We have done a family reading night for a few years. it was even written up in PTO today a few years back. We get guest readers from the community to read a book-like the police chief and the school superintendent. We also get parents and have them read books too. One mom is a bus driver and she reads "Bus driver form the black lagoon". We have a schedule of readers and kids can pick which books they want to hear. We have cookies and hot chocolate in the cafeteria, a book fair and a craft table where the kids make book marks. Our big hit is having the football players from the high school come in their uniforms to read funny books to the younger kids. That reading is always packed.
We always pick a theme. one year every one came in their jammies and we read bed time stories. another year we had a penguin theme-reading is cool and we read a ton of penguin books.
This is very low cost. Just $ for the book mark supplies and hot chocolate. Parents each donate a box of cookies.
A reading night is easy to do. and since it is an educational night-we got lots of faculty support. try it.
I called the mad science people and they are not in our area yet(Southern IL). We have $250 from a matching grant that is to be used for books. We have no family nites of any kind. No ice cream socials, chilli suppers nothing! We are not even going to get to hold our fall carnival till MAY! I was thinking of doing something like the article that was in the PTOToday a while back that talked about a book club like the Opra book club, free books and all. I don't even know where to start! Any ideas??
Do you have a little money to spend? How about www.madscience.org
- They do science experiments at your school. They have hands-on booths and special event type programs for about $225. Go to their site and locate a rep in your city. Contact your local zoos or museums for in-school outreach possibilities.
There was a column in this month's PTOToday that talked about Reading with Dad Night (very beginning of the magazine). Any other suggestions on expanding on this reading program? What themes do people use? Do you include food? How much time do you need? What kind of response do you have?
I know that this web site will be offering that sort of thing. I hope that some of them will be geared for elementary level. We have music programs around Christmas. Each month for 3 months we have 2 grades sing. Next month we are doing a PE Family Night. Honestly I don't know much about that since our gym teacher is the one putting it together. I will let you know what it's like when I find out. We have done pizza nights, bingo, chili, and ice cream socials in the past.
Hi All! I need some help! We are a school of 100 students K-8. We do not have any kind of family nites at the school. We have low parent involvment. I want to have a nite to get the parents to the school and it be fun and possibly educational. What do I do? I thought about the RIF program but there is a 6-8 month waiting list. We are already holding a spaghetti dinner but it is to raise money for text books. I want someting that is free (to them)! The next problem is it needs to be before Dec. HELP! :eek:
