Great idea about the dinner. I just found out our Open House is planned for 4:00 to 6:00. Generally it is 6:00 to 8:00. The time was moved because our middle school has open house on the same night and some parents need to attend both.
I'll have the keep the dinner idea in mind for next year if it's going to be a dinner-time event.
We've had an Open House/Ice Cream Social at our school for year. I've been involved for the last 2 year. Last year we have a pretty solid fund at the beginning of the year and decided to offer sundaes at no charge. We prescooped as many bowls as we could fit on tray in the freezer, that helped a lot. We offer hot fudge and caramel. We've found that offering too many options can get hairy (banana splits, cones, many topping, etc). Then next time we do toppings, I'll do a self-serve. Last year we had volunteets to put the toppings on and they had to ask everyone which they wanted. This isn't realy necessary. Buffet style would have been much easier.
For this year, I've decided to have rootbeer floats. I ordered some small plastic cups that I had printed with our school mascot, pirate, sailing a ship and it says, "Sailing into another great year at Fulton Elementary School." I got a few sponsors to cover the cost of the cups, they're re-useable so families can take them home.
We haven't charged for the past 2 years, but they did charge before. Last year we did set out a can for "donations". This really worked well and we almost got enough donations to cover our expenses. I knew the cups were going to cost me this year, so I asked some local business for donations, but I'll still set out the donation jug.
We did this as snack at our sockhop this spring. We had Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla Ice Cream .We had Father's scooping it!! For toppings we had chocolate chips, sprinkles, whip cream, cherries, m and m's. We put on the toppings as well...we also did this for our game day. That day the kids did their own toppings. Went over great both times...on game day we got hold of the prepackaged Ice Cream cups(no scooping and same price) that was the way to go!
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
a few of my units do this as an event, not as a fundraiser. Having a good topping bar goes over really well but definately make sure you have it in an air conditioned location and some have a policy that only parents can put on the toppings. (some of the kids tend to get carried away and end up with an overflowing bowl)
One of our local hospitals also does an Ice Cream and Pickle social.
You can't go wrong with free ice cream!
Hi, we did this for the first time last year. About a week into school. We got the ice cream donated from a shop that was closing up for the summer. We didn't charge. It hugely increased attendance to open house/curriculum. Kids were dragging their parents in for the free ice cream, more parents were able to attend cuz could bring their kids. While parents were upstairs with the teachers receiving information the kids were downstairs with us eating icecream and playing games. Then everyone came down to socialize.
WE do this at the end of the first week of school for our kindergarten classes. We don't charge anything. It's a way of the kids opening up to one another, making new friends and a chance for the new parents to meet each other and see who their kids having been talking about.
