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Science Fair Ideas

4 Science Fair Hints & Tips

Science Fair season fast approaches and with all the intrigue and research comes an unquellable anxiety for both students and parents.  Make this year's Science Fair fun and stress-free with these 4 tips.

1.  Get Creative: New online platforms make searching for science fair project ideas a breeze!  Pinterest boards like this one are chock full of project ideas, best practices and fun tips to take your project to the next level.  Steve Spangler Science's, Susan Wells, has steps for helping you get started all the way from asking a simple question to creating your project boards.

2. Create Your Project Board: Once all the hypothesizing and research is complete, one of the seemingly hardest parts comes - putting all your information together for presentation.  Check out 5 easy steps to put together a science fair project board.

3.  Follow Through: Making sure your science fair project comes full circle will ensure it's success - encourage kids to step out of the box and truly challenge themselves (and their peers) with a great project that incorporates true scientific data.  For example, Susan Wells says,

Building a volcano and showing the eruption that occurs from the reaction between the baking soda and vinegar is NOT a science fair project. Testing additional substances beyond vinegar that will react with baking soda IS. Or testing different amounts of baking soda that will produce the highest or longest-acting volcano is another idea.

4.  Prepare:  The final step before the fair is to practice and prepare to answer questions. Fair visitors will stop by your child’s board and ask questions about why they picked the topic, what they did and what they learned. Make sure they understand the topic and the project and are able to discuss it.

Science fair projects are a lot of work but come with a lot of reward. Don’t let your fears as a parent get in the way of one of the best learning opportunities for your child.

 

Bonus Tip: Are you coordinating the science fair volunteers?  Quickly schedule and track parent volunteers with free online sign up sheets!  24/7 online access from a computer or mobile device makes helping out convenient and automated reminders make sure everyone keeps their commitment!

Classroom Volunteering

5 Ways to Get More Class Parents Involved This Year

Educators, room parents and school leaders - if your goal is to get more parents involved in the classroom and at school functions this year, we have 5 easy ideas to help you get a jumpstart!  Parent engagement is key to student success, but with busy schedules and multiple volunteer needs, it's hard for schools and classrooms to get organized and branch out from the same group of people who always donate their time and resources. Don't miss these 5 helpful ideas!

1.  Streamline the sign up process and make it more convenient for parents to engage in the classroom.  Free online sign up sheets make it more convenient for parents to sign up to help for everything - from classroom readers to spring carnival booths.  24/7 access from computers and mobile devices (and a free iPad app) encourage parents to sign up on their own time, and automated reminders make sure everyone keeps their commitment.

2.  Survey class parents - find out what areas parents would most like to get involved - this method secures a way of asking parents to help in key areas of the class which actually interest them.  Volunteers who devote their time helping in ways they love are more likely to return to help again, and they make a bigger impact in the classroom as their enthusiasm and energy is transferred to the students' experience.

3.  Encourage communication between parents - by making class rosters with contact info more available, encouraging parents to brainstorm ideas together for fun classroom activities, and taking advantage of technology and social platforms, your school volunteer group will boom as parents and families bond and learn to better communicate.  See 6 Ways to Encourage Parent Communication

4.  Grow your social community - when volunteer needs arise, post them on your school's various social networks (facebook page, twitter, even pinterest) and encourage your parent community to join you online so they are made privvy to updates and news.  See Activate Your School Parent Community with Social Media

5.   Embrace volunteer appreciation - your parent volunteer group not only deserves appreciation, but becomes a healthier and more loyal community because of the recognition.  Whether it's online with shouts on twitter or facebook, in a hand-written note, or at an appreciation party, recognizing parent volunteers for their dedication and time will only strengthen and grow your group in the year to come. See Volunteer Appreciation Ideas on Pinterest

School Community Night Ideas

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.

Carissa’s Son with School Principal Ruth Krieger during Family Math Night.

10  Ideas for School Community Nights (or afternoons, or Saturdays for that matter!)

1. 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 5^th and 6^th 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
   
   
2. 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!
   
   
3. 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 5^th grade U.S. History year!
   
   
4. 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.
   
   
5. 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.
   
   
6. 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.
   
   
7. 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.
   
8. 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!
   
   
9. 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!
   
   
10. 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!

Parent-Teacher Conferences and Partnerships: FREE Webinar

 

EdExchange Webinar Series:

Best Practices for Parent-Teacher Conferences and Partnerships

Tuesday, October 2, 2012 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM ET

Register Now (click here)

20 magic minutes.  That’s the time-span of a typical parent-teacher conference.  Done well, parent-teacher conferences build trust and set the stage for cultivating positive long-term partnerships among teachers, parents and students. Done poorly, they’re a waste of everyone’s time -- or worse, they can spark conflict and mistrust among participants causing parents to lose confidence in their children, the teacher and the school as a whole.

Thanks to McGraw-Hill Education, we’ve put together an all-star panel of thought-leaders in the education, parent participation, and EdTech community to share Best Practices for Parent-Teacher Conferences and Building lasting Partnerships.

This one hour webinar for educators (and interested parents) will cover best practices, new media and helpful tips and tools for conducting powerful parent-teacher conferences.   

Please join us and bring your questions and tips to share!

Register Now (click here)

Webinar Topics include:

• Parent-Teacher Conference as the formal kickoff of the parent – teacher – student relationship to last the year and beyond
• What’s new in conferences (using Skype, including students, etc.)
• Tips for teacher prep before the conference
• Tips for preparing parents
• Sample Parent-Teacher conference game plan
• Tips for engaging challenging parents
• How to build the parent – teacher – student relationship moving forward
• Free time-saver and coordination tool: parent-teacher conference scheduling by VolunteerSpot

 

Meet the Panelists:

Lisa Dabbs (@TeachingwthSoul)

Lisa is an educational consultant, blogger and speaker. She has served as an elementary school principal for fourteen years, a federal programs project director, English Language Arts consultant for Kaplan Educational Corporation, and adjunct professor for Concordia University. In her work as an educational coach and consultant, she supports new teachers and educational organizations utilizing leadership experience in the areas of curriculum and instruction, educational technology, English Language Learners, Early Childhood Education, and parent education. She is currently a Core Blogger at Edutopia.org and Edutopia’s New Teacher Connections Group Facilitator, blogger at KidsDiscover.com, and vice president of an award-winning literacy nonprofit in her community. Her personal blog is teachingwithsoul.com and Lisa is active in social media and is the leader of a weekly New Teacher Chat on twitter (#ntchat).

Pernille Ripp (@PernilleRipp)

Pernille is a 5th grade teacher in Middleton, Wisconsin, proud techy geek, and honest to a fault. Creator of the Global Read Aloud Project and believer in all children. “I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students' heads every day.”  Pernille is experienced in and a champion for student-led parent-teacher conferences. She blogs at mrspripp.blogspot.com.

 

 

Joe Mazza (@Joe_Mazza)

Joe is lead learner at Knapp Elementary School in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. He has spent his career working with students, teachers & families as a 3rd grade teacher, bilingual assistant principal, middle school vice-principal, an elementary principal, while serving as a TV studio producer, webmaster and technology integration coach in each setting. He will graduate the University of Pennsylvania with a doctoral degree in May 2013. Dissertation topic: Principals’ use of social media to strengthen home-school partnerships.  Joe’s blog, eFACE Today, was created to share ways educators can use innovative tools to compliment face to face communications between home and school, and do this in a transparent and collaborative way. Joe leads a weekly Parent Teacher Chat on Twitter (#ptchat)

Greg Garner (@classroom_tech)

Greg is a change catalyst who is always looking for ways to challenge the status quo. He serves middle-level teachers in Austin, TX as an Educational Technologist and enthusiastically supports the use of student-led, technology infused learning environments. Greg is experienced with parent engagement using digital portfolios and SPED/504 applications.

 

 

Glenn Yetter (@coachyetter)

Glenn is in his 28^th year of education, predominantly as a sixth grade teacher in which he strives to instill a ‘Figure It Out For Yourself’ attitude into his students.  He now serves a member of his district’s Digital Resources Committee and has been a soccer coach for 20 years! As a catalyst to initiate student-led conferences, he has trained teachers and students in this extremely effective format. Glenn also is a consultant for Educational Impact, an on-line professional development company.  His blog can be read at bestyett.blogspot.com.

Karen Bantuveris (@VolunteerSpot & @VSpotMom)

Karen is the founder and CEO of VolunteerSpot.com, a free time-saving coordination tool and parent-teacher conference scheduler that makes it easy for anyone to get involved in their local schools and communities. Karen launched VolunteerSpot in 2009 to simplify the volunteer experience and it has quickly grown from mom-to-teacher-to-team-to-nonprofit, boosting turnout with more than 1.8 million users nationwide.  Karen is a frequent conference speaker about increasing parent participation in schools, engaging parents to fund education technology, and using new media tools to inspire social action in the ‘real’ world. Karen lives in Austin, TX.

 

Register Now (click here)

 

Helpful Resources:

Free Parent Teacher Conference Scheduling from VolunteerSpot.com

For parents: 

Must-read parent teacher conference tips

Parent Partnership Tips (from NEA) 

For teachers: 

Parent Teacher conference tips

Preparing for and Conducting Parent-Teacher Conferences (from NEA) 

Volunteering in School | Parenting Monday

The Busy Mom's Guide to Volunteering in School

By: Beth Weinhouse (This post originally appeard on Parenting.com)

If you're like most moms, you probably wish there were more hours in the day. By the time you take care of your family, your job, and your house, there's not much time left to see your friends, let alone head up a committee to improve something at your kid's school. But giving even a few minutes can go far toward bettering your child's education—as long as you make those minutes count. For easy ways to get involved, we turned to the experts: the 51 mom delegates who won our contest to represent their states and the District of Columbia at Parenting's 2011 Mom Congress (MC) conference last April at Georgetown University in Washington, DC (meet them all and learn about their passions at parenting.com/momcongress), plus the education experts who participated and our Facebook fans. Still need convincing? “Research shows that family involvement leads to higher grades and better social skills and behavior,” says Mary Jo Neil, a former member of the National PTA's board of directors. So...what are you waiting for?

If you've got 5 minutes

JOIN PARENTING'S MOM CONGRESS COMMUNITY Sign up at facebook.com/momcongress. You'll connect with moms across the country who are just as busy as you are but want to help their kids' schools as much, too. “Everyone has something to give; everyone wants to feel needed… and every minute given to the school helps immensely,” says Marni Fennessy, the MC New Hampshire delegate.

E-mail your child's teacher when your little one enjoyed something the class did—or just to tell her that she's doing a great job. Teachers tend to hear from parents only when a child is having problems; letting her know how much you support and appreciate her will help keep your child foremost in her thoughts, too. “I make sure the teacher knows I'm on her side when it comes to education,” says Chamarro Nicole Caldwell on Facebook.

Read More for 5 Minutes

If You've Got 15 Minutes

Reach out to your child's class parent and volunteer to send reminder e-mails for events, meetings, field trips, parties, or fund-raising. You can be a hero just for sending those e-mails from your phone while sitting in a carpool line!

Should candy vending machines be removed from the schoolcafeteria? Is the science lab hopelessly outdated? Do kids need bike racks or crossing guards so they can ride or walk to school? When something needs changing at home or at work, you speak up, right? So set up an appointment for a short meeting or phone call with the school's principal and let him know how you feel.

Read More For 15 Minutes

If You've Got an Hour

Spend time in your kid's classroom. This may be the single most important thing you can do to help your child and his school. If you're not thrilled by the idea of reading to the kids or speaking at Career Day (both of which, by the way, are always welcome), do something that reflects your own interests and expertise instead. “My husband fixed computers so that the kids could play educational software games,” says Renee Herron on Facebook. “He brought in memory, keyboards, and mice. The kids were so happy to have their computers running again!” If you're artistic, bring in a project for the kids. If you speak another language, give an introductory lesson. While you're spending time in your child's classroom, the teacher can grade papers, plan lessons, deal with administrative duties, or just catch her breath and regroup, says Jerri Ann Reason, the MC delegate from Alabama.

Read More for 1 Hour

If You've Got a Morning

If you can spare one morning a week, we'll bet your kid's school can find a use for you! “I worked in the school library on Wednesdays,” says Debbie Benoit on Facebook. “And on Thanksgiving my daughter said the thing she was most thankful for was that her mommy ‘worked’ at her school!”

Keep everyone connected online with Shutterfly's Classroom Share sites. The free, secure websites make it easy to share class news and photos, and coordinate activities. To get started, go to shutterfly.com/sharesite.

Read More for A Morning

If You've Got a Day

CHAPERONE A CLASS FIELD TRIP. It will thrill your child to have you along on a school outing, and you'll get the bonus of extra face time with the teacher and a chance to get acquainted with other parents. Those contacts will prove valuable when you need to enlist the teacher's support or other parents' advice.

GET LOCAL BUSINESS OWNERS INVOLVED. Visit local restaurants to ask about establishing student incentive programs. For example, a pizzeria can host a special pizza night for students who read a certain number of books. This type of positive reinforcement helps improve student achievement.

MAKE OVER A SCHOOL FUNDRAISER. Instead of having kids sell unhealthy sweets like candy bars and cookies, look into other options like greeting cards, plants, candles, or ceramics. Or organize a fun run, where kids get people to pledge contributions for distance covered. “We hosted the school's silent auction/dinner fund-raiser at our home,” says one Facebook fan who works full-time. “It was easier for me to do one big thing rather than help out on smaller projects throughout the year.”

Read More for A Day

 

Post Courtesy Of

Sign On The Dotted Line | I'm Signing Up

Paper Sign Up Sheets or Online Sign Ups? That Is The Question.

Today's featured "I'm Signing Up" bloggers give us two unique perspectives of doing the "paper thing" and the "online thing" when it comes to volunteering and organizing school volunteers - don't miss their fabulous posts, excerpted below:

The paper sign up sheets seemed endless, but she hit 'em all - signing up to cook, help with field trips, make cut-outs at home, the list goes on! Deirdre Smith of JDaniel4sMom.com is doing it all, signing up to help at her son's school this year and make a difference in the classroom.  Read an excerpt of her I'm Signing Up post below and the entire piece here.

When I got to JDaniel’s room his teacher’s had sign up sheets for different task outside their classroom door along with a volunteer sheet that came home with him in his work folder. His teachers were looking for people to help with parties, check out books from the library on the theme they are studying, cut out crafts, create special snacks, and so much more. I put my name down for helping with field trips, special snacks and taking activities home to cut out. Special snacks sounded right up my alley. I really look for to helping creating thematic snack this year. There were a few thing on the sheet that was sent home that I signed up for too. 

I guess I will just have to wait and see what his teacher’s ask me to do. I wish JDaniel’s school used a website like VolunteerSpot . It is free to use and basically works like an online volunteer signup sheet. It allows schools and other organizations to schedule volunteer needs in a calendar format with details on what exactly is needed at what time. Then, volunteers can sign into the calendar to claim these specific jobs. 

Read Deirdre's Entire Post

* * * * *

Amy Volk of AmyVolk.com is full of love for free online sign up sheets!  After taking the plunge last year to organize a giant grade-wide trip (with tons of parent volunteers needed), she saved herself a lot of time (and stress) and certainly had the last laugh.  Read an excerpt of Amy's I'm Signing Up Post below and the entire piece here.

Last year, for some crazy reason, I signed up to be the parent volunteer coordinator for the 7th grade Environmental Camping Trip.  It’s a week long trip to a ranch with cabins and trails and rock climbing and swimming and lots of bonding.  Sounds fun, right? I wanted to be an involved parent and I had heard that this trip was super cool and super important to the kids, so how hard could it be to get some parents together to help out?

Ha.

I soon learned that I would need to fill about 90 volunteer slots including 4 nights for 10 cabins.  You do the math.  Just the overnight slots alone needed 10 parents each night to sleep over with 7th graders!  Holy cow.

Before my panic could set in, a friend told me that she had used this online signup calledVolunteer Spot.  Here is the moment when the white horse rides in to save the day!  That’s seriously how I feel about Volunteer Spot.

Read Amy's Entire Post

 

We raise our glasses to both Amy and Deirdre, whether it's jotting their name down on several paper sign up sheets or literally becoming a snake charmer of parent volunteer organizing online - kudos to you both!

Tell us how you're planning to volunteer at school this year over on facebook!

 

Teacher Appreciation Ideas

Teacher Appreciation Week Publicity

Plans for Teacher Appreciation Week 2012 (starts May 7th!) are well underway - from staff luncheons to teacher gift ideas and parties, the options are endless for showing teachers the THANKS they deserve!  Go the extra mile with some on-the-spot publicity that can shout out your teachers with your loving school community - check out five creative ideas for getting the word out!

1.  Twitter/Facebook:  Does your school community have a facebook fan page or twitter account?  Take advantage of social media and plan on individualized shouts to your school's teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week.  Make sure to "tag" those teachers with profiles on facebook or with their twitter handles and ask your community to retweet, share, and like the posts.

2.   Videos:  A variety of online platforms make it easy to create a quick video and share it online with your community!  Sites like Youtube are perfect if your school already has an account, or check out Tout.com that lets you share on-the-spot Teacher Appreciation fun (captured with your mobile device) on your social media channels or via email immediately.  Looking to create a slideshow of great teacher photos?  Animoto helps you create beautiful slideshow masterpieces with music.

Share your videos on your school's website, link to them in the school eNewsletter, or post on facebook/twitter.

3.  News Outlets:  Check with local news stations to see what stories they are planning during Teacher Appreciation Week and see if your school's teachers could be a focus.  Nominate your teachers for local recognition or take out ad space to give a special shout out to your favorite teacher in your town's newspaper/news magazine.

4.  Get Crafty:  Set the scene for Teacher Appreciation Week with bulletin boards, door decs, and posters.  Get the kids in on the fun with decorating, painting and crafting their signs of THANKS to don the hallways and doors all over the school.  We love these door decoration ideas for Teacher Appreciation week from SkipToMyLou.org!

5.  Pin it:  Wild about Pinterest?  Consider creating a Teacher Appreciation board to share with your school community capturing those big Teacher Appreciation Week moments as well as candid shots of those classic teacher surprises!

Organizing parent volunteers for your TAW event?  Save time and energy with free online sign up sheets!  Share your needs online and let volunteers sign up 24/7 at their convenience from their computer or smartphone.

Science Fair Ideas

5 Easy Steps to Put Together a Science Fair Project Board

By:  Susan Wells of Steve Spangler Science

The science fair project is due next week, you’ve spent time researching, hypothesizing, experimenting and discovering… now, how do you pull it all together?

If you still need help finding a project or working on your project, read my post from last year with Five Simple Steps to Get Started with your science fair project.

I coordinate my school’s science fair, and the second most asked question (after what project should I do?) is ‘How do I put together my project board?’ Here are five easy steps to follow to make your board both beautiful and informative:

1.  First, start with a board.  The popular three-paneled science fair board is found at many craft stores like Hobby Lobby. They come in a variety of colors. While you are picking out a board, grab a package of letter stickers or some colorful markers. This will help add creativity and design to really make your board pop.

2.  While you are working on your project, take notes on the computer or a piece of paper. Write it down and type it up as you go, so when you are done, you will have all of your text ready to stick down.

3.  Take a lot of pictures before, during and after your project. Take pictures of your materials, your experiment and your results.

4.  Laying out a project board is easy when you think about it in the steps that you took to perform your experiment. Starting on the upper left side, layout your project as you did it, leaving space in the upper middle panel for your eye-catching title, name and grade. A good science fair project includes the following:

• BIG QUESTION: What are you trying to find out?
• HYPOTHESIS: An “I think ... “ statement. What do you think will happen?
• MATERIALS: A list of supplies for your experiment
• VARIABLE: Something that changes in your experiment
• PROCEDURE: The steps you take to run your tests
• DATA: A graph or chart that shows the results of your test
• BIG DISCOVERY: What happened? Explain your results
• CONCLUSION: So what? What did you learn?
• I WONDER: What does your experiment make you wonder about?

5.  Finally, glue and secure everything down on the board.

Keep in mind that this is just a guide. Schools and teachers have their own requirements and guidelines. Make sure you follow their rules first.

 

 

Susan Wells is a mom of two girls, ages 6 and 10. She organizes the Science Fair at her daughters’ elementary school and loves to bring science into their lives in and outside of the classroom. Susan does social media, blogging, blogger outreach and web marketing for Steve Spangler Science.

Field Day

Field Day Activities | Plan  & Play!

Field Day activities keep kids moving and make for a truly memorable and fun event!  A staple for many springtime school calendars,  Field Day is a thrill for all involved. 

Both traditional and inventive outdoor field day games will make yours a sensational blast kids will be talking about for weeks!  Successful Field Days share several common ingredients:

5 Ingredients for Field Day Fun

1.  Classroom Pride
Encourage each class to pick a theme and simple costumes so kids can be easily identified and clustered  for activities.  E.g. Ms. Cunningham’s Clowns, Mr. Rice’s Rockers, Ms. Newton’s Nerds.  No costumes?  Have the class plan to wear same color t-shirts for the day.

2.  Great Field Day Games
Simple or elaborate, the best field day games use items you have readily available and provide opportunities for the kids to get soaked!

Water Balloon Toss:  Split the class or group of kids into two lines standing across from one another, starting about five feet from one another.  One side tosses their water balloons to the other.  Those whose water balloons don’t drop or burst take two to three steps back and toss again.  Last team left wins!

Egg and spoon race: 2 or even 3 teams, and use different types of objects to carry, try giant marshmallows, ping pong balls, potatoes. Or use chopsticks to carry items.

Check out VolunteerSpot’s list of kids’ favorite wacky field day games such as pizza box race, chicken stix relay and toilet plunger challenge.

Add creative twists to your games! E.g. Use a timer and a loud air horn to randomly end any games in progress and when the horn goes off… all teams switch to a new game area. Starting the new game immediately means no one may every really win, but they’ll have too much fun to care!

3.  Awards & Prizes
Reward teams with different color beaded necklaces, rubber-band bracelets, printable certificates, or small ribbons attached to safety pins to indicate how they placed in each event.

Mix it up!  Dole out the craziest, zaniest prizes you can think up. For the silliest contestants, cover them in Silly String at the end of the day. For an ‘ice-breaker’ winner hand ‘em a cup of ice & allow the winner to dump it down a teacher or volunteer’s back! Create Jell-O molds in the shape of small trophies and hand out a few straws to various game winners, then let them suck up their prize.

Make sure everyone’s a winner by handing out consolation prizes like small temporary tattoos, stickers, pencils and other small prizes.  And above all, have fun!

4.  Volunteers!
Sign on older kid helpers and parent volunteers for the ultimate school day of fun!

Field day takes a TON of parents to setup, run hundreds of kids through activities, and clean up.  Save time and energy getting everyone organized with VolunteerSpot’s free coordination tool!  Set up your simple online sign up sheet with a list of volunteer needs (eg. station supervisors, snacks & water, set up, clean up) and  invite volunteers to signup via email (or post a link on your school’s website  or facebook page).  Parents signup from their computer or smartphone, and automated confirmation and reminder messages everyone keep their commitments.

Delegate!  Give each classroom or grade responsibility for planning and staffing a Field
 Day station (e.g. tug-o-war, May pole, obstacle course, water station). VolunteerSpot’s new Quick Copy feature makes it easy to duplicate a signup sheet and share it with lead classroom parents to recruit helpers.

5.  Safety  
      Keep safety details in mind when planning Field Day so everyone has a fun day!

Sun Supervision:  Have high SPF sun block on hand and shade-filled areas for resting.

Hydration:  Set up specific spots and times where kids can get a drink and a break enjoying fun individual activities such as blowing bubbles, stacking cups, hula hooping, or chalk drawing.

Snacks:  Plan for filling snacks that won’t leave kids crashing after the sugar wears off – granola bars, sandwich bites, trail mix.

First Aid: Be prepared with a fully stocked first aid kit and the school nurse on hand for emergencies.

 

Also see:

Field Day Game Ideas

Field Day Essentials Checklist

5 Tips for Field Day Fun

Field Day Prize Ideas

FREE Field Day event cards download from Cap'n Pete's PE

Valentine's Day | Classroom Activities

Classroom Valentine's Party Ideas

Online sign up sheets make coordinating class party volunteers a cinch, and these super fun game and party ideas will make the rest a breeze too!

 Check out our free e-book full of class party game and snack ideas, including Valentine's-themed activities (pg. 14 - 15) like Traveling Hearts and Thumb Print Cards, courtesy of TeachMama.com!

Show your school teachers, leaders and staff some love this Valentine's Day too with a "love bomb," or thoughtful gift card!

School Benefit Auction Tips

Resolutions for Your Benefit Auction?  Only if they help your school!

By: Sherry Truhlar of RedAppleAuctions

The New Year brings talk of resolutions and all the things we plan to change this year.  I’m not a big believer in resolutions. I like to think I’m willing to make changes any time changes are needed. I do concede that January is the time to start thinking about our annual school auction. If resolutions help you get others on board with change, then I am a champion of resolutions!

When you’re working on your school auction this year, here are a couple of resolutions to consider:

First, resolve to improve your benefit auction marketing. Successful auctions get people excited about the event in the weeks leading up to the fundraiser. Guests are eager to attend. Guests are excited to bid.  Guests are curious about new activities.  Guests are excited to see friends.  To generate this level of enthusiasm, you need to be marketing to your guests. There are many ways to do this, and one suggestion would be to add Facebook to your arsenal of marketing tactics. 

Facebook has not caught on big in benefit auctions, and I don’t exactly know why.  Maybe it’s an administrative issue.  A number of groups tell me that until their Board / attorney / school superintendent formulates a policy on Facebook and other social media, their school / nonprofit / foundation can’t do anything with those tools.

Darn it.

Facebook can be a useful marketing tool for your auction – it’s easy to add photos, upload some videos, ask questions – so see if you can work through any internal legal or administrative issues and give it a try this year. (When you're ready, see this article on using facebook to boost fundraiser buzz and participation.)

What else should your charity auction be resolving to do this year?  What about a resolution to examine some of the more traditional elements of your event and considering how to re-invent them?  Let’s make your school auction “fresh.”  Putting some twists into your gala could keep guests talking about your fundraiser long after the big night.

For instance, your volunteers on the food and beverage committee might be recharged if you challenge them to – economically, of course – incorporate some of the trends happening in event foods.

Small, mini, and petite is what I expect to see on serving trays and buffet tables.  The invasion of cake pops, mini cupcakes, and bite-sized delectables will give a new look to a school auction’s dessert table.  (It also means I have less guilt about polishing off three desserts.)

About the author:

Fundraising auctioneer Sherry Truhlar, CMP, BAS, CAI is featured in national publications for her trend-setting work with auction fundraisers.  She teaches auction chairs easy ways to improve an auction’s financial return.  Start improving your auction today by getting her FREE Auction Item Guide TM.  The Guide lists the 100 top-selling items sold for over value in charity auctions.  Claim your FREE copy at http://www.RedAppleAuctions.com.

VolunteerSpot Blog | Best of 2011

Blog Series, Guest Regulars and Wonderful Readers Made 2011 our Best Year Yet!

We want to celebrate and thank our guest contributors for a great year of all things service and giving back.  From insightful perspectives on school parent involvement,  non-profit success and benefit auction how-to's, to volunteer management and social media tips, teacher appreciation and fun class party ideas, employee volunteering and corporate responsibility news, faith group and community-building concepts and so much more - our blog proved to be an ever-evolving foundation for sharing timely and desired content.  

 
A favorite summer blog series, Teacher Tuesdays, was a thrilling opportunity to feature guest posts focusing on parent engagement in education from a teacher's perspective.  

 

Our Summer of Service feature gave us the privilege of featuring leading guest bloggers who shared their unique and personal perspectives on service, volunteering and citizen philanthropy.  Topics ranged from volunteering for kids and volunteer management, to the power of story-telling, employee service, supporting military families and so much more! 

 

The My School My Way campaign brought together over 30 bloggers sharing the highs and lows of parent volunteering, and how they did it their way in their school.  From humourous anecdotes to heart-warming insights, our My School My Way blog campaign had something for everyone, and we were honored to share these wonderful parents and writers with our readers.  Wrap-up and roll call.

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April Welch, our resident Mental Clutter Coach, joined us week after week for Tidy Thursday - bringing fresh ideas and bright new ways to approach organizing our lives!

Worship Wednesday guest posts from Sue Brage were a true blessing.  From a faith-based perspective, her thoughts and words shed light on growing one's faith group and the interpretation of service in doing so.

 

 

Sherry Truhlar of Red Apple Auctions LLC brought us countless helpful tips, ideas and strategies when it came to running a successful auction.  From publicitiy, to gathering volunteers, legal refreshers, and best practices, expert advice made auction fundraisers less of a dream and more of a reality for many readers.

 

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VolunteerSpotlights gave us a chance to shine a light on the amazing individuals and organizations who use VolunteerSpot to make a difference in their community.  From school parent leaders to festival organizers, conference coordinators to humane societies, congregational volunteer leaders to regional homeless shelter organizers - the willingness to do good was colorful and widespread and we were honored to share each and every story.

Additional Guest Regulars included:

Chris Jarvis of Realized Worth brought us insights into workplace volunteering, corporate social responsibility, and employee volunteer programs.

Andrea Patten of What Kids Need to Succeed illumined top tips, best practices, fun stories and helpful hints when it comes to running a successful nonprofit.

Myrdin Thompson of RootsandWings Library and MomCongress provided a keen and astute perspective from everything grant-writing, to literacy promotion, and advocating for more school involvement.

Susan Wells of SteveSpanglerScience joined us to share super creative and much-needed ideas incorporating science into the classroom, whether for a class party, school science fair, or the "dreaded science project."

A variety of incredibly talented and knowledgable contributors made our array of free e-books available as a highly sought-after resource for countless volunteers, organizers, teachers, team moms, and room parents!  From healthy snack ideas, to parent-teacher conference, class party, volunteer recognition, bake sale, school carnival, fundraising, talent show, and family volunteering ideas and tips, our e-books continue to be a fun and helpful resource for our readers and we are thrilled to be able to share them on our blog.

Family Friendly Volunteering: Service Project Ideas from A-Z

View more presentations from VolunteerSpot

There are so many more favorite posts and contributors in addition to these listed and we hope you take the time to look around.  Of course, our blog would be nowhere without our amazing readers and those who help promote and share our posts.  2011 was an incredible year and we are sure 2012 will prove to be even better - many thanks and here's to a New Year!

Resolve to Volunteer in 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR from VOLUNTEERSPOT!

From health and fitness, to family, finances, and travel, top New Year's resolutions are never without the desire to VOLUNTEER and give back in the New Year.  We hope you resolve to volunteer in 2012 - please tell us how you plan to give back in 2012 over on our facebook wall, and click below to grab your badge!

 

Looking Ahead | Volunteer Engagement In 2012

Some of us are wishing there were extra days in December (or at least 25 hours in the day)! January is fast approaching and we’re still in holiday mode.

Take a moment between sips of eggnog and grandma’s pumpkin pie to put a stake in the ground to increase Volunteer Engagement in 2012. DO ONE THING —Plan a First-of-the-Year Volunteer Gathering. (Then head back to the football games, tinsel and cheese balls.)

Host a January Gathering and Jumpstart Volunteer Engagement in 2012  

Simple or elaborate, kick-start the New Year with a January volunteer  gathering.  Host a coffee break, a chili luncheon, potluck, or pizza party.  Offer a look back at 2011 and present plans for the year ahead – goals, big events, greatest volunteer needs, introduce new leaders and coordinators, etc. 

Here are 6 simple ways to make the New Year’s kickoff  a success:

1. Before the meeting, ask volunteers to share photos from 2011 events on your facebook  page; request they add stories, anecdotes and favorite memories of their volunteer experiences over the year. Create a scrapbook from the images  - publish a hardcopy for sharing or a pdf  (soft copy) for emailing.
   
   
2. Review the goals and accomplishments of your year of volunteering with hard numbers and facts -- from how many kids you helped read, to how many families were fed, how much money your fundraiser pulled in, how many badges your troop merited, how many games your team won, etc.
   
   
3. Thank your 2011 volunteers with a slideshow or posters describing your collective impact, pictures of volunteers in action, and of course… treats!
   
   
4. Ask for feedback.  What worked well and what would volunteers like to see improved in the new year?  Sometimes simple things like changing the start time of a shift or creating a designated volunteer parking place can make a world of difference.
   
   
5. Outline your goals for 2012 and call for volunteers!  Be ready with online sign up sheets to organize your new year, semester, or season of service.  Share the link at your meeting and directly after via email.
   
   
6. The New Year’s meeting is the perfect time for a fresh start to invite people who have not had the chance to volunteer yet.  Let them know you would love to see them participate in 2012 – ask what special talents or skills they might be able to contribute and partner them with your active contributors.

Here's to a brand new year in service!  Let us know what your volunteer team or organization is planning for 2012 over on facebook!

Literacy & How Your School Can Get Involved

Book Access & Book Drives | Books Are Better Program

For so many families, November is really when we start our traditional "holiday" season; once Halloween is over, all the holiday decorations start going on sale. And while my children generally start clamoring for the latest and greatest tech gear or toy and circling items in the Sunday circular, they also start a long wish list for the newest book in a series they have been reading as well.

Did you know that many children don't have access to books? According to reports, 2/3 of families living in poverty in the U.S. (61%) have no children's books in their homes. While we like to think that because the library systems in our city are so plentiful, everyone must have a chance to go as frequently as our family does, that quite often isn't the case.

If you are homeless and living in a shelter, or even sharing a home with a relative, that means you don't have a permanent address. If you don't have a permanent address you can't check out books from the library, or if you are able to check out a book, you don't have a place to keep it. Fewer than half (48%) of young children in the U.S. are read to daily, and more than 13 million children under the age of 5 go to bed every night without a bedtime story. This may mean that in my daughter's kindergarten class, 34% of her friends have entered school without the basic language skills they need to learn to read.

Thankfully a group of moms, just like you and me, joined together with support from Parenting Magazine Mom Congress and partnership from Reach out and Read, and created a literacy support program known as "Books Make it Better." By using the toolkit created by the Books Make it Better team, you can launch your own book drive in your community or you can participate in a virtual book drive. This means you can donate books directly to ROaR by choosing from one of eleven different titles, or sponsor a child for the full five-year ROaR Program.

We know that if you want to run your own book drive the amazing support tools that we use through VolunteerSpot can make what might seem a daunting task run like a dream! There is probably a community center or family homeless shelter that would love a box of new or gently used books. Maybe your child's classroom or school honor society could be the ones to run the drive with your support, encouragement, and planning. And just think, in the virtual drive your donation might just be helping one of your child's classmates get their hands on a great book! Who doesn't love Goodnight Moon? Or The Tale of Peter Rabbit? And for $50 you can sponsor a child for an entire year. Wow! I'm willing to give up 10 chai tea latte's for that-and everyone know's how much I love a good chai tea latte this time of year!

You might live in a "literacy rich" community or school district. I'm fortunate that here in Louisville our school district has a dedicated mentoring and reading program created in partnership between our metro government and our public school system known as Every1Reads.  The National Center for Family Literacy (and that amazing new program called Wonderopolis) makes its home here as well. And on October 6, 2011, an outstanding 2,184,155 of us just participated in the recent Jumpstart "Read for Record" campaign by reading Llama, Llama Red Pajama to children all over the United States. For so many, unfortunately, there is no access to a book, no literacy night, no Goodnight Moon.

As Maya Angelou said "Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him. "Help create a habit this holiday season. One book, one child. Because "Books Make it Better."

 

Myrdin Thompson has been a Louisville public school parent, volunteer & advocate since 2002. Was recognized by the White House as a "Champion of Change" (www.whitehouse.gov/champions)(April 2011); is the Arts Advocate Mentor for Mom Congress; was the KY Delegate for Parenting Magazine's 2010 Mom Congress, "Mom of the Moment", Parenting Magazine, School Years, March 2010; and a KaBOOM! Playmaker of the Month (June 2008). She has a MA in Renaissance Drama from CSUF.