A school talent show is one of the easiest family fun events to pull off and works as a great family fun elementary school event, middle school assembly or after school high school student program.
If you’ve been considering adding this popular event into your calendar of events for your school or as a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) sponsored event, then read on for details on how to pull off a super fun school talent show!
Start planning the talent show early
And when I say early, I mean E-A-R-L-Y.
Get a date for the show booked as far out as possible.
The first time I organized a talent show, I started 10 months out.
I began the planning process by meeting with the building Principal and floated the idea of doing a talent show.
I knew she had done shows at other schools, but one hadn’t been done at this school in at least 8 years.
She agreed to be the Emcee (because she rocks!) and she chose late January for the time frame for the talent show.
The timing was important because I wanted her involvement and she was trying to avoid testing times.
We also tried to avoid other big events going on in the district so families wouldn’t have scheduling conflicts.
During this first planning meeting, we decided that any child who wanted to participate could and that there would be no auditions.
With kids this young, there isn’t a worry about something being inappropriate, so we could let this issue go a bit.
Soon after, I applied for a permit to use the high school’s auditorium.
The high school has an A/V crew that provides the sound and lighting needs for all performances in the auditorium.
They also provide recordings of the performances for a nominal fee.
And the auditorium is roomy enough for anyone who would want to attend!
Takeaway: Get the specifics asked out and nailed down early… way earlier than you think you should have to!
Need to promote your event? Check out this done-for-you- flyer!
Getting Talent Show Acts Lined Up
With your date and performers established, it’s time to start recruiting performers!
At the very first PTA meeting of the year, I gave a quick rundown of all of the family fun events for the year and made sure to specifically highlight the talent show.
This way parents got an early introduction to the idea and could start talking with their kids about performing.
I continued to announce it at PTO meetings in the following months and in October, sent around the first sign up sheet.
I got 3 people to sign up doing this.
The week before Winter Break, I sent home a flier asking for performers.
I got 2 more performers.
Uhhhh, not great but maybe people were busy with holiday stuff and forgot to respond?
The week after we returned from break, the show was just 3 weeks away.
If you’re doing the math, I had 5 performers at this point.
That doesn’t make for much of a spectacular talent show…
I figured I needed at least 10 performers to make the show a go.
I was a little worried.
But then I figured I just needed to do more PR…
I asked the school secretary to make announcements asking for performers.
I also sent the same talent show flier home with all students as I had done before break.
But this time, I included a response deadline.
That did the trick! I got about 25 responses, a few after the deadline.
But my deadline was pretty arbitrary, so I didn’t mind accepting late responses.
And we were pretty close to 30 performers, which was way more than I expected to have!
Fantastic!
Takeaway: Include a deadline for participation responses to ensure your show is a go!
Talent Show Act Ideas for Kids
Some kids will need some ideas for what talents they can show off during their performance, so here are a few ideas to share:
- Recite a poem
- Dance solo or with friends or family
- Sing a song
- Tell jokes
- Perform magic tricks
- Play an instrument, such as the piano, recorder, guitar, flute, violin, etc.
- Perform a rap
- Juggling
- Recite a favorite scene from movie or show
- Hula hooping
- Lip synching
- Bucket drumming
- Perform karate moves
- Show off gymnastic skills, such as tumbling, splits, hand stands, back flips, etc.
- Jump roping
- Ventriloquist act
- Show off yo yo skills
- Beatboxing
- Pet tricks
- Fast talking
- Card tricks
- Perform a one-person mini play
- Baton twirling
- Perform hockey goalie saves
- Show off soccer goalie saves
- Make mini gold trick shots
- Basketball tricks
- Perform a comedic skit
- Fashion show parade
- Skateboard routine
- Pogo stick jumping
- Show off a hand clapping routine
- Perform a puppet show
- Rollerskating tricks
- Speed drawing
- Speed cube tricks
- Limbo dance routine
- Play speed chess
- Create hand shadows
- Knee ballet routine
- Bicycle tricks
- Ribbon twirling
- Mental math
- Tell a story
- Breakdancing
Track the details
On the talent show flier, I asked for the following information:
- Name of performer
- Talent
- Equipment needed and
- Estimation of performance length.
We had kids singing, dancing, playing the piano, telling jokes, reading poetry, doing martial arts, magic tricks, a hockey skit and more.
The wide range of performers was terrific.
And that’s really why the show ended up being so fantastic- our kids are phenomenal!
On a spreadsheet, I tracked the the info I requested plus the parent name, parent email and song title and artist name, if applicable.
This made it easy to send email reminders to parents about practicing and and day of talent show details.
Help Your Talent Show Emcee
When I plan the next talent show (my 6th grader begged me to arrange one for his school next year!), I’ll be sure to also ask for the performer’s grade, teacher name and a fun fact the performer would like shared about them.
This info is good for the emcee to have on hand in case of technical delays with music or equipment.
Our emcee didn’t need this (remember, she rocks!) but it would be great to have.
Make a Talent Show Set List
The A/V guys ended up needing a set list, so I was able to quickly turn the spreadsheet into a set list with a few clicks.
They also made a CD of all music that would be used during the show and even went as far as finding the instrumental versions of the songs the kids would be singing so that we could hear the little voices!
This made my job a lot easier.
Takeaway: Stay organized! Contact your A/V team and ask for their advice and support!
Rehearsals? What Rehearsals?
By the time I knew for sure the show was a go, we were within 2 weeks of the talent show.
And with my schedule, I really didn’t have time to hold a rehearsal at a time that could accommodate schedules for 30 busy families.
So instead of having a rehearsal, I decided to ask all families to come one hour before the actual talent show.
That way it would be only a one night commitment.
Perfect!
Families did come early and we reviewed how to use a microphone (stand close, but don’t put your mouth on it!), how to enter the stage and what to do once the performance is over.
In the end, there were 23 performers and the show lasted an hour and a half.
Because it is cold and flu season, I had several performers fall ill and were unable to perform.
The somewhat smaller amount of performers made the talent show the perfect length and was spectacular!
With elementary school aged kids, there are less concerns about the acts being inappropriate, but you can easily avoid issues by having all participants sign a performance agreement that specifically states that performances need to be school appropriate.
Any issues then shift to the school for discipline and consequence actions.
Takeaway: Limit the pre-talent show time commitment as much as possible for increased participation!
Night of the Show
The show began immediately following the “dress rehearsal.”
All of the performers were seated together, in order of performance per the set list.
One volunteer sent the kids, a few at a time, backstage to wait for their turn to perform.
I waited with the kids, helped to calm any nerves and celebrated after their fantastic performances and then sent them back out to their seats.
I’m happy to say that out of 23 kids, we only had one little girl freeze up a little bit into her performance.
That’s pretty good considering the young age of the kids!
I took 5 copies of the set list to the show and made sure I had a pen to mark out any last minute cancellations.
It was an easy way to have everyone involved with the production of the show be literally on the same page!
Takeaway: Plan, plan, plan!
Consider Making the Talent Show a Fundraiser
You could easily turn the talent show into a fundraiser with a few tweaks.
No, not by charging people to come and watch their kid perform, silly.
Instead, sell concessions during intermission.
Or offer flowers for the performers.
The money raised wouldn’t make it a major fundraiser, but a little extra padding and would make the event more well rounded and add some interest.
It’ll also give everyone a chance to get up and stretch their legs during the intermission.
This will give you time to prepare for the second half of the talent show by re-arranging props and equipment needed for the second half of the show.
Talent Show Resources
Designing attractive PTO flyers can be time consuming and frustrating.
Why not get a made-for-you template instead?
Announce your talent show in style with this fabulous two page Talent Show flyer template set!
The second page of the flyer set makes it easy to recruit performers for your talent show.
Add your customizations to the flyer for a unique result that makes clear what the event is all about and has all the details needed for a fabulous school talent show.
Next, don’t forget about a program for the talent show!
Make the task of running a school talent show even easier by using this program template to reduce your event prep time for this classic school event.
The template comes in both Word and Pages, making it compatible with both Macs and PCs (Note: You must have Pages or Word to use the template).
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Watch this!
Give this video a watch for all of the fantastic school talent show planning ideas and tips:
Over to you!
Organizing a school talent show is a fabulous family fun program idea that’s perfect for PTOs covering all ages and stages, from elementary to middle school as well as high school students too.
Hope this article has inspired you to give this memorable event a try for your school!
