Host A School Community or Family Fun Night!
Pump up parent participation and ignite involvement with school community nights that bring parents, students, teachers and staff together in an atmosphere of fun! Providing avenues for connection outside of the classroom gives your school community an incomparable way to join together, share, bond, and learn new things about one another.
While “community nights” often serve as fundraisers (i.e. family barbeques, ice cream socials), think about budgeting for a free night of family engagement too, encouraging your school family to get together in the same building for a memorable and interactive experience.
10 Ideas for School Community Nights (or afternoons, or Saturdays for that matter!)
- Family
Math Night— What is a Family
Math Night?! Think of it like a Math Party! Invite parents and kids to
explore 8 different stations of games, each with 3 ability levels. Younger kids
spend quality time with parents and older kids get to challenge each other.
Plus 5th and 6th graders gain volunteer hours acting as
game facilitators! Carissa’s school tested out a new kit from the popular
Kidnexions Family Math Night company
called Math Medley. “It was a huge hit and we can keep using much of the kit
for future events!” —Carissa Rogers
- Movie
Night— With a little effort movie night can be a real ball! (Look
into obtaining movie rights first). Skip
admission fees and borrow a carnival style popcorn maker; hand out water and
popcorn for free, and charge for homemade treats. Keeping this simple will
ensure a huge ‘family style’ turn out for your event!
- Potluck
Party — Organize families for a big ol’ family-style potluck
dinner. Host mini contests for “best
desserts” and label each dish with the family name and ways to request the
recipe. Or create a theme surrounding a whole grade’s history lesson that year; each family brings an item from one of 50 states for 5th grade U.S.
History year!
- Family
Read-A-Thon— Wear your bunny slippers and PJ’s! Gather book donations in advance of
the event and end the night with a bang by allowing each student to choose and
take home one book. Reading stations and
guest story-tellers help bring together school families and promote literacy.
- Parents Only Workshops — Host guest lecturers or
professors who can lead seminars on varying topics like: parenting, understanding
what your child is learning, new education technology, helping struggling
learners and homework best practices.
- Bingo Night – Can’t beat the good time
that some novelty bingo can provide!
Connect with sponsors to donate prizes for winners and provide light
refreshments like cookies, coffee and water.
- Family Fitness/Yoga Night – Provide health and wellness
resources to your school community family while leading them in
stress-relieving and deep breathing exercises that will benefit the whole
family, parents and kids.
- Keeping Art at Heart Night – Set up art
stations that let kids get creative (and a little messy); bring families together to create works of art that help kids explore imaginatively and which can be sent home as keepsakes too!
- Go Green Night – In addition to
environmental awareness resources and eco ideas for the family, a Go Green
night can include fun games like recycling relay, environmental jeopardy and
even some mad scientist experiments!
- School Appreciation Night – Set up for a night of appreciation where students (and parents) can create notes, cards and small gifts of appreciation not just for teachers and staff, but for local community leaders and public servants, i.e. the volunteer fire department, and for our troops abroad. Surprise the parent volunteers who regularly donate time with pre-made thank you notes ready to hand out!
Best Idea of All? Use VolunteerSpot's free online sign up sheets to encourage more parent volunteers and participation during your next School Community night! Coordinate parent volunteers and participants, and rely on automatic reminders to help everyone keep their commitments!
