Spring is the perfect time to host a PTO event for your school community!
With the back to school Fall rush and busy Winter holiday season over, now’s the time to put on an event or two for students and families before the school year ends.
Here are seven ideas that are especially well-timed for the second half of the school year!
Carnival
Homemade or rented carnival games will provide hours of fun for kids and families to try their hands at in pursuit of tickets to spend on prizes.
This event can easily be a fun-raiser or fundraiser.
Selling game tickets will help break even on the costs to run the event and game prizes.
Offer concessions and maybe even a silent auction <<insert link to auction article>> to easily turn the event into a bigger money maker.
This is a fantastic event to hold indoors, during late Winter/early Spring timing, which often comes with unpredictably wet weather, making outdoor events impossible.
Check out this post for an in-depth explanation for How to Have the Best Carnival.
Talent Show
Give your school’s students and staff their time in the spotlight up on the stage with a chance perform and show off their talents.
Not only are talent shows always crowd pleasers (who doesn’t want to root for someone brave enough to get up in front of everyone?), but this is a cost free event to boot.
It’s also an event that can be tweaked for students of all ages and stages and can be held as an in-school assembly or an evening affair.
The versatility and flexibility makes talent shows winning events.
Fun Run
Get your entire local community involved by sponsoring a 5k Race or Fun Run.
This is another experience perfect to put on as either a fundraiser or fun-raiser.
It’s also a great opportunity to collaborate with other PTOs in your district for a health conscious, family friendly activity.
Connect with your Phys Ed teachers to help bring this event to life and possibly integrate into their lesson plans to get even more mileage.
Special Persons Dance
Modernize the tried and true dance, typically styled as a Mother Son or Dad Daughter Dance and offer a Special Person’s Dance.
Students get to invite an adult that is important to them.
This way, no one feels left out or excluded since the special person can be a parent, older sibling, neighbor, grandparent, etc.
In any case, the key to a good school dance is having an excellent DJ who goes above and beyond to get people out of chairs and onto the dance floor.
Be sure to ask for RSVPs so you’ll know how many to plan for refreshment-wise, even if the event is free to attend.
Use a Google form or set up an Evite to get a general headcount. Not everyone who ultimately comes will let you know in advance, but it can give you a ballpark number.
Movie Night
A more casual event idea that’s perfect for every PTO is the classic Movie Night.
Be sure to fire up your popcorn machine well in advance to make enough popcorn for attendees or ask local movie theaters for a donation of the pre-popped treat.
Up the fun factor by suggesting pajamas as the dress code and ask families to bring blankets to make the gymnasium floor a touch more comfortable for viewing.
Field Day
Get students out of the classroom to burn off a little energy for a Field Day.
Held during the last days of school, a field day can give the students a chance to get out of the classroom and burn off some energy, without the constraints of lessons to learn and assignments to complete.
Teachers are sure to enjoy this change of pace too!
This is also a great event to hold during Olympic years. It’s a nice tie-in that may pique interest and can easily be adapted for students in all grade levels.
If it’s not possible to hold during the school day, hold in the evening instead and make it a family affair, pairing students and parents together for team activities for even more fun.
Game Night
Bring everyone together for an evening of fun and literal games! This is a super easy and relatively inexpensive event to pull together, using games your group might already have on hand. Raid your PTOI storage closet for games, source some from area thrift stores, get donations from local Buy Nothing groups or ask families to bring their own games to play.
For older students, consider turning Family Game Night into a Video Game Night instead. Buy a copy of a Jackbox game, open it up on a single computer and then multiple players can join in on the fun with their smartphones.
Alternatively, ask students to bring their X-Box or Switch game consoles, then wheel televisions on carts into the library or a few classrooms and let the kids play together, tween or teenage style.
Over to You!
No matter which event(s) you end up running, the students and families will love the opportunity to come together for a good time before school wraps up for the year.
Don’t let budget concerns rule out holding an event or two in the Spring since any of the above suggestions can be transformed into a fundraiser pretty easily!
