I am curious - what do you do for the student / teacher triathalon? We are really looking for some student/teacher events, but can't seem to agree on anything. The kids LOVE when the teachers are around for our events (the teacher's scoop the ice cream for our ice cream social, call the numbers for Bingo Night...), so we'd like to try something new.
We also do a number of organized and ad hoc nights -- they usually work out more than 2 per month but that isn't written...we've sponsored 3 clubs, Math 24, Chess and the Book Club which culminated in a family movie night for our book club members, we've do an ice cream social, skate night/fall crafts, holiday craft night and letters to Santa*, Jingle bell jog*, Family Dance Night, Cici's Pizza night once per month, Basket Bingo for adults and a kids bingo*, swim nights x 2*, Alumni night for our 5th graders*, variety show x 2*, karate club, carnival. Some have minimal fees to cover awards or books, events with * are free. Sometimes when I write this stuff down it seems like so little but then I think of all the other stuff we do -- my April agenda for our exec meeting was the longest one yet!!
aahhhhhh
dianna
Sorry, Tryinghard!
On Pajama Night, we invite families to spend the evening at school in their pj's while they listen to great stories being read by communtiy members.
The evening began with a dinner of waffles and sausage, followed by a readers'-theatre presentation of "The Stinky Cheese Man" by our top primary reading class (they even created costumes and a oven that the Stinky Cheese Man could pop out of... it was adorable!) After this, families have some choices to make... we have 3 rooms set up with different stories being read at each (example: One room had the firefighters reading, one had two teachers doing "Green Eggs and Ham" in english and spanish, and one had the local librarian doing a creativity excercise for older kids.) In between readings, we draw for door prizes.
We also added some additional activities this year... Skagit Literacy (a local literacy-advocacy group) came and set up a table where kids could decorate there own books. Volunteers of America let every child who attended choose a new book to take home. We had an area where students could write a short story about Pajama Night (the best story won a gift certificate to a local book store!) We had a photo booth set up for families to have their picture taken.
It is one of our favorite family nights! We love how it combines an academic theme with a fun famly night out!
Good luck with your efforts!
Kelley
Madison PTO
Mount Vernon, WA
