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First PTO Today Expo and My First Top Pick:)

March 30, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

PTO Expo – First Top Pick

On Wednesday, we attended our first PTO Today Expo. Neither Paul nor I knew what to expect. I don’t think either of us had huge expectations to be honest. Boy were we surprised! Pleasantly surprised at that.

First of all, how awesome is my husband to take a vacation day to go with me to this kind of event?? Always so supportive! I’m sure there are a million other things he’d rather do on his day off than to go with me to such an event, but he even ordered the tickets for me:) Yeah… I’m pretty lucky:) Thank you again, Paul!

Ok! Now, on to the Expo:) We were directed into a room with over 150 fundraising vendors and educational booths. For this PTC mom, it was amazing – almost overwhelming. There were a lot of familiar companies like Little Caesar’s, World’s Finest Chocolate, Krispy Kreme, etc. For almost 3 hours, Paul and I walked around, spoke to different booths and got some refreshing new ideas. What I loved about this event was that it wasn’t just about fundraising. It was full of ideas for the teachers and kids. Over the next few posts, I will be giving yall Paul and my top picks from the expo. There was so much good stuff and new ideas. I know you’ll be just as excited as we were about it:)

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School Staff “Christmas Drop-In”

March 29, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

School Staff “Christmas Drop-In”

The week coming up to Christmas is a stressful week for both students and teachers. Students are excited about upcoming vacation, Christmas and then stressed beyond words due to a week of finals. Teachers are just trying to make it across that finish line. Six or seven classes means finals for a couple hundred students. A couple hundred students means a couple hundred tests to grade and get into the grade book before break. Not to mention last minute conferences with frantic students and parents about missing papers, grades, etc. There really is no extra time for anything else.

Last year, I wanted to somehow treat the staff to some sort of Christmas party but I knew that it would be crazy to expect them to “be able to” or “want to” spend any extra time at school at any point. I came up with the plan that I’d invite them to a Christmas Drop In. I wanted them to know they were invited to come in and visit or just drop in for a treat and leave if needed. [Read more…]

Raffle Gift Baskets

March 28, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

Gift baskets. Just the idea of a gift basket excites me!

Gift baskets are one of the best fundraising mechanisms that I have ever done. Seriously. They can be simple or you can go all out and really put some work into them- whatever the occasion calls for. Either way, you’re going to do well. At our elementary school, I ran the Santa Breakfast for several years and although people loved to see Santa Claus, the chances of winning one of our many Gift Baskets was a huge draw. In fact, the years following my departure, the new Santa Breakfast committee retired them from their event . People were very disappointed, however, they pulled the baskets into the Fun Fair in the spring. Fun Fair is now the huge event for the elementary school and the baskets really put it over the top.

The wonderful thing about these baskets is that they can stand alone, and still do very well. Take for instance, Matthew’s swim team sold raffles for gift baskets at a swim invite. There was an incredible amount of excitement over them. Matthew was lucky enough to win the really nice Speedo swim bag which included t-shirts, markers (for swim events), chocolate bars, swim caps and many other small – BUT EXCITING extras. All for the price of $1. Just so happened, that that dollar was the only dollar I had in my purse at the time. It’s very rare, though, that people will just buy one ticket anyway. They love the 6 tickets for $5. It just sounds more appealing. The thought of getting that one extra for free. One more chance they don’t have to pay for that just might be the winning ticket.

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Valentines Day for Room Parents

March 28, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

Everyone loves Valentines Day. Students really look forward to their Valentine’s Day parties. Giving and receiving those little cards, fun games and yummy treats are all part of the day. Every year, I see/hear room parents talking about what they are planning for their party.

Some teachers have specific parameters set out.

For example, one of our kindergarten teacher’s guidelines are – Rice Crispy Treat, juice box, open Valentines and one craft.

Other teachers are more like, “Just make sure I still have a classroom left at the end of the party!” :).

Today, I thought I’d put some ideas out there to help you organize your Valentines Day class party.

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Getting the Team Name “Out There”

March 28, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

I found this blog I wrote from last year. Thought I’d post it here:

HS Swim Season 2015

This year we absolutely need to raise money, but we also need to raise awareness that, YES, we do have a swimming and diving team. We need to get the word out and make some noise so others will recognize what a great sport it is. One of the things I’ve put together for the kids this year was spirit wear. I’m not sure what they’ve really had in the past, but I know for as long as we’ve been here, I have never seen any spirit wear other than the normal football, basketball, soccer or track (and I think that’s just because Matthew has some) – the usual suspects. Anyway, so I made up a design and sent it into the printers. They in turn sent me back some AMAZING designs based on mine and we were off! I picked out several items that I thought the kids might enjoy including 2 different styles of sweatpants, hoodie, long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt and pajama pants. I also put an option for embroidered beanies – one for dive and one for swim. The pants were a huge hit with the kids. Instead of the usual mascot name down the leg, this time they say SWIMMING. There is also a paw print with our high school initials in it at the top. They really loved to show what sport they are participating in. I didn’t use this as a fundraiser, simply because I wanted to make it affordable for the kids. I have another idea in the works for spirit wear that will be an incredible fundraiser for the team but that is something totally different and I’ll share with yall at a later date, though!

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