Ideas for an Elementary Social

We just had an IceCream Social with the fixins for a sundae it was a great hit.I also did temp. tattoo booth passed out pencils & erasers to all kids had a drawing for 2 $25.00 gift cards.
Since it is now Fall I would run this thought through buy mini pumpkins & have the kids decorate them with paint as a take home gift.We will be having our school carnival soon with outside bounce houses there are several in your area to rent makes a great hit
If you need help send me a private message I can see what I can coem up with for you

How about a grill night? The one room could provide the meat, another the salads, another chips, etc. Have sign ups in each room so that you are you sure not to get things doubled up on. We've also did a pizza and game night. We just asked everyone to donate to the cost of pizza (and did Little Ceasers to keep it cheap) and then people brought their own drinks. The school could provide the games or the kids could bring some from home. This was always very popular. We sometimes followed this by a short movie to wrap up the event.

Honest, honest answer here: when putting on this type of event in hopes to build a supportive community, often it backfires. Each family attends & will do a little of the niceties.....but will focus on their own family....& then leave. So in the end, you'll have these little core families floating around the event without really mixing up the group.

To prevent this, try to find some social icebreakers....some mixers.....to get the parents/kids stepping out of their little cells! Since you're working with school-age kids, this will be easy! As the families enter, use stick-on name tags. Ask the families to put their 1st/last names on the tags. When all have arrived, have an emcee announce that it's time to break up into the Alphabet. Make it fun for the kids....have the letters hanging from the ceiling! Give everybody time to introduce themselves, to get to know each other.....& then when more games are played later on....use these groups to play the games. That way, you are creating new dynamics which can be fun!

Another idea would be to announce on the invite/flyer that each family should bring a poster board containing: a tree with leaves....& on each leaf they should list what their family activities are, what they like, shows they watch, bible verses they love/embrace, a small family photo, etc. An "all about us" tree! Hang these around the room.....so everybody can get to know each other. This is an excellent icebreaker....& would tie in with your harvest theme.

Hope these ideas help.....have fun!

What your doing sounds like fun. Maybe incorporate a square dance into it. And give each person their name tag with numbers of 1-8 (you need 8 people for a square dance) that way families will be split up and people will get to know each other and laugh and talk. Its a lot of fun.

Great idea, our Christian preschool does a harvest festival every October and it is always a great success,kids and familes all have fun. An ice cream social is always good too. Get 4-5 kinds of ice cream and provide lots of toppings.We hve done both and turn-outs are always good.At the harvest festival we do more kid friendly things and not scary Halloween things since our families have young children and it is better since we are a Chistian school not to get into all of the goulish stuff, Hope this helps.

you should have like a carnival and have a moonwalk,games,contest,talent shows,and more. i think that would be a good idea and would be fun!!

I've organized a trunk-or-treat at our church the last couple of years and it's also served as sort of a "harvest" party. A lot of fun and can be done with minimal cost to families...maybe some of the teachers would host the "trunks of treats".