One of the best approaches I know of for increasing involvement is our 2 Hour Power pledge program.

Basically, you ask parents to pledge two hours of volunteering, any kind of volunteering, per semester or per year. And you make it clear that you’ll celebrate those two hours and not ask/badger/guilt them about doing more. For many parents, the reason they don’t volunteer is because they feel that volunteering once will send them down this super-volunteer path that they can’t escape from.

You want to make volunteering less scary for parents. And 2 Hour Power can help you do that. Plus you’ll get lots of two-hour time donations, which really add up. Even better, many of those folks will find that the volunteering wasn’t half bad and — even without you badgering — will sign up for more. Nice, right? I highly recommend you give the concept a try.

Our 2 Hour Power materials have lots of tools and know-how for executing a program like this. If you’re looking for more ideas for connecting with volunteers at back-to-school time, check out this article on welcoming new families.