Ideas for Elementary School Programs
Back to School
Back to School time is an important time to reach parents of the school. Below are some ideas for Back to School Programs.
• Boo Hoo Breakfast for parents of kindergartners and new students—Be sure to have lots of tissues available. This is a great way to introduce new parents to your great PTA.
• Jump Into School—Rent an inflatable jump, and have jump rope contests for students and parents, “How high can you jump?” contests, or a dance with songs about jumping.
• Back to School Luau—Transform your gym or cafeteria into a tropical paradise with such Hawaiian motifs as palm trees and grass skirts. Serve barbecue or hot dogs along with tropical fruit, tropical drinks, and desserts.
• Prepare a Parent Packet to send home on the first day of school—Have for each student a folder with pockets labeled Read and Keep at Home and Sign & Return. Include such items as PTA membership envelopes, a copy of the school calendar, a volunteer sign-up sheet, a Permission to Photograph Form, a Waiver of Student Fees, and a copy of the school’s dress-code policy.
• Buy or make a cake with “Welcome Back to School” written on it, and put the cake in the teachers’ lounge to welcome the faculty and staff back to school.
• At any school or PTA event, be sure to have tables for membership, volunteers, school spirit wear, and general PTA information. To educate parents about their school’s PTA activities, consider distributing a handout that lists last year’s and/or this year’s PTA-sponsored activities.
Kentucky Kids Day
Kentucky Kids’ Day is the last Tuesday in September. Make the students in your school feel special with one or more of these ideas to make your students feel special. These themes also could set the stage for great Family Fun Nights.
Themed Activities:
Kentucky Kids Read
• Ask special guests to read to classes.
• Have students make bookmarks or small books.
• Give books to students or have a book exchange. (Go to local bookstores for donations, or have a community book drive to obtain books.)
• Have a mystery reader read a short story over the intercom. Have the principal disguise his or her voice or invite a local celebrity to read. At the end of the day, ask the students to guess who the reader was.
• Hold a book fair.
• Hold a pajama day and ask students to bring their favorite bedtime book to read.
• Have a “my favorite book” bulletin board.
Kentucky Kids Are Magic
• Invite a magician to perform.
• Have the principal and/or teachers dress up as a wizard.
• Ask students to write an essay in response to the question “What is magic?”
• Sponsor an art contest that relates to anything magical.
• Ask students to make papier-mâché wands.
• Hire a balloon artist to make balloon animals during lunch.
• Ask students to write their classwork in invisible ink.
• Play decoding word games.
CSI: Kentucky
• Decorate the school with chalk outlines.
• Play Where’s the Principal? The principal disappears but leaves students clues to find him or her.
• Invite a police officer, a crime unit, a forensics expert, and/or a coroner to visit classes to talk about their work.
• Hold a scavenger hunt.
• Have students fingerprinted for ID cards.
• Contact a university to arrange for criminal-justice students to talk to classes about a career in criminology.
More Ideas:
• Pat on the Back
Have students make construction paper handprints. Tape the handprints to their backs with masking tape—everyone receives a pat on the back because every student is special!
• My Future Is So Bright I Have to Wear Shades Day
Ask students to wear sunglasses to school on Kentucky Kids’ Day. Have a Coolest Shades Contest. Have a career-day exhibition for students to “look into the future.”
• Parent Posters
Arrange for parent volunteers from each class to make posters to illustrate the theme “The kids in this class are special because….” Decorate the school with the posters on Kentucky Kids’ Day. (Have a poster-making committee decorate signs if parent volunteers are hard to find.)
• Position the students in the school to form the outline of the state of Kentucky. Ahead of time, ask the fourth and fifth graders to help map out the outline. Ask the local fire department to provide a fire engine that has a ladder with a basket from which someone can take a picture of the “state.” Include your local heroes in the center of the outline, or have politicians stand in the “Frankfort area.”
• Go Hollywood!
Students arrive at school to walk the red carpet into school and to be met by the PTA paparazzi taking their picture (or just have flashes going off). Have a contest in which students can decorate classroom doors with movie themes. Volunteers dressed like movie stars could visit to read to classes, or local TV celebrities could talk to middle and high school students about careers in the industry. PTA volunteers could approach students in the lunchroom for their autographs. To remember the day, use the autographs and pictures of the day to make a Kentucky Kids’ Day at My Elementary School book.
• DJ Day
Ask a local radio station to play student requests around lunchtime, but be sure to get permission from the principal and the lunchroom workers before you crank it up.
Red Ribbon Week
Red Ribbon Week is intended to demonstrate a unified and viable commitment to the creation of a drug-free school and community. Schools are encouraged to sponsor drug-prevention activities and programs during this week. Here are some suggestions adapted from the Kentucky PTA Idea Book 1995–1997 and National PTA Best Ideas:
• Plan a Hat Day to symbolize putting a “lid” on drug use.
• Plan a Tie Day to symbolize being tied to a healthy lifestyle.
• Have contests for creating buttons, T-shirts, slogans, posters, rap music, or door decorations with a drug-free message. Designate a day for students to wear their T-shirts. Display the posters in the school halls, area businesses, and malls. Play the rap music in the cafeteria during lunch.
• Hold a skate-a-thon, and use the money for drug-prevention projects.
• Provide red ribbons for all faculty, staff, students, volunteers, and visitors to wear. Give red ribbons to area businesses as well, and ask them to spread the drug-free message.
• Have a Wear Red Day, and award prizes to the class wearing the most red.
• Attach red ribbons to your October PTA newsletter. Include an article that explains Red Ribbon Week and that lists your school’s Red Ribbon Week activities.
Orange Ribbon Week/Safety
Orange ribbon week is intended to highlight violence prevention. PTAs should use this week to educate students and parents on how to make schools safer and more secure.
Improve learning by educating students and parents on how to make schools safer and more secure. Orange Ribbon Week is takes place the third week of October.
Here are some ideas on promoting safety, adapted from the Kentucky PTA Idea Book 1995–1997 and National PTA Best Ideas:
• Provide daily safety tips over the public address (PA) system or the morning telecast at your school.
• Create banners with safety tips to display around the school.
• Make and distribute buttons for students to wear with a safety slogan or anti-violence message.
• Have a Green Light for Safety Day, and encourage students, staff, and PTA volunteers to wear green that day.
• Send home safety tip sheets.
• Have a Fire Safety Day, and ask local firefighters to speak to students. Ask them to bring their fire truck for display. Give a fire-safety questionnaire to students.
• Have a Handgun Safety Day, and ask your local police department to speak to students on gun safety and gun-violence prevention.
• Encourage students to wear seat belts by declaring a Seat Belt War with neighboring schools. Send home with students a short Seat Belt Citation Form. Students serve as Seat Belt Sheriffs, issuing citations to anyone they catch not wearing a seat belt.
• Hold a safety assembly (in school) or program (after school) with speakers from the Red Cross presenting courses on such topics as first aid, choking, sports, bike safety, and water safety.
• Invite police officers to make presentations to students on child safety, drug-abuse prevention, gun safety, and juvenile-justice practices and policies.
• Prepare a school-safety brochure or fact sheet to send home with the students.
• Coordinate a school-safety workshop with the school counselor or a representative from the police department as a speaker.
• Decorate a bulletin board at the school, the library, or a local business to spread the violence-prevention message.
• Conduct an essay/poetry contest in which students write about solutions for
non-violence. Read the winning essay/poem on Friday at an event or over the PA system during morning announcements.
• Have a poster contest with the theme “How to Make the World a Better Place” or another violence-prevention theme. Display posters during Safe Schools Week, and let students/faculty vote on the winning poster. Or have a safety-slogan poster contest. Display the students’ posters in your school, area businesses, malls, and city office buildings.
Family Program Ideas
• Literacy/Reader Nights
Have a one- to one-and-a-half-hour program in which two or three guests read books aloud. After reading time, have kids make bookmarks (or produce another theme-related craft) to take home. Tie a Reader Night in with a school book fair. Possible months for programs are September for Library Card Sign-Up Month, November for National Children’s Book Week, January for National Book Week, and April for Reading Is Fun Week or National Library Week.
—Charge admission (of one gently used book) to the Reader Night. Use the donated books for a school book exchange, or give them to local charity groups.
—Ask teachers and the librarian for a wish list of books and materials. Publicize the list before the event so that participants can bring items to Reader Night.
—Using the theme “Reading Is Fun,” have students make posters to decorate the school and to advertise the event. Put some of the posters in nearby business windows. Send students home from Reader Night with free stuff! Buy or make bookmarks to give away, hold a book exchange, and/or give out book lists (by grade) to participants.
Possible themes and guest readers for Literacy Nights:
Community theme—mayor, policemen (bring police car), firefighters (bring fire truck), Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) staff (bring ambulance), doctors, lawyers, local TV personalities, and/or Louisville Free Public Library staff
School theme—principal, counselor, teachers, JCPS personnel, and/or school board members
Sports theme—sports figures from the community and/or athletes from a neighboring high school
Health theme—Louisville Metro Health Department Director Dr. Adewale Troutman, doctors, nurses, YMCA Safe Place staff, EMT staff, and/or health department personnel
Grandparents’ Week theme—students’ grandparents (This would be a great time to sign up grandparents for your school’s Rock & Read Program.)
Dive in to Summer Reading theme—lifeguards, YMCA Childcare Enrichment Program (CEP) staff, teachers, and/or parents
• Dad’s Night
—Sponsor a Field Day event for dads and kids only after school. Set up stations on the school grounds with a different challenge at each station. Stations could feature such activities as beanbag tossing, basketball, jump rope, hopscotch, a bike course, soccer, kickball, foursquare, playground time, obstacle course, and parachute games. Give I Survived Dad’s Night certificates to the dads at the end of the event. (Helpers needed: physical education teacher and volunteers)
• Art Fair
—Have art of any medium on display for parents/visitors. Have band, orchestra, and chorus concerts and dance team shows, and follow such events with a light reception. You might coordinate this event around the Reflections contest. (Helpers needed: teachers and volunteers)
• Math Night
—Set up different stations for parents and students to visit and to solve various mathematics problems. Give students a math card that is stamped after they have visited each station. When the math card is filled, give the student a certificate or small prize. Parents get to see what their child is doing in mathematics class, which is beneficial to parents when they are helping with homework at home. PTAs also could host a mathematics bee on this night with the help of teachers. (Helpers needed: teachers, family resource coordinator, and/or volunteers)
• Game Night—Wonderful Wednesday or Fabulous Friday
—Set up tables in classrooms or the all-purpose room with different board games. Participants (parents, students, and school staff) can have fun competing in various games. This is a great way to meet and get to know other families. Serve popcorn and soft drinks, fruit juices, or hot cocoa. (Helpers needed: volunteers)
• Middle School Night
—In conjunction with your school counselor or a JCPS representative, hold an informational program to help parents through the maze of choosing a middle school for their child.
• Writing Portfolio Night
—In conjunction with your school counselor and fourth-grade teachers, host a program for fourth graders and their parents to explain the writing portfolio process and the steps parents can take to help their child perform their best.(Helpers needed: fourth-grade teachers)
• Family Sock Hop
—Hire a disk jockey or a band to play 50s music. Invite families to dress up in 50s attire. Have a dance contest and a best-dressed contest. Serve cola or root beer floats.(Helpers needed: volunteers)
• Halloween Tailgate Party
—Have families choose a theme and then wear costumes and decorate their car accordingly. The children can trick-or-treat from car to car in the school parking lot. Have music, games, storytelling, refreshments, and/or a bonfire.(Helpers needed: volunteers)
• Wild West Fest
—Have a barbecue dinner followed by family participation activities such as line dancing, a pie-eating contest, old-fashioned picture taking, and sack races. Have storytelling and a folk singer for entertainment.(Helpers needed: volunteers)
• Growing Up Class
—Ask a health professional (pediatricians and/or nurses) to present separate workshops for mothers and daughters, fathers, and sons concerning what to expect when a child is growing up. A small presentation followed by an anonymous question-and-answer period makes for an effective program. Invite fourth- and fifth-grade students and their mothers and fathers to this event. Hold the workshops at the same time, in separate rooms.
• Health Fair
—Hold a poster contest with various health themes. Use these posters to help advertise the health fair and/or to decorate the school for it.
—Set up stations in classrooms and/or the gymnasium. Stations could offer information on topics such as vision, hearing, fitness, nutrition, germs, first aid, gun safety, CPR, AIDS education, immunizations, scoliosis screening, lice screening, seat-belt safety, smoking, sex education, blood pressure, skin care, personal grooming, choking, dental hygiene, latch-key kids, ID tags, fingerprinting, date rape, depression, bike safety, traffic safety, water safety, severe-weather safety, toy safety, school-bus safety, home fire drills, and/or poison control.
—Have an ambulance on the school grounds for students to inspect.
—Have a school bus on the school grounds, and hold school-bus evacuation drills.
—Invite specialists to hold workshops in different classrooms or booths or to conduct round-table discussions or classes on topics such as exercise, an American Red Cross baby-sitting training, stress reduction, sports medicine, puberty, alcohol/drug prevention, and self-esteem. Presenters could include PTA volunteers, police officers, firefighters, counselors, nurse practitioners, doctors, Red Cross staff, health department staff, poison control staff, YMCA Safe Place personnel or YMCA staff, and/ or women’s crisis center staff.
—Hold a bake-off of healthy foods or a taste-testing of healthy foods.
—Sponsor a health run.
—Dress up PTA volunteers as crash-test dummies for the event.
• Science Night
—Invite scientists from several disciplines to come to your school to give a demonstration or an exhibition in rooms throughout the school or at stations in the gymnasium. Exhibitions may include animal science (with live animals), forensics and fingerprinting, soil sciences, physics, chemistry, ham radio, recycling, and the ever-popular technology-takeapart room where parents donate old appliances, computers, and/or gadgets that students can take apart to examine what’s inside.
—Ask a science teacher to lead the participants in a curriculum-based science activity, giving parents the opportunity to see what their child experiences in school.
Local Units Best Program Ideas
Local units of the 15th District PTA sponsored the following programs last year with great success. Please let us know of any successful programs you have had at your school.
Family Literacy Night
Minors Lane Elementary School PTA sponsored a Family Literacy Night that coincided with a general PTA meeting and a bookfair. The PTA paid for a professional storyteller, and the students performed in a shadow puppet show, stand-up comedy and skits. PTA volunteers spent hours practicing the skits and the stand-up comedy routines with the students. PTA secretary Joy Sue Coolidge said, “This program helped build students’ self-esteem. A lot of our students that participated have a difficult time in class and this program gave them a chance to exhibit their talents and feel good about themselves.”
The PTA paid for a bus for the students and parents who live outside of the resides area which give them a chance to be a part of the event. Volunteers assisted in the Bookfair sales and puppet making after the show. PTA volunteers also served refreshments.
In evaluating this program, the PTA felt that the entertainment the students provided was better than anything on television. The evening was educational and entertaining for parents and students and truly unforgettable.
Unity Day
Watterson Elementary School PTA had a “Our Rainbow School” theme to celebrate Unity Day. They encouraged students, family members staff and PTA volunteers to cut out a handprint traced on colored paper. Each grade was assigned a different color and the staff and adults were assigned the color white. The hands were assembled on the front bulletin board to look like a rainbow, with the adult handprints being the clouds. On Unity Day the students were allowed to wear the same color as their assigned handprint color. They assembled outside and a panoramic photograph was taken of the “School Rainbow”. (Unity Day is observed on the Monday before Thanksgiving.)
Literacy
In addition to the Every1 Reads initiative at Chancey Elementary School, they also partnered with WAGS Pet Therapy of Louisville to help students with their reading. This program partnered second-graders with a four-legged friend. The owners/trainers came to the school twice a month and met with students individually in the library. The students chose a book to read to the dog. Second vice president Karin Hand said that reading to a dog gave students freedom from worrying about mispronunciation or skipped words. Karin said, “The students gained confidence and became comfortable reading aloud to an attentive listener.” They hope to expand the program to involve additional grades. Karin reported that teachers were very supportive of this program. She said that one child who has an attendance problem never misses a Wednesday because “That’s the day her buddy comes.”
Health and Fitness
The Dunn Elementary School PTA sponsors an annual “Turkey Trot” on the Friday before Thanksgiving. Parents and family members are invited to join their child in a one-mile walk/run through the surrounding neighborhood. The community police department helps by blocking off the road and escorts the runners/walkers as they start off on the main road in front of the school. A volunteer dressed in a turkey costume encourages the runners.
After the run/walk, families and students enjoy a turkey lunch and classes host special activities. All students at Dunn participate in this activity and a PTA representative said that an overwhelming number of family members participated in last year’s trot. Many families look forward to this special day. Dunn’s PTA feels that the health benefit from the run/walk reminds students that it is okay to enjoy a great meal on Thanksgiving, but it’s also important to lead a healthy lifestyle and to be thankful for their health.
The PTA had two chairmen for this program last year, with a committee of 5 to 7 members. PTA volunteers manned the one-mile running route, helped in the kitchen, or helped with set-up and clean up. This program spotlights health and family time and is a favorite among Dunn parents.
School Anniversary Celebration
The Kenwood Elementary School PTA collaborated with the school principal to sponsor a celebration for the school’s 50th Anniversary. The PTA sponsored several programs during a 40-day countdown to the actual anniversary date.
The celebrations began with a 50-mile Walkathon, with participants collecting pledges for each mile they walk. A week later, they held an Old Fashioned Ice Cream Social for one hour of the school day. Two weeks later, they sponsored a 50’s Sock Hop, also during school hours.
During the count-down time period, students were given writing assignments. Writing activities for the students included an essay (50 Reasons I love Kenwood,) and creating birthday cards.
The celebrating culminated with a program that involved the whole community. As guests arrived (local dignitaries, JCPS administrators, neighbors, police department, fire department, former educators and alumni) they received a fresh cut flower. At the program paying tribute to the school, community dignitaries brought greetings, a middle school performed a piece from a Broadway musical, students read poems saluting the school, students shared reflective memories of their experiences at the school, and a special slide show was presented. After the program, fifth graders served as waiters and busers, serving anniversary cake to all of the guests.
Red Ribbon Week
The Minors Lane Elementary School PTA and the school’s Family Resource Center (FRC) jointly sponsored a program for Red Ribbon Week. The focus of the program was a door decoration contest promoting a drug-free environment. The teachers taught the students about the dangers of alcohol, drugs and tobacco during Red Ribbon Week. The students took the information they learned and created a theme for their classroom door. The classroom lessons prompted student questions and discussion about healthy living.
PTA volunteers checked the doors daily, which kept the students engaged in the project. Questions were asked daily on the morning announcements; the students turned their answers in to the FRC and five winners were announced daily and each received a prize. PTA officers and Family Resource Advisory Council members judged the doors at the end of the week. Doors included such themes as, Bee Drug Free with student-decorated bees, Don’t Bug us with Drugs with various student-decorated bugs, and Drugs Make us Batty with student-decorated bats all over the door. The students really enjoyed this week and the school principal and the FRC received many positive phone calls from parents. The students asked for this to be an annual event.
Butterfly Release
Middletown Elementary students released approximately 800 Butterflies last spring at the school. In addition, during the celebration, a check representing the funds raised from the Butterfly Benefit was presented to a Middletown family.
The Butterfly Release Benefit is an annual school-wide community supported event to help a family in need. The students sell handmade butterfly mementos to honor, memorialize or celebrate a loved one or someone special. These mementos filled the halls of Middletown Elementary.
Additionally, through generous community donations, caterpillar larvae were purchased grew in each classroom. The butterfly kits not only educated the children on the metamorphosis of butterflies but also served as a tangible icon for their efforts. The student in each classroom who sold the most mementos became the official Butterfly Release Brigadier Captain for his/her class. These captains released the butterflies during the Butterfly Release Benefit Celebration on the Middletown playground.
This PTA sponsored benefit involves teachers, students, parents, and the community. While it’s primary purpose was to raise funds for a needy family within the school, the program also taught children lessons that textbooks cannot: kindness, generosity, and service. Fourth grade teacher, and founder of the Butterfly Release Benefit, Linda Schweickhardt said, “Every year there are students with extraordinary circumstances that we long to assist in meaningful ways yet opportunities are missed time and again.”
Parent Education Programs
Below are some possible themes for parent education programs. (Resources or possible presenters are in parentheses.) You may want to survey your parents to determine the areas of most interest for your school community.
• How to Help Your Child With Homework (faculty)
• Deciphering the CATS/CTBS (faculty)
• Nurturing Your Child’s Desire to Learn (faculty)
• Ten Ways of Helping Your Child Succeed or Fueling Your Child’s Brainpower (faculty)
• Making Sense of Middle School Choices (counselor and/or JCPS personnel)
• Surfing the Net: Internet safety or a technology night (technology teacher)
• Single Parenting (school counselor and/ or therapist)
• I’m OK, You’re OK: How to raise your child’s self-esteem (counselor and/or therapist)
• Let’s Talk: How to talk with your child about anything (family therapist)
• Discipline (family therapist)
• Building a Healthy Child (nutritionist, pediatrician, and/or local agencies)
• Talking With Your Kids: A parent’s guide to sex education (district or state PTA representative, doctor’s office staff, and/or counselor)
• Bullying (police, faculty, therapist, and/ or Kentucky PTA representative)
• Safeguarding Your Children (police and/ or counselor)
• Stranger Danger: Teaching your child self-defense (police department)
• Stayin’Alive: School safety, bus safety, violence in the schools (counselor, police, and/or Kentucky PTA representative)
• Opening Doors to Communicating With Your Teenager (Kentucky PTA and/or National PTA representative)
• Just Say No to Drugs: Discussing drugs with your child: Drug awareness, what’s your child’s risk? (police department and/or counselor)
• Discussing Hate and Violence With Children (police, therapist, school counselor, and/or Kentucky PTA representative)
• Commonsense Strategies for Raising Alcohol- and Drug-Free Children (police department, counselor, and/or Kentucky PTA representative)
Some ideas came from the Kentucky PTA Idea Book 1995-1997 and National PTA Best Ideas.
