Idea Bag

PTO Today Rock Stars: Barb R & Rachel

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.

02/07/2016

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.