Idea Share Shop

Princess Project

The community collects prom dresses and redistributes them at no cost to young ladies who might otherwise not attend the prom, grad or formal. Not everyone can afford to buy that expensive prom dress, so the Princess Project (started in San Francisco in 2002) provides the opportunity for young women to find a dress that suits. Many girls have dresses that are sitting in closets that deserve to be worn again. The Princess Project ensures that young women can get dressed up when there's a dress to go!  Check www.princessproject.org for more information on how to start one at your school.

Wrap the Teacher

Our staff is always present, so we decided to wrap our teachers for Christmas. Teams of 4 students were given wrapping paper, scissors and tape. In 20 minutes, they had to make a top, bottom and hat for the teacher model and then wrap a stylish box. The winning teacher outfit was decided by audience approval.

Superstar

Students who display positive attitudes and friendliness are rewarded with a Superstar award. Given each Monday, the award is given to students who have been nominated by their peers for such acts as telling jokes to make someone's day, picking up someone's dropped books in the hallway, and helping out in other ways. Winners are selected based on the explanations written on the nomination forms. The winner receives a traveling trophy cut out of wood in the shape of a star and painted red with glitter. He or she gets to sign the star and take it home for the week. The superstar brings the star back on Friday so it can be presented to the next person on Monday. At the end of the year the star goes into a display case.

The Victory Lap

The Victory Lap is a new way for our school to recognize the achievements of fellow students at regional competitions and other events that allow our students to compare their skills and achievements from other schools. Students who win or advance beyond a regional competition in any discipline are awarded a Victory Lap to allow fellow students to show their respect and appreciation.

On a selected day following a number of successes, students to be honoured are asked to gather outside our gym with their medals, ribbons or other symbols of their success. At the and of announcements, home room classes line up just outside their classrooms along the corridor walls. The honoured Lancers and their staff sponsor proceed along a pre-determined route to receive the congratulations of their fellow Lancers. Each group will have a sign made for them by the leadership class which they hold up during the lap. Once the people in the Victory Lap have passed each homeroom, students return to class.

This is a great way for our Chess team to follow along with the Skills Canada competitors and Jr. Volleyball team who won a major tournament. It doesn’t involve a lot of class time and has been well-received by students and staff.

Doug Thomas

Make Poverty History

Our O-Ambassador group wanted to emphasize the statistic that one-in-three children in the world live in poverty. Ribbons were cut up, classes were visited during first period, and one-in-three students were given a ribbon to wear for the day. It made the statistic more real for the students and was a successful introduction to their Make Poverty History campaign.

National Anthem Contest

Our school plays the national anthem each morning as part of opening exercises. To alleviate the repetition, a contest was announced for any homeroom that wanted to sing their own version of the national anthem. The only rule is that the anthem be treated with respect. The finalists were played as part of opening exercises with the winning class being a part of the normal rotation of anthems. All types of musical tastes appeared and many were unique and still tastefully done.

Anti-bullying Message

On September 11, 2008 we had an anti bullying day across Nova Scotia.
Digby Regional High School got pink t-shirts and sold them to students. We encouraged everyone to wear pink. During last period, everyone wearing pink was asked to go to the soccer feild where we made a peace sign. The picture was taken from the roof of the school.

Shawn Comeau
Digby Regional High

“12 Hours for 12 K”  Wake-A-Thon

The student body of Stephen Lewis Secondary School was on a mission to help children who are suffering from HIV/AIDS in Africa, through an event organized by Student Activity Council and our Athletic Association Council. Our staff and students planned to raise over $12,000 for the Foundation by participating in a 12 hour event starting at 7 pm and ending 7 am the next morning. Students were expected to stay awake for 12 continuous hours and participate in a variety of activities through out the night such as basketball, dodgeball and volleyball all night, sang karaoke at 2 a.m., made ice cream sundaes at 3 a.m. played video games at 4 a.m., watched movies, created sculptures, played guitar and many others. Students collected a minimum of $75 in order to participate in the activities. This is an annual event at our school and so far we have been able to raise over $10,000 each time.

Cecilia Piques

Stephen Lewis Secondary School

Sky High Good-bye

Some teachers or students deserve a special good-bye because of their contribution to the school or perhaps they must leave because of a terminal illness. A farewell experience can be heightened by hiring an aircraft to fly this person over the school grounds at a specific time. At that time, all staff and students are assembled on the playing field in such a manner that a message is spelled out (either in words or in a symbol) by the positioning of the bodies.

You Lost It: We Found It

Bluevale Collegiate has a unique approach to reuniting lost articles with their owners. Most schools have a bin or box method where all of the lost items start to meld into a compost heap of old lunch bags, sweaters and single running shoes. BCI chooses to highlight the items for a short time in a display case, with articles of clothing put on hangers. It allows the public to claim their errant items quickly. The remaining items are then given to a charity for another round of recycling.

Army Day

It's March 4th. (Get it sarge?) Dress in camouflage pants or march your way to class. Have "Guess that K-ration in the Caf" competition. Celebrate the contributions of the Armed Forces.

Jenna Albrecht

EDSS

Anti-Valentines Day

Olds HIgh School is celebrating Anti-Valentine's Day this year which is apparently Friday, Feb. 15. Their posters say Valentine's Day isn't for everyone! Kids are selling broken-heart cookies, playing broken-heart love songs and having a Heart Stealing competition (where you don't talk to the other kids or you lose your heart) so it should be fun! It's a great day to dress in black. Think of all the country songs that you could play or the J. Geils Band had a great song . . . name that tune . . . “Love Stinks!”  Or try Hannah Montana's dad's song, "Achy Breaky Heart!"

Sandra Dorowicz

Olds High School, Alberta

Tinman Triathlon

This is modeled on the Ironman Triathlon, and you can arrange the 3 course events around your surrounding facilities and landscape. You can make the course challenging, yet accessible to those who would like to try. Have separate divisions for first time athletes and those with triathlon experience. You can also have teams of three participants (staff appreciate this opportunity to participate).

The course consists of three events: Swimming (indoor pools will do), biking, and running. Try a 500 m swim, 6 km run and a 20 km bike route.

Consider the skill level of your participants and allow for single and double teams in junior, senior, and staff divisions. Invite other schools in your area to participate. Interesting staff challenges can occur between rival schools. Each team should have a staff member available to coach and co-ordinate team efforts. You will find that a well coordinated pit crew will do wonders for a team’s organization and morale on race day. Hold a BBQ and awards presentation where the course finishes.

Laurie Murray

Elmira District Secondary School

Teacher of the Month

We have nomination forms in student activities, and we promote this at least once a week on the morning announcements to remind students. Basically, students can nominate any staff member they feel goes above and beyond the call of duty...whether it be an amazing lesson, a little extra slushy in the glass or countless hours spent after school with a team or club. Student nominators are asked to provide a short written explanation of why their nominee deserves the recognition...and the explanations are always a joy to read!

We try to recognize those staff members who aren't always in the spotlight. Our spirit council members review the nominations once a month and often bring names forward to council to assist with the selection process. We then select one teacher, snap their photo and put it in a display case in the lounge area along with a short bio and some quotes from the nomination form. It's a nice way to recognize staff AND motivate them to stay involved.

Greg Todd

Bluevale Collegiate

Power of the Pen

Our leadership class came up with this idea as a way to increase morale in our school. First, you need to get a massive amount of pens (We managed to buy 250 pens for about $36. We got another 200 donated to us.). Next, you need to create a variety of witty motivational sayings which will eventually be cut out and taped onto each individual pen (make sure the saying fits first). Each saying can be used more than once, since creating 450 unique adages is quite a daunting task.

Once this has all been completed, a handful of students can wander around the school giving pens to students they happen to meet. The basic idea is that the pens, being pens, will travel from person to person as they are borrowed and lost. During their travels, these pens will be able to spread the message they carry, effectively increasing spirit.

Jon

Shamrock Shakes

Our student council came up with the idea of making green, peppermint milkshakes for St. Patrick's Day, which we did over a Friday noon hour. It was a hit, and sadly we didn't buy enough supplies and sold out before the next class started. Just make sure you have enough blenders and also, do a test run a few days before to figure out how much milk and icecream you need (we had two cups of milk and filled almost the rest with icecream which filled three cups. We sold them for $1, but looking back could have sold them for more).

This is a fun activty for the students and can be done for any holiday or just during a slow month.

Laurie Guenther
Medicine Hat, Alberta

Grad Wall

All grads pay $5 for one brick to decorate...They are allowed appropriate stuff only-they sign a waiver that gives SC the right to roll over anything questionable!. It's an opportunity for our grads to leave their mark.

Nicole Haire-Smith

Three Oaks Sr. High School, Summerside, PEI

Grandparent Tea

Centennial Secondary held a get-together for all students and their grandparents. Their Grandparents Tea was held near the Christmas Holidays in the cafeteria. The cafeteria was decorated with seasonal displays and the foods classes provided the treats. Talented students from the school performed, while grandparents had tea and desserts with their grandson or granddaughter. The event was free to all students and grandparents. A photographer was also made available to take free group portraits to commemorate the event. It was a great opportunity for the students to show their grandparents the school that they attend, and make some connections with extended families and the school.

Change the Time for Class

A simple fundraiser is to delay class until the teacher is finished counting the change on his or her desk brought in for a fundraiser. Students put coins on the teacher's desk (or at a central location) and class cannot begin until all the money is counted and rolled. Classes who bring in a lot of money can make deals with their teachers to help count the money if they got a free period. This is a huge advantage for the people running the fundraiser as all the money is counted and rolled before it arrives at the banking person's desk.

Be the Change Banner

You were welcome to attend this activity if you believed you shouldn’t judge others until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. We advertised the event as free as long as you had clean feet and brought an old towel. 

Some students thought they’d be marching around the gym in other people’s shoes—instead, when the entered the gym they were asked to take off their shoes and socks, get their feet painted in their favourite colour and walk around the paper to create some interesting art with a message. Many chose more than one colour. CAUTION:  this can be slippery!

When they were done, they dipped their feet into the wash bins and dried them with the towel they brought. We had extras just in case. It actually wasn’t that messy. Background music made this event fun.

Nadine Blum

Midsun Jr. High, Calgary

Room Service

We treat our teachers to Room Service after the exam period. They have a day at school without classes for a between semester turnaround, so student council provides a “breakfast in your room” treat for them. Prior to this day, we supply an order card for them in their mailboxes with the following note:

Report Cards are finished, Parent-Teacher Interviews are over, and it’s time for you to relax and enjoy some breakfast on us!

Name:

Where will you be during Period 1 on   (date)    ?    

Room Service Menu

Please take a look at the following choices and pick out a few things for breakfast. We will be delivering this to you during the time above.

A listing of all the possible choices from drinks (hot and cold) to asides to entrées is provided. Student council members then deliver breakfast to their room.

Dorothy Karlson

Bow Valley High School

Sandor Semi-Formal Sell-Off

A dance is fun because people attend, not because of the DJ or the dress or the food. KCI attempts generate some buzz for our semi-formal by selling tickets in this manner:

$1 for the first ticket

$2 for the second

$3 for the third

and so on to

$15

Then they stay at $15 for the first day of sales.

Next day, $20 until end of the week.

They go up to $25 on the day of the event and sales are cut off at 3:00 pm.

People come because other friends have bought their tickets. This price includes unlimited drinks, snack platters of cheese, decorations. Just not transportation or pictures.

Good Luck

Pierre Sandor

KCI

Decorate Your Teacher

It can get pretty tame running the same old door decorating contest each festive season. Try decorating your home room teacher. All of our participants had the opportunity to win a massage with a local therapist. Teachers got "decorated" by their students and went down to the cafeteria for a parade. Yes, the teacher on the left was plugged in with an extension cord! Those classes that did not decorate their teacher, got to stay in class and learn something.

Dave Conlon

Elmira District Secondary School

Guess that Santa

Take pictures of 12 staff and students, girls and guys. variety of grades, but mostly higher profile kids and staff...put them in Santa suits and take photos...It becomes a Home Room competition

Pete Kalbfleisch

Sir John A. Macdonald

Fun with Photos

Eye- Spy: Our first year we took photos of teachers' eyes (about 15-20 teachers), called it Eye-Spy and sold guess cards for $0.25/card. At the end of the week the winner with the most correct guesses won a gift certificate.

I-Shadow: The next year we did I-Shadow. We took profile pictures of teachers heads and blacked them out (like we did we when we were in primary school). Guess whose shadow profile this is.

Who Nose? - This year, same idea, but with photos of teachers noses.

Students look forward to see what we will be doing every year and they love guessing which teacher belongs to which picture.

Prizes always vary, but gift certificates (mall, movies, stores) are always a favorite!

R. Khindria

Guelph Collegiate

Spirit Events

•  Stuff Those Q-Tips!

This can be used as a spirit assembly game. A student from each grade is selected to participate. How many Q-Tips can they fit in their mouths within the time limit? Make sure you have someone to count. (Have the participants put the Q-Tips in their mouths by 5s or 10s if it is easier). The person who stuffed the most Q-Tips in their mouth is the winner! This game is so much fun; people end up with over a hundred Q-Tips in their mouth and continue to attempt to stuff them in as they fall out!

•  Toilet Paper Fashion Designers

A participant from each grade is chosen with a partner. One person wraps toilet paper around their partner. Now there's a catch: the team has to be creative and make the toilet paper look like an outfit. We did this at youth group, and everyone came up with something unique: a toilet paper dress, toilet paper hat, toilet paper shoes, toilet paper sword, the possibilities are endless once you set your mind on it! Enjoy!

Theresa Drake

Change for Third World Change

Collecting money for charity is much more effective when you can make a tangible connection to the charity. Collect loose change from each class during first period/or in the cafeteria at lunch. All change that is collected is placed on one side of a scale with the goal being to have the change weigh more than a sack of rice by the end of the week. This total can then be calculated to indicate how many bags of rice can be bought with the money collected. (This is from CPAR’s Tools for Action kit. For more ideas, check out the Tools for action webpage here)

Watermelon Carving Contest

Hallowe'en Pumpkins are hard to find in May and June, so go with what's available for your summer contests. Carving a watermelon can make a unique and creative home room contest.

Will McKee

Elmira District Secondary

Bottle Lottery

It’s fundraising in a bottle!  Participants are asked to donate bottles for your fundraiser. They can be filled with anything—bath beads, coffee beans, motor oil, pasta, jam, gummi bears, beanie babies, dog kibbles, salsa, bubble gum, salad dressing, anything—as long as it’s in a bottle or a jar! Each donated bottle is then assigned a number with a corresponding ticket that is placed in a box. Charge $2 per ticket. When someone plays, they reach into the box, pull a number, and the corresponding bottle is theirs. The fun starts when people start to trade amongst themselves trying to get a better bottle.

Stuck for a Buck

A unique fundraiser is to have one or two well-known teachers (a vice-principal or football coach is a popular choice) volunteer to be taped to a wall. Strips of Duct tape are sold for a buck. The teachers are then taped to the wall and money is raised in this fun event. Once enough tape has been applied you can test whether they will stick to the wall or not. Both teachers in the photos below wore hazmat suits to protect clothing from the sticky duct tape.

Dave Conlon

Elmira District Secondary School

Christmas Dance Idea

We held a "Sno-Globe Semi-Formal" and transformed our cafeteria into a snowglobe ... put up plastic sheeting around the outside to simulate the ball, bought those blow-up santas/trees/snowmen from Rona (for your front lawn), threw some snow batting around them, and ... here's the best part, throughout the night went up into the catwalk and sprinkled snowflakes down onto the dancers (my leadership class collected 3-hole punch confetti from every room in the school, and made lots of use of the shredder in my office to create bags of "snow") ... sounds like a clean-up nightmare but it wasn't - in fact, with a few brooms, the kids had it done in no time! 

Callie Wark

Jacob Hespeler Secondary

Military Connection at Christmas

Guthrie School worked with the Canadian military on Operation Santa Claus. This is an effort to ensure that every military member serving overseas at Christmas receives a treat from back home. Letters were written from students in Kindergarten through Grade 9. The students enjoyed making each letter unique and special. Bill Edgecombe from Advantage School Services assisted and provided Kapow! Pops to accompany the letters. It was a great way to make the school and community a better place.

Darlene Torok

Unique Dance Theme for Everyone

Moncton High School wanted to appeal to everyone with a dance theme, so we had an “It's your Birthday Party!” dance. The whole dance was a birthday party with clowns, party hats, noise-makers, tons of balloons and decorations.  We had a teacher making balloon sculptures, one doing face painting, and everyone got a free birthday cup-cake.  The only thing missing was a magician/card tricks' booth.

Rémi Lévesque

Mural Solution

We wanted to have student murals painted on the walls of our school, but the negative reaction from custodians and admin made us understand that painting the walls was going to be more political work than it was worth. We then took sheets of Masonite (4x8 ft) cut them to size or left them full size, and painted them. The sheets were then attached to the walls. When they need to be removed because of cleaning issues the screws are loosened and the murals come down. All of a sudden, the admin is looking for more Masonite murals in the building. Cutting the sheets to 2x8's allows us to put them above the lockers and brightens the hallways.

Cotton Candy Fun

A cotton candy machine is a fun way to liven up a fall or spring outdoor carnival. Most rental places will carry them and the students go wild for this sinfully sweet treat. Candy floss is easy to make and the profits will easily cover your rental costs and more. Be prepared to be busy as the line-up never stopped at our spring music jam. Also, be prepared to look like a pink fuzzy bear at the end as the cotton candy fluff gets everywhere!

Amy Goodwin

Spirit Week Fashions

It's difficult to get students to dress up for Spirit Week or Dress Up days, but if you make it fun you will get more participation. Hold a fashion show the week before your spirit week at lunch. Have catwalks and announcers and include as many different people as possible. It will make it seem like everyone wants to be involved. After the fashion show, hang a clothesline high in the cafeteria displaying outfits for each of your dress-up days. Students will have a better idea and reminders of what to wear for spirit week.

Polar Express Parade

We had our own "Polar Express" Santa Parade thru the halls today at lunch - a first for us.
We went down the main hall, like most small towns we only have the one main hall here, past the cafeteria (where we had 2 hosts broadcast on a live feed into the cafeteria) and then over into the big gym for judging. Had about 15 HR entries, a modest start on what we think will be a nice new holiday tradition. Entries included wagons, tricycles, skateboards, rollerblades, marching bands, choir, and several pets (only dogs though, the one class reported they couldn't get the goat to get in the truck). The attached picture shows the start of the parade going past the main office......

Jeff Gerber
Waterloo-Oxford DSS
Student Activity Director

Drive In Movie

We had a Drive In Movie in our school gym. The students created cars out of cardboard boxes and "drove" into the gym. We charged them by the carload, but they had to all stay in the car to drive into the gym. Great vehicles were created and it was a unique way to bring back the drive in.

Brent Allen

Wainwright AB

Spirit Rally Awards

INCREASE SCHOOL SPIRIT AND RALLY PARTICIPATION

This year we started a year long competition at Lassen High School which includes spirit points earned throughout each quarter and awards, cash and spirit Bells at the end of each quarter.

The first Awards Rally was a smashing success. The high pointed class won $250 and a large cow bell decorated, 2nd a smaller cowbell, 3rd a smaller cow bell and 4th a very small cowbell. All decorated in school colors and the pride of the receiving classes. They all felt great, participated and even got some participation from a class that had done nothing all quarter to compete. Was very successful, and will continue for all 4 quarters of the year. At the end the class with the most points will have their name inscribed in a plaque to hang on the school trophy wall.

Nancy Albers

Lassen High School

A Pre-Prom Activity

The day before prom a group of students dressed up in our prom attire and went to an adult day-care to bring happiness to the elderly and mentally disabled. We brought our prom posters and balloons and we danced with the ones that could dance. They told us stories of their proms and not only did it make us feel good to do something for the community, but it was very interesting to hear how proms have changed over the years. It was a great success and we got a lot of media coverage.

Angie Schiavoni

Topless Car Wash

Everyone does carwashes and so how do you make yours stand out and drag people in off the street? Have a "Topless Carwash". Yes, you only wash the body of the car and neglect the top -- charge an extra $1 to finish the job. Or how about "A Wet T-Shirt Carwash". You will only use wet t-shirts to scrub the cars! Hey, sex sells and you can have a little fun at the same time watching those heads spin as the cars go by!

Leanne Kennedy

Look up to our Leaders

Hunting Hills High School in Red Deer, Alberta, picks a theme for their leadership team each year. They crest this on their leadership t-shirts and use it as the theme for their retreat. At the end of the year, the group paints the theme on a ceiling tile and places it in the ceiling of the main hallway. Members add their own sentiments and the record is kept as previous years' tiles are still in the ceiling.

Michelle Ferreira

Hunting Hills High, Red Deer, AB

Tupperware Tuesday

Each Tuesday Student Council and Leadership search the cafeteria for students eating their lunches in an environmentally sound package. It could be a reusable lunch bag, a thermos, or the ever-popular Tupperware. Any student (or teacher for that matter) whose lunch is in reusable plastic receives a gummy worm. It's fast, easy, successful and fun!

Emily Hodge

R.A.S.K. Week

For the duration of one week, students are asked and encouraged to perform Random Acts of Senseless Kindness. This can range from helping a friend, or volunteering to help a teacher.

During the week, Warm Fuzzies are sold (puff balls with feet, googlie eyes) and these are purchased and delivered to homerooms just like candy grams. Cinnamon hearts are put on muffins sold in the cafeteria. A notice board is put up where students announce random acts of kindness that have happened to them.

The major activity is Hug Day. Everyone in the school (staff included) is given a necklace of yarn with a pompom on the end. When you hug somebody, you tie a string from your pompom on his or her necklace, and they tie one to your necklace. At the end of the day, your necklace is full of multi-coloured strings -- proof of all the hugs you've shared.

Keep the Kindness growing!

Southwood Student Council

Spirit Day Theme: Underappreciated Holidays

Each grade dresses up as a holiday that nobody ever really takes notice of...

Examples:

Labour Day -> people dress up as doctors, firemen, police etc.

Arbor Day -> people dress up in green/leafy outfits

Canada Day -> show your patriotism (red/white/maple leaves)

Mother/Fathers Day -> Dress up like old people

Victoria Day -> Dress like royalty

Be creative! There are tons!

Hanna Pham

Mural co-operation
Our town’s mural project was adapted from the information at www.muralmosaic.com

We enlisted the help of a local artist and former student along with a grade 12 student looking for a special project credit. My practical arts students helped with much of the labor and the art teachers used the project for several students individual portfolio components. We had 96 one foot squares divided between elementary students, high school students and local community members. Art instruction was provided to the students upon request. The mural is 12’x 8’ and is attached to the side of a local business. I can provide more details if anyone is interested (whelerd@yahoo.com).

This is a great opportunity for students to create something lasting for your community or school.

Don Wheler

Lashburn, SK

Staff Appreciation Idea

For our staff appreciation activity we decided to take the party to the staff. Several students put together small loot bags with treats and goodies to be presented to each staff member. They included pencils, care bears with “you care about students” messages, etc. Then, each student was to find out three neat things about the staff member who they were an ambassador to. They found this information by talking to other staff or students. (You have to teach them how to be tricky and find out this information without giving away the activity.)

During class time the whole ambassador group put on party hats, carried a CD player with party music, blew party horns and went through the hallways dropping in on different staff members. We tried to meet them in their class or in an area like the office where other people could watch the "party". The student who collected the three neat things would read these out to the group and present the staff member with his or her treats. This would be followed with lots of cheering and then we would move on.

I couldn't believe how popular this became. Staff wanted to know when it would be their turn. It created a real buzz in the hallways and staff room. Many staff later commented to me how much fun it was and what a difference it made. Maybe it could be a hit in your school too!

Brent Dickson

Sherwood Community School,

Calgary Board of Education

brdickson@cbe.ab.ca

KCI Clothesline

One of the hardest things to do is to convince your activity group that they have done a good job of running many events. You seem to need a laundry list of activities in the middle of their year to convince them that they have made an impact on the school. Visitors to the school may see posters for events that are happening right now, but they won’t know about the great theme day you ran last month.

At KCI, Pierre Sandor picked a well-travelled hallway and hung 62 feet of clothesline with support hooks every six feet, high up along the ceiling. Every time his leadership group completes an event, the organizers of that event use a clothespin to hang a poster they used, a small prop, or a picture to recall the event and its date. By the year’s end, the line is crowded with weird and wacky stuff that leads to pride of accomplishment in the leaders. At a glance, visitors see evidence of a vibrant, fun school full of activity. Students can’t complain that “nothing every happens here” because the year’s history is right in front of them.

As they walk by the activity clothesline, students who always participate fall into “remember when” stories. Students who never participate walk past a daily reminder that they are missing out on something. Future events can be hung at a distance down the line with a simple “coming soon” message or the specific date such as a prom held in June.

Strongest Person Competition!

Hey, I’m the president of my high school and i came up with this idea, and it was a RIOT. We had all these people sign up who thought that they were the strongest in the school. We set up a few events, and then the grand finale 'duel' (a best of three arm wrestle between the two people who had not gotten eliminated). It was seriously sooo much fun and the crowd absolutely.... in fact...i had some ladies ask me afterwards if we could have a mud wrestling championship, and that they would be participants.... i smiled.... good luck getting that through the principal

Hasan Pirzada - President

Shaftesbury High School, Winnipeg

Dodge Ball

It has always been cool to play, but now it's the hottest intramural competition in our school. Students and staff form teams for the tournament, and they automatically come up with team uniforms and crazy names. This was the best lunch time activity for us, as all parts of the school population participated. We had the finals in front of a packed gym and the crowd loved it.

Jamie Whitfield

Guelph Collegiate

Election Poster Humour

Posters for elections work with humour. You need to build your brand and a high school audience appreciates good humour.

Twin Day

Pair up with another student and dress alike. Be creative. The winners will be awarded a free lunch at Dairy Queen.

Scare Away Drugs Day

Say boo to drugs! Dress to suit your slogan. Dress up time!! You must have a slogan to match your outfit. This slogan must be pinned to your clothes. Winners from each age group will get lunch from a fast food restaurant.

Shoot for the stars

Students will shoot basketball during their P.E time for prizes.

Chan Lawrence

Alabama

Student Council Restructuring

At our school, we have lost a lot of interest in school events and the student council so a group of 8 students have decided to revive student council in a new form: St. Ann's Academy Student Union. Changing council to union was decided on because union is togetherness and Student Union meaning, students together. Also, the executive was changed to CREW: Crusadian's Really Efficient Workers (we are the St. Ann's Crusaders). CREW has a Chief Officer (president), First Officer (vice president), Secretarial Officer (secretary), Financial Officer (treasurer), Public Relations Officer, and Administrative officers (up to 3 executives who take charge of larger projects and alternate responsibilities). So far the concept is working. We are still working on the bugs and we are not yet sure how the student body will react, as it is still early in the year.

We also changed the voting system to allow ALL students wanting to participate to be able to. Voting only occurred for Chief Officer and First Officer and was done within the student union, the rest of CREW was appointed due to their know work ethics.

We are also challenging the thought of what to call the new representatives, as they are not really appointed a homeroom because our time schedules don't allow for homeroom. And so far we have come up with MATES to go along with the CREW theme, and it would stand for Masters at Transmitting Essential Sentences (people who get the message around).

Kayle

Which Witch is Which?

This is a home room contest for Hallowe'en activities. Get the basic elements of a witch's costume: hat, hair, nose and cape. Have random teachers dress up on the costume and take their mug shot with a digital camera.  Put all of the pictures on one page to hand out to the home rooms or in a display case if you use full-sized pictures. Ask the home rooms to name the teachers in order. Can you tell which witch is which?

Once you have done Which Witch is Which?, you need a new activity the next year. This one is called:  Who da Boo?. You darken a room and provide a flashlight that is situated just under the teacher's chin. Have the teacher tilt their head slightly and open their eyes wide. This provides area of shadow. Take the picture without a flash and put all the pictures on one page for the contest.

Mop Nop

This is the guy’s version of Pom Pon. Near the end of the year (ours is at Spring Homecoming) senior guys dress as the pom and cheerleaders. They are taught a dance complete with stunts and cheers. This is meant to be fun.

Spelling Bee

Run an old-fashioned spelling bee as a home room competition at lunchtime. Promote it with signs filled with spelling mistakes. Host it by grade level for each day with Friday as the finals for school champ.

The words are made known to the audience by placing them on a screen behind the participants, so the whole cafeteria can see the correct spelling.

The grade winner for each day gets a can of Alphagetti. Home made trophy for the champ with a mini box of Alpha Bits. The words do need to be challenging, so a long list is needed for each day.

John Thompson

Preston High School

Raising SAT scores

At our Fort Hamilton High School, in Brooklyn NY, our COSA, Mr. RL wondered how we could help students with the SATs since it was a very important factor for college admission. So, we decided to start from the letter "A" in an SAT vocabulary book. We made numerous posters and hung them around the school. There were 10 words a week. The first week was "A", the second "B", the third "C" and etc. Plus, our leadership class gets tested on them every week. The teachers love it and use it in the classroom. We're up to the letter "S" so far and it has been going great. My vocabulary improved a lot. It would've helped me out a lot if we had the idea when I was a freshman, instead of being a senior. Just recently, we also started to put up math posters. Some have PEMDAS on them, or SOHCAHTOA... and etc. Math is harder, but the SAT words are excellent! Your school will totally love it.

Balloon Drop

Blow up balloons, around 50-70. Inside 20 of them put prize vouchers. i.e.: free dance tickets, Chocolate bars, lollipops etc. you keep all your balloons on a balcony or catwalk. Using a tarp, throw them all off your roof/balcony/catwalk.

Justine

Kraft Dinner Dominoes

Collecting cans of food for the Food Bank can become a weak activity as people get tired of collecting the same old thing. Instead, collect boxes of Kraft Dinner and set them up like dominoes on the gym floor. Have a member of the class that brings in the most Kraft Dinner be the person who knocks over the first Kraft Dinner domino and sets all of the others flying. You can make very interesting patterns with all of the different colours of boxed macaroni. When you are setting up the dominoes, you can take one or two out of a pattern so that a slip of the hand doesn't set the whole display off by mistake.

Make sure that you check with your Food Bank to see if they want to have all of this nutritious mac'n cheese!

Dave Conlon

ENSS Idol

One of our Student Government members came up with the great idea of holding our very own "ENSS Idol" Competition.

When we get back from March Break, students will be able to choose from a variety of karaoke songs, and will have a week to prepare before the competition begins.

We're limiting sign ups to 21 people and each day, for 3 (Tues-Thurs) days in the Caf, 7 singers will perform, and 2 will be chosen by a panel of judges dressed like the judges of American Idol. On the last day (Fri) there will be 6 competitors, and the winner will be chosen by a vote.

Then, at the end of the day, the ENSS Idol will be named! We're looking at getting a great grand prize too...hopefully a pair of concert tickets, since we really can't offer a record deal :)

Julie Impey

Multicultural Fiesta

Our student council planned a Multicultural Day. It was called Multicultural Fiesta - The whole world in LCCHS. We had different performances such as Caribbean, Irish, Indian, Latin, and Polish dancers and singers. We even had a singer who performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival! Some of the performers were students from our school. During lunch we had different foods from around the world. We got teachers, students, restaurants, and bakeries to donate some food. The outcome was amazing, we managed to feed over 1200 students and staff and still have leftovers. In our student lounge we had posters, gadgets, maps, and information, from many countries. The student council and a few other students made posters and brought in souvenirs. We also contacted over 30 embassies who sent us lots of stuff. It turned out better than we expected, and people are still taking about it!

Salad Spirit Week

During Salad Spirit Week, each dress-up day was named for a salad dressing.

Monday=Ranch Day, so people wore cowboy/western clothes; Tuesday=Thousand Islands, so people wore beach/tropical attire; Wednesday=Caesar, so people wore togas (in accordance with school dress code, of course);

Thursday=blue cheese day, so people wore all blue;

Friday=Salad day, so people wore green, which is one of our school colors. In addition to dressing up each day, lunchtime activities ranged from salad bowling (use a head of lettuce as a bowling ball and cucumber halves as pins) to salad toss (a blindfolded person had to throw salad fixings backwards as their partner tried to catch them with a salad bowl). Prizes included salads and salad bar gift certificates from Sizzler. The students had fun with the activities, and teachers and students alike appreciated the creativity of the salad-themed week.

K. McPhail

Vinyl Spirit

A school crest can be created out of vinyl and placed on a main entrance floor to great effect. The vinyl is very thin and is placed on the floor in the prominent spot. A few coats of normal floor wax are applied and the crest is protected from normal wear and tear. The custodians can run a scrubbing machine over it and it will not come off. The floor is waxed normally and the crest remains.

Pierre Sandor KCI

Volleyball game

Our Middle School Staff played against our High School Staff in a volleyball game. Admission was 25 cents. The kids enjoyed it and so did the staff . . .not to mention the fact that over $300 was raised. It worked so well that we are planning a basketball game now. Joni Gerard jgerard@remce4.k12.mi.us

Excuse Day

For Excuse Day, students who forget something in their locker, or are late for class are excused, but only if they pay at least $1.00 to their teacher. This is a great fundraiser for the school, charity, a local family, etc. Students should like this activity!

Vanessa

Rainmaking

One thing we do for pep assemblies is kind of like the wave: some one points around the gym and kids in the bleachers rub their hands together, then the second time around they snap their fingers, then pat their legs, then stomp their feet. Then the person points around again and the sounds go back down. Got it? It sounds really cool if you get a lot of kids doing it and it always quiets down the crowd

Annie

Life Saver Drop

For each team who's competing, stand a toilet paper roll, on its end, about fifty feet away. Each participant holds a string that's about thirty inches long. Tied to the end of the string is a Life Saver. At the signal, the first kid runs out to his team's toilet paper roll, and places the string behind his back with the Life Saver dangling. Then he quickly drops his lifesaver into the hole in the toilet paper roll.... and runs back to tag his teammate, who then performs the same task.

Peggers Game

Every year at school we organize a game called Peggers.

Students pay $2 to sign up and the game can last anywhere from 2 days to 2 months! This is how it is played:

All students that sign up are given a clothes pin/peg with another players name on it. The object of the game is to "peg" the other person, without them seeing you and without being pegged yourself. If you are pegged, you are out. And when you peg someone, you get his or her peg and now have to get that person. You are not allowed to peg during class and the game lasts during school hours. It is really fun because you can see students lined up against the walls in the hallways trying to see everyone else to make sure nobody pegs them. Last year the game lasted about 3 1/2 months and we raised about 1000 dollars. The problem is organizing the game to make sure nobody will end up with there own peg but if you get it right its a huge success. The winner is the last person pegged and they win half the amount raised!

Valentines for Veterans

A week before Valentines Day, sell valentines where students can buy for $1.00. On Valentines Day send them to veterans in your community. They really appreciate it.

Valentine hearts

On Valentines Day we make hearts and put every students name on a heart. We post the hearts all over the main hallway in the school and on that morning students are to take a heart of a friend/boyfriend or their crush and wear it! It’s a cute idea and everyone loves it!

Splash Works!!

Last year the students at Central Commerce Collegiate came up with this really fun and interactive idea to raise funds for United Way. We came up with Splash works. This can only work well if you have access to a swimming pool. Students paid $0.25 per water balloon, and they got the chance to throw it at the teacher of there choice. Every time a teacher would get hit they would have to jump in the pool. It was a fun event that attracted a lot of students and both students and teachers enjoyed themselves.

Kelly Araujo

Central Commerce Collegiate Toronto, Ontario

Eye Spy

Take digital mug-shot pictures of your staff centering in on only their eyes. Crop these pictures so that only the eyes are showing and then post them in a display case. The person who can match the names of the most staff members with their eyes is the winner.

              sample of the eye shot.

Mary Crandall

Bonfire

This takes a lot of planning but it can be a great success. Have a bonfire one night during the middle of your Spirit Week. Class skits or dances can get people really excited, as well. Other events to hold during the night: a trivia contest, and pie-eating contest. It’s also a good event for clubs to sell stuff and advertise.

Bethany Peck

Getting better attendance at meetings

We were having problems getting people to attend our meetings at lunch. To boost attendance, we started offering incentives for people to go (donuts and pop). Now we have great attendance, 95%+ at every meeting.

Matthew Kluke

Halloween "walkabout" or parade

I have not yet tried this one, but I think it’s going to be a blast! Okay, do you remember in elementary when you would dress up in your costume and wear it to school, then your teachers would take you through each class to view all the costumes and the best costume would win? Well this Halloween Elliot Lake Secondary School is going to try it. However instead of everyone going to each other’s classes we are going to parade around the halls of our school. Those who came dressed in costumes will march and those who didn’t can watch. We will designate 3 unknown teacher judges who will pick 3 winners according to these categories: most gruesome, most creative and the best character look alike (e.g.- Celine Dion or Homer Simpson) the winners will receive a prize, and everyone gets to view all the costumes. ps. you may want to ask your principal for class time to do this. (that way everyone will come!)

Car Smash for Charity

Sell tickets in advance for a car smash for charity. You can also sell tickets on the day, but with promotion, you will sell more tickets when you sell them in advance on this event. We sold ours for three swings for $2 and auctioned off the chance to be one of the first three people to swing the sledge hammer. We got a car donated from a local wrecker and had the fluids and window glass removed by our auto shop. (The windshield remained because it is safety glass.) Swingers had to wear safety glasses and work gloves and could not get on the vehicle.

We raised over $250 for our charity.

Maddie Charnuskie

EDSS

Pucker up

About a week before valentines day students vote on the hottest boy/girl which can be anyone you want the top 5 boys and the top 5 girls are called up to the stage they are blind folded with red and pink bandana's they are all spun around 15 times and then put in a single file line boy-girl-boy-girl and then are told to start kissing they can kiss as long as they want the longest kisser gets $25.00 each...have fun

Morgan

Keep it going

Announcements

"Nobody listens to the PA announcements!" is a comment heard in a lot of schools. This may be that the announcements are not interesting or teachers don't take the time to make the class listen. Take the time to have your announcements posted for those who missed them. Post them on a major bulletin board for all to see and make sure that previous days are posted to be referred to.

Ideas for Spirit Week

All right, at my school, we have two spirit weeks run by the student council (or at least we used to, things are changing now). There are about 260 students in the school (7-12). But anyways, since we don't have a football team - we wait until February to have Homecoming, and instead, to support Girl's Basketball (in the fall) we have Halloweek! Here's the sum of the past year's events for both weeks - hope you can use some of the ideas!

Halloweek: The week of Halloween of course!

Each day we would have a dress up day, these days include:

Green & White Day (school colors)

Grandparents Day (dress up as old people :))

Halloween Costume Day (sometimes we awarded prizes for the most creative, etc.)

Summer Fun Day (usually we have snow by this time so it's quite interesting)

Twin/Triplet/Quadruplet Day (students try to dress as much like another)

Sports Day (wear school attire- basketball jersey, cross country...)

Cartoon Day (dress up like your favorite cartoon)

Rock Star/Diva Day (dress up like rock stars, divas...etc.)

Whatcha Lookin' At Day (dress kooky - mismatching socks, just different stuff)

Semi-Formal Day (Wear dressy clothes)

Class Color Day (Each class had their own color- we usually did this on Friday when we had our games assembly because it would look soo cool!)

We always have class competition - one class wins spirit week (with the most points) and they get a pizza party. We tried many different ways of 'counting' dressing up, but then decided at random we'll select one student from each class, if they are dressed up the class gets points, but if not, then they don't.

We also have other activities throughout the week. These include:

Mural Design- We required each class to create a mural/poster that promoted school/class spirit. We had set rules and things they should include. (E.g. My class theme was "Jeffers Sophomores Soar Above the Competition" and on the poster we had a basketball player shooting over a rival school to a basket) We hung these posters in the gym for the remainder of the season.

Window Design- Sort of another poster, but this one had to include Halloween. My class design was "Scare away those Cats and Dogs" because we played the Bulldogs and then the Panthers that week. And had a ghost saying boo to a cat and dog.

Both the Mural and Window Posters we judged by a panel of parents and the highest rated posters were given more points and so on.

Pumpkin Carving Contest- Student (Classes) were not allowed to carve pumpkins on school grounds, but did them at home. We put candles in them and displayed them during a home basketball game that landed on Halloween.

Scarecrow Contest- Groups of students from any grades or students alone could create a scarecrow (following guidelines). The scarecrows were also judged and the top three winners received money.

Penny War- Each class had a bucket/pail for money. Covers were put on so classes could not see how each class was doing (made it more interesting). Pennies were good for a class, and opposing classes would put silver into other classes canceling out the pennies. (E.g. the juniors had 20 dollars in pennies in their jar, but had 16 dollars worth of silver, their net total would be 4 dollars.) In the end the class with the most earned points (well all the classes did but they got the most points.) The winning class also received 1/3 of the total money, 1/3 went to the student council fund, and 1/3 went to a charity of the student council's choice.

Pack the Gym- To get more people to the games, we had a thing called Pack the gym - the class that had the largest percentage of their class there was awarded the most points. Sometimes we did things if it was a home game like pack the gym with white - whichever class had the largest percentage of their class there wearing white got the points.

Candy- Guess how much candy is in the jar - $.10 or $.25 for each guess. The winner got the money and the candy.

Dance- we always end our week with a dance. Our dances are well known and we have guest passes for students that have friends at other schools that want to come.

Games Assembly

The biggest part of our week is probably the Friday Games Assembly. We've had many games in the past and classes earn points for the games. The winning class overall also does a lap around the gym with the "Spirit Stick".

Monkey Roll - 10 students (5 girls 5 boys) lie on the gym floor- from one wall to half court - the one at the wall has to get up and go over all of the other people and lie back down at the end. The next person goes and until the last person does, they go and hit the wall and go back, the class with the fastest time wins. Depending on how big your gym is, we did two classes at once.

Lifesaver race- 4 girls 4 boys from each class (all classes at once) Each is given a toothpick and there is a bucket in the middle of the court - with the classes lining up boy girl boy girl from the center outwards (like a sun and it's rays) The first person puts the lifesaver hard candy on their toothpick and the second person tries to get it from them and so on...the have to make it to the last person and that person puts it in the bucket. If the lifesaver is dropped they have to start over, and if it breaks they have two other ones.

Orange race - same as above, but you pass an orange from person to person by neck, and you don't put it into a bucket - it goes back to the first person. And again if you drop it you have to start over!

Hula-hoop race- 5 girls 5 boys linking hands- first class to get the hula-hoop from the starting person to the last person first wins

Fly On The Wall - 3 people duct taping one to the wall (someone else has explained that.)

Bob For Apples - Tubs of water with apples for each class sitting on chairs on one end of the gym (lengthwise (not hoop wise)) Two people from each class (boy and girl) one at a time run to the opposing side of the gym and get an apple and carry it to the other side and tag their teammate...

Homecoming: February

We did this week during Swimming, Hockey and Boys Basketball. This week is similar to the one above. But instead of all the classes running against each other, the 7 and 8th competed, the 9 and 10th, and the juniors and seniors.

Dress Up Days: Some of the above ones...but different too...

Pack the Gym/Rink/Pool-Same as above

Hall/Room Decorating - For years our school has had Hall Decorating, where each class is assigned a hall and they decorate it however they want, but incorporating the sports: boys basketball, cheerleading, skiing, volleyball, hockey, and swimming. But last year we decided things wouldn't get ruined as easily if we had Room Decorating instead (advisors). The rooms would be open during a home basketball game for parents to see. We had one night usually a Wednesday night (Thursday would be the game (usually)) for a designated decorating night. From after school till 10:00 students could decorate the room, of course they could before hand, but that was the last night they could spend. Judges criteria included including the sports, neatness, original theme, etc. Our theme last year was Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory - we put the Golden Ticket on the door. Had lollypops for cheerleaders, made a huge poster of a blueberry girl and her buttons were volleyball players, Ma!

Draw a couple oompa loompas representing skiers, Chocolate bars hanging by fishing wire floating down a crepe paper waterfall represented swimmers...etc.

Other themes:

Winter Wonderland

Through The Seasons

60's Era

Farmland

Jungle

Under the Sea

Class Flags- We required each class to create a fabric flag of their own. Flags had to be two sided and could be modeled after a country's flag or one they made up following no format. They had to include their graduating year, show school and class spirit, etc.

Outdoor Olympics

Instead of our usual games assembly - we had an outdoor afternoon. There were games and such. Each class had a designated part of the front where they could build snow statues - we mad an alligator, the seniors made a gigantic turtle, the freshman made a blue whale, the eighth grade created a miniature model of our school, and the seventh grade made original snowmen.

Games included: Broomball (classes against other classes)

Tug O War

Break Period to work on Statues.

It was a real success and we hope to include that as one of our traditions. Well I think I've said enough, and I hope you can use some of these ideas.

Katie Student Council Co-President

White Out Day by the Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving

EDSS students ran Whiteout Day to emphasize the effects of a death in the school from a crash involving an impaired driver. 15 students dressed in black had their faces painted white. The students attended all classes and lunch, but did not speak to anyone during the whole day. Teachers were approached the day before to ensure that they would not be called upon to make presentations. The white-faced students represented the person who was there the day before, but after the crash all that remains is the memory.

Vicki Wannamaker

Homecoming games

First of all thank you to all who contributed their ideas. We're planning on using them in our school. A fun game to play is the scuba game. You get a par of flippers a pair of goggles and a snorkel and make the best football player (or whatever season it is) put them on and run around the gym (a full lap) with it all on. There is normally some pushing and shoving and it looks RELLY funny. In our school there’s also a lot of competition between the girls varsity volleyball team and the football team. At the pep rally we have a v-ball and nerf football game against each other to show the true athletes (v-ball always wins!). One more idea, have a local American Eagle or Maurice’s donate a mannequin and dress him-her up and bring it to the games. It makes for a great mascot.

Kieran

Steal my Beating Heart

We've been doing this event for over 20 years and everybody loves it. On Valentine's Day all the girls get cut out red paper hearts with pins in first period. They put their name on them and pin them to their chest. During breaks and lunch (not during class time) all the boys are trying to get the girls to acknowledge them - if they talk to a boy, smile at him, or laugh at him the boy gets her heart and he pins it to his chest. At the end of the day we have an assembly and we call up the boys with the most hearts - we count them and the boy with the most hearts wins a gift certificate to a restaurant in town (we have a really good Italian one that we use). All the girls, who still have their hearts, then go up front and put one shoe into a shoe pile. The winning boy then selects one shoe and that girl also wins a gift certificate. We use to make them go to the restaurant together, but that didn't really work so they can take someone else if they want. The really fun part of this is when you do it for more than one year because the next year, the boys wear the hearts and the girls get to steal them.

E. Thomas

Souper Teachers

Teacher recognition gifts are a great way for your council to thank the staff for their hard work. We gave our teachers a Lipton Cup o' Soup in their mailboxes with a note that said we had "Souper Teachers!"  It was a neat thank you that the teachers could put in their desk for that day when they are running late or forgot their lunch.

Alannah Martin

The wheel determines it all

At one of our high school football pep rallies the cheerleaders made a wheel (kind of like the wheel off of MTV or Fear Factor) and put diff. names of songs on it. They would spin the wheel and draw someone’s name out of a box and call that person down from the stands to sing whatever song was landed on. In order to get out of singing the song, the person had to pay a fee of 3 dollars and take all the booing from the crowd!! It was hilarious to watch and at times unbearable to hear :)

Megan

PJ Morning and Free Breakfast

Our Student Council at LaSalle Catholic in Montreal decided to have a PJ morning. Before classes started we gave our free cereal and muffins and juices to all who wore PJs. The event was a success...some teachers even wore PJs!

Boodle Fight

This is not an original of mine, though I would like to share it with you. You have to use banana leaves as plate depending on how many the participants may be, but be sure that the leaves are just enough for everyone. Food (a simple menu for dinner) is placed on the banana leaves, and then everyone shares and consumes all the food served in the banana leaves. The first team to consume everything wins the fight. ENJOY THE SPIRIT!

Minnie Tutor

Adopt A Grandparent

I currently work at a local nursing home, and thought of how great it would be if we could have a program called 'Adopt A Grandparent'. Students would write back and forth to an adopted grandparent. I would leave a box in the office, and they would drop off letters. They wouldn't have to do it every week...but at least once a month, and I would deliver them.

ANGIe

May Day!

Our Student Council is in the midst of putting together a huge event for our school. We've decided to bus the entire school to a park (its about half an hour away) as a buyout. They pay $4, get out of all four classes, get a free barbeque, and lots of fun. We're planning to run baseball games, football, ultimate Frisbee, hiking, rollerblading, soccer, and a lot more. Also, we're going to showcase our school's musical talent by having live entertainment all day in a 'coffeehouse' style. (We have monthly coffeehouses at the school)

It’s been a great way to get people involved; teachers, administration, and students are all dying to help to make this day a success. Wish us Luck!

Emily Wilson

Fear Factor!

This one I just came up w/ as I was scanning, and I thought that a great rally game would be "Fear Factor", where one person from each class could have to do a certain disgusting thing each rally, and if they do it their class gets a point. At the end of the year the class w/ the most points gets a prize or whatever... possible suggestions would be eating bugs, having a someone get their head shaved, or even better for a guy, having a girl shave their legs, or other fear-factor-esque things...I’m gonna try that next year

Grover Anderson

Where's Waldo

Theme: "Where's Waldo"

Objective: Class Spirit Perpetual Trophy given at Spring Rally

Auditions: Masters/Mistress of Ceremonies dancers, games, singers

Time: 60 minutes

 The Spring Spirit Rally culminating event to spring spirit week is the spring rally. Waldo and his friends were everywhere on campus. Teachers and school staff were invited to participate. Using students’ ideas, the student leadership groups created scenery: school atmosphere, beach scene, cityscape, and carnival. Each scenery depicted the looking for Waldo theme. The fake Waldo would appear - dressed in school colors hiding and popping up somewhere holding part of the scenery. The real Waldo was hidden somewhere in the audience. The scenery depicted the entertainment of events. The script was written by students using the idea that Waldo is somewhere in each scene. The continual search for the real Waldo brought the rally to a close after the search visited all of the scenes and where the performances were watched pertained to each scene: spirit leaders, class performance, spring sports captains, flag twirlers, dancers, sport games, funny carnival games, beach games, city hip-hop, audience participation, etc.

To the surprise of everyone, the real Waldo would appear out of the audience and demand for one more game and deliver the spirit trophy to the highest-class participation.

Evaluation: very positive, student and staff involvement, student directed, student D. J.

Janet M. Boyer

Fundraiser: "Mr. Ace Contest"

In my school every fall we have a Mr. Ace contest. Any senior guy who wants to participate dresses up like a girl and competes in a talent show, swimsuit competition, and a beauty contest. They charge $2 to get in and the winner is crowned Mr. Ace. It’s a good way to raise money and it's a lot of fun.

Patrick

Cafeteria Colour

Our cafeteria did not have a lot of colour and the walls were not good for painting murals on. We decided to use the narrow space between the windows instead of large wall parts. Our wood shop made the box frames and students cut 4 x 8 Masonite sheets in half to make the long mural canvas. The murals were painted and then slid into grooves in the wood box frame. A bottom piece was screwed in and the murals were made secure. It is a great way to add colour to a caf. Yes, we have foosball tables and a pool table in our caf. Both are coin operated and make money for student council.

Dave C.

Skateboard Olympics

The students on my leadership team hosted skateboard Olympics during lunch hour last year in the cafeteria. They were a hit! There was rowing (sitting on the skateboard using a short toilet plunger to paddle), Skiing (standing on the skateboard using two toilet plungers on broom handles to push yourself), and swimming (laying on your stomach on the skateboard using your hands to push yourself). Lots o fun and low cost. Could be spruced up by having color teams, other special accessories to make contestants look ridiculous such as touques, gloves and ski goggles, swimming caps and snorkeling masks, lifejackets.

Tina Winters

Reverse Role Day

All of the students dress up as the teachers, and vice versa. Give out prizes for the student that looks most like a particular teacher, and give them out to the most professional.

Joey MacDonald SAERC Academy

Video Tape Homecoming Royalty!

One week after your school has voted for homecoming royalty, announce the winners by going to their home and waking them up before school! Then broadcast their reactions on your school TV channel! It’s great, and you can also show the clips at coronation!

Demarcus

Spirit day

I am the Student Council sponsor. As one of our days for spirit week we had "Holi"-day. Each class (7-12) and the faculty drew a holiday; we used St. Patrick’s, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, July 4th, New Year's, and Valentine's Day. Each class was to dress up as that holiday. What a blast!!! The students really got into this one; it really surpassed my expectations.

We had some very macho guys come as Easter eggs (including wearing of the tights). Our other days were Hawaiian day, Punk Rock day, Blast From the Past (anything goes) this was great too! During lunchtime we had karaoke, tricycle relay races and 3-legged relay races between classes, and limbo contests. I am already looking for ideas to bring to my council members for next year. Even ideas for Homecoming themes and ideas to add to the week. We shook things up this year (changed some traditions) and the school spirit skyrocketed.

Gloria Godtel

Arcadia High School

Have a Heart

Every year, around Valentine's Day, our school sells Heart-o-Grams for the Canadian Foundation for AIDS research. They're great, the foundation sends you everything (Boxes of red, pink & white Smarties, red ribbons (to pin on your shirt), pamphlets about AIDS, printed bags, and stickers which double as gift tags and hold the bags shut), and all you need to do is sell them. Last year in our tiny school (400 kids, grades 7-12), we raised 487$ last year. Anyway, kids buy the Heart-o-Grams for a dollar, but the best part of the campaign is the activities we do during the week we're selling them. Last year, we offered Valentine's Day candies to the first 50 people to buy them (we put up HUGE signs beforehand), one day we had a jelly bean guess jar (with red and white jelly beans of course), had penny wars, red ribbon day (students got ribbons when they bought Heart-o-Grams, and right after lunch, teachers gave draw tickets to those kids wearing ribbons, and by the end of the day, we had winners, and announced them over the intercom). Already gearing up for Valentine's Day 2002, we've got one male and one female teacher to agree to let us dye their hair for the cause. We'll have each teacher pick four colours, and have boxes in front of their pictures in those colours. Students vote with their change as to what colour the hair should be. The colour for each teacher with the most money at the end of the week gets it, and we’ll probably dye his or her hair at a pep rally. All the money is donated to AIDS research in Canada. We're aiming for about 2$/student this year...

Anastasia Kulpa

Hawaiian Week

Hey!!! I am the president of my Student Council. The Council and I came up with the idea of having a "Hawaiian Theme Week" It has turned up to be a huge success. My school in some ways lacks spirit, so we decided to do something absolutely different and the students loved it. So many participated in the activities... I'm still smiling! lol.  We had all of the activities during lunchtime. A Limbo competition, a hula dance and a few other games, it was very exciting. Teacher, students, principals, and even the priest were dancing up a sweat during their lunch break.

Kim

Have a Cow!  Holy Cow!  Udderly Outrageous Fundraising!

World Vision Canada has a gift catalogue that allows you to purchase farm animals for families in underdeveloped countries. We found their catalogue to be a great way to raise money for this worthy cause. Students don't want to just give cash, they want to know what their money is doing. We decided to purchase a dairy cow, because we are a rural school in cow country. The cows cost $600 each and our goal was to purchase one cow. We raised enough money to purchase two cows! It helped that one of our council members had access to a life-sized cow from her dad's work. We placed it in the principal's office along with lots of hay.

The website for the World Vision gift catalogue is found at   http://www2.worldvision.ca/gifts/app

Amy Stevens

Elmira District Secondary

Costume Party

Hello, school spirit seekers, I am the President of the SGA at my school and our council members are constantly coming up with ideas to boost school spirit. One of the ideas my cabinet came up with was to have a costume party, self-explanatory. Have a costume party for any occasion or holiday; it works well with high schoolers to get back to their childhood for a while. If you have any ideas that would help me boost school spirit at my school please feel free to email me. Thank you!

Paul Jordan

Frederick Douglass High School

Multiple Mascots -- a gold mine for school spirit

We have a house system, 6 houses of about 250 students each who are part of 9 different teacher advisor groups.... in our infinite quest to find ways to get more kids involved we purchased six mascots to represent each of our houses...this is where we only had a vague idea about what we were doing but forged on into the fog. In over 20 years of STUCO advising I can tell you the idea of multiple mascots never once crossed my mind.... let me tell you, the interaction between these six characters is unbelievable...for example, and this is really easy, they have a routine where, along with their escorts, they have a twist contest at half-time in a basketball game...they get partners from the crowd . . . mom, dad, other students.... the game policeman...and they simply have a twist contest.... it is simple, but you should see the crowd reaction. The crowd reaction to these six characters along with the other parts of the program is beyond our wildest imagination....

As to the gold mine comment, every single school has spirit, it is a question of digging it up and showing it off, yes it is most certainly is there! Our mascots are just one tool that has helped us to do the mining.... and what a tool.

The mascot idea would never have happened except that there are enough of us that focus on possibilities and really never spend much time concerned with what some believe cannot happen.

Dave Garvie

Taped to a Wall

At one of our pep rallies, we got a group of willing students to represent their class and tape themselves to the gym wall. And whoever stayed up the longest won. We used duct tape though... it holds longer... each class picked their lightest person to tape to the wall... whoever is the smallest stayed up on the wall the longest... it's really fun and funny when they fall off the wall... *if you do this you have to make sure that the person is at least 5 inches from the floor... they can't be standing on the floor cause they can stay up longer*

Shae

Spirit Week

We decided, near the beginning of the year, to have a spirit week. The activities (by day) were:

Day 1: School colours day - people dressed in our school colours (burgundy and white) and got a tootsie pop for participating.

Day 2: Karaoke - we got a karaoke thing and a guy to help, students would come up and sing along to their fav songs. All but one person sounded 99% like the person who really sang the song!! There was a great turnout. No money.

Day 3: Root beer chugalug - messy but fun. You get people to drink down a full can of root-beer and then run across an obstacle course to their partner, who then had to do the same thing. Prize was given to the team that finished the quickest (disqualified if can not finished)

Day 4: Sumo wrestling - we rented these big suits, that when worn, made the person look really big, and the helmets were like the hair and all, it was really funny, and groups of two friends (or I guess they could have been enemies...) wrestled each other in them. It was safe since the suits were so big it was like a big pillow around the person.

Day 5: wrap up...we had something on the announcements that kind of gave school spirit and wrapped it up. And a few things like that. :o)

Allyson

Real Recognition

Athletes and teams get recognition from the many plaques and trophies in your school. Make sure that other groups in your school get the same real recognition. Our school takes the time to recognize the efforts of extra-curricular and academic participants.

John Thompson

Preston High School

Shoe Boxes for the Needy

Well, this year our student council realized the pain and suffering of other countries. After the earthquakes in India and multiple ones in El Salvador we couldn't hold back our support. So, we organized a "Shoe Box Drive" where we passed out empty shoeboxes with lists of items that the Mercy Core and Northwest Medical Teams were in need of to help. It was really successful, we got clubs involved, homerooms...etc, etc. Lots of individuals brought in whole boxes by themselves. It was fantastic. The only sad thing was that we didn't help until tragedy struck. I encourage you to start a similar drive at your school, and if you do, email me for some more details and tell me how it goes. Reach out to those who need it.

Fiona

Christmas Tree Lighting

Have students sell light bulbs ($1.00 each) and hang the light bulbs in the front of your school in the form of a Christmas tree and donate the money to a local charity. Our Grade 7 Team at Florenceville Middle School raised $1200.00 and split it 50/50 to Christmas Daddies and a local family (cancer).

Jay Colpitts

War Wall!

Each class is assigned part of the hall. They decorate their part of the hall and the class that wins gets a prize. You can have teachers be judges or kids that aren't participating.

Mike Pine

Pennies for Patients

Every year, our student council hosts a fundraiser called "Pennies For Patients". Four buckets are gathered and we write a name on each one for each class (freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors). They can also choose team names. The jars are placed in the library and over a period of one week, the students put their extra change into their class jars. The class who raises the most money gets a prize and the money is donated to the Cancer Society. It is a great student council project.

Rachael Sharp

Cheerio/Fruit Loop Toss

We did this one last year for a lunchtime activity, and it was a blast! One student or teacher from each homeroom sat in plastic chairs, with whipped cream spread over their entire face. 5 homerooms went at one time. 3 people from the homeroom threw fruit loops at the teacher or student's face. The homeroom with the most Fruit Loops on their teacher's or student representative's face won. A lot of people came out to watch. Unfortunately you'll need at least 8 people to clean this up at a decent speed.

Nikki K

Donkey Basketball

Every other year we have a thing called donkey basketball. When seniors go up against teachers riding donkeys playing basketball. It gets the crowd going and it's a good fundraiser.

Morgan Anton

Survivor

With all the popularity of the survivor TV show. Our student council this year is staring out own spin off of the show, we have 4 students from each grade and 4 teachers, dividing them into 2 tribes of ten, it lasts 10 wks, with challenges every Thursday lunch hour. It works the same as the show, with immunity, voting each other off (we even have a video camera like the show where people can explain why they are voting off a certain person). We are giving away prizes in order of how long they stay on... (i.e., the 1st people kicked off get smaller prizes and we are thinking of giving the winner a Kaboom box). We have the advantage of sharing the school with the YMCA and hope to have activities in the swimming pool, obstacle courses, trivial and some messy challenges!!! It’s a really innovative idea that we are hoping will bring out a lot of people!

Alexandra Collins

Westwood Community High School

Ft. McMurray, AB

Shave for a Cure

This year our class held a fundraising project for the Leukemia Foundation. We asked about 12 male teachers with beards to shave their facial hair off for charity, and asked what price they would like to pay for their beards. The range of beard prices was from about $200 - $900. We put the names and prices of these teacher's beards on a board outside the refectory, and as soon as we had raised enough money we stuck a picture of scissors next to the teacher's name. We made announcements at school and posters, and at lunchtime asked for people to donate small change. After two weeks we had raised $800!

On the Friday, the gym was packed, we had music playing, and the teachers sat on chairs, contemplating the shaving...we had MC's, mirror girls, photographers. It was excellent! After each teacher had been shaven, they quickly took a walk down the mock 'catwalk', and the whole school applauded their efforts. It was a great day, raised school spirit and our awareness of Leukemia.

Leanne H

Green Day

Our school colours are green and white, and we wanted to pump it up for a spirit day where everyone would wear green. We played the music of Green Day (the band) in the caf at lunch and between classes as promotion prior to the day. We had comments with the music saying, "What's this? It's Green Day! No, it isn't, Wednesday is Green Day! But this is Green Day!" The day before, we asked people if we could write on their hands with green permanent marker and we wrote G's on everyone's hands. We knew that people would participate, if only they could remember to wear the right thing in the morning. We arranged with the cafeteria that everyone who wore green on Green Day could buy a hamburg for a loonie. It was a huge success! Over 80% of the school wore green and the cafeteria did the most business that it has ever done even with the discount burgs!

Heather Wilson

Desert Auction

One night every quarter or semester our school puts on a "talent show" presenting plays they've worked on, or musical acts ect. At intermission all the attendants go to a Desert Auction- they can bid on donated items from the faculty, parents, students and maybe even board members, the students can even bid on something they want (things donated such as artwork, gift baskets, community service form students and staff, gift certificates, tickets to some show, books, and other misc. items- the kids even have fun donating items to see other people bid on them- especially if the art teacher has the students paint a terracotta pot or a picture) They can also purchase a desert item that was donated "cookies, bread- cinnamon rolls are a big hit) This raised at least a few thousand dollars every year for our school (and we only have 200 students- so it's a great fundraiser!!!)

Meanest Teacher Contest

Each year the students at Harrison High have a MEANEST TEACHER CONTEST for the students to vote for their least favorite teacher. Empty jars are set up with each teachers name on it. Students donate their loose change from lunch to the teacher they want to get a pie in the face. The top four "Meanest teachers" sit in chairs in front of the students at the pep assembly and the teacher with the most money in their jar gets hit with a pie by the principle. Students love this contest and everyone gets involved. The teachers are good sports about it too!

Michelle

Human Bowling

For our recent Spirit Week events, one of the lunchtime activities we hosted was called Human Bowling. You have two participants per class/homeroom. One of them acts as the bowling ball, the other as the bowler. The bowling ball person is strapped face down with bungee ties to a skateboard while wearing some type of helmet. At the other end of the gym, you place a number of plastic bowling pins (5 or 10 pin bowling, its your choice!)

The bowler pushes his/her partner towards the pins until they are about 5 feet away. Then he/she must release and allow the "ball" to go on his own. The winner is the class who hits the most pins.

Note: To be safe, be sure that there is a "catcher" behind the pins to catch the "balls". Our students thought this was the greatest and it was a great start to Spirit Week.

Monique van Dop

Gym Riot!!!!!

This is an awesome rally-style event for every single person in your school. The school is broken up into four groups they are, red, blue, yellow and green Every home room is given one of theses colors. Captains select people to participate on their teams from ALL grades and submit them and anyone else that would like to participate submits their applications in the office, then will be placed accordingly. Each team must wear their colors along with the homeroom.

The rest of the students that are not participating sit in the bleachers (wearing their homeroom color), bleachers also divided into four sections for each color (all reds sit together, blues sit together and so on. The selected teams take part in a rally type competition, Each team decorates their corner of the gym and has their own entrance music, covering the doors with paper, team running in from outside.

Rally events may include: Human tic-tac-toe, elephant run, pie eating contest, pop chugging contest, hockey stick between the legs and so on... Points are awarded to 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th place; make the points seem like a lot. Spectators can also help out their teams score by being quite when they need to and being LOUD when they have to.

It is good to throw candies and prizes into the bleachers to pump up the crowd also it is good to have loud music playing during certain events (earplugs for the teachers is recommended!!) make sure the music your are playing fits the event that is going on. You have dj's that put on the event telling people what the events are all about and getting the crowd pumped. At our last riot we had a radio announcer come in and DJ for us it is good to get a group of energetic students and a teacher to DJ the event

This is a hit at our school, we find that if it is held first thing in the morning people have tons of energy usually takes till lunch. Have fun with this. We have had workshops for this event at the last British Columbia Student Leadership Conference the nationals in Toronto and we hope to get into the next national leadership conference in Winnipeg with this workshop.

Tyler Deppe

Westside Secondary, Kamloops, BC

Intercom fun

Get your principal to let you use the intercom in your school. Get people to volunteer to sing over the intercom! Get them to pick a song they know and put the music on softly so you can hear the beat and some of the singer singing (but not too loud or the person singing on the intercom won't be heard)! Its really fun and I guarantee people will volunteer for it. And if no one does, then pick people out of a hat!

Nickole Carter

Water balloon fun

If it is a really nice day out, fill some huge balloons with water and throw them at people. It takes place inside the school. You have to hide and if someone finds you, they get to through those huge balloons on you!!!!!!!. Whoever is the driest by the end of the game wins!!!!

Sugar Stackers

The objective of this event is to make a tower of sugar cubes higher than all of the competitors. Team or single competitors are allowed to enter and there is no licking of the cubes to make them sticky. Cubes are provided and it's harder than it looks.

You can also attempt to stack Oreo cookies. We found that the contestants ate the cookies rather than stacking them.

Johnny Preston

Take your best shot

Polar Bear Tough Man

During Spirit week at our school we had a lunchtime activity entitled "Polar Bear Tough Man" we had brave students get in a kiddie's pool (or if you have a large enough body of water around) full of ice water and the person that stayed in the longest won. It was a little dangerous because it was so cold outside but if you live in a warm climate then go for it! The prize was a mug of hot chocolate for each participant and a t-shirt for the bravest participant.

Ryan Horst (doing the splash in the kiddie pool!)

Lunch Time Games

Every Friday, our student’s council has a lunchtime activity. Everyone has come to know these activities as "T.G.I.F's" (thank god it's Friday activities). They are all very successful and I do suggest you try some... they are all easy and just take a few minutes to clean up or set up.

- Butter Carving (Buy blocks of cheap margarine and have students make sculptures. Give a prize to the best artist.)

- Jell-O eating contest (First one to eat a plate of Jell-O wins a prize.)

- Scavenger Hunt (List of 5 not-so-easy-to-find items. In teams of 2, whoever finds the items first wins.)

- Great Gumball Game (plates of whip cream with hidden gumballs. Students cannot use their hands... first person to find gum and ball and blow a bubble wins.)

- Limbo and Karaoke (Lowest Limbo, and best impersonation.)

Mike Bembenek

Orange Madness!!!!

Our school has adopted a yearlong spirit raising activity, called Orange Madness. (Orange & White are our schools colors) One of the most successful aspects of this campaign is the Oranged Out Fan Award. At half time (or its equivalent) of each home game, a member of the ASB class presents the Oranged Out Fan award to the high school student that is the most decked out in orange. We went around to businesses in the community and asked them to donate our prizes, with the promise that when we presented the award their business would receive a nice plug. For big games or playoffs the prizes increase in value. I can't take credit for this though; I must give props to Dena, Kim and all the rest of the back tables. If you would like to swap rally ideas I am my schools rally commissioner and I would be more than happy too.

Mike Read

Christmas Activities

As you all know, Christmas is right around the corner. We're already planning things out here at Holy Cross. I thought maybe I'd share some of our plans, in the hopes that you all could try these at your schools, and maybe even contribute some of your favorite Christmas activities. Here's what we have planned:

1. Candy Grams. Student pays 25 cents, which buys them a little sheet of paper plus a candy cane later on. We have printed out for us TAG room lists, and glue them on an envelope. These are then put up on a wall in the caf. Students buy their candy grams, which can be sent out to friends, significant others, crushes, or even teachers and after writing a small message, place them in the appropriate envelope. The second last day finds SAC members staying after school to sort through the candy grams, and making sure each student receives a candy gram from 'Santa Claus.' They are then given out the last day of school, which is always crazy. Check out Costco or another Wholesaler for cheap candy canes!! Even try having inter-city candy grams, so students can send candy grams to students in other schools!

2. HO HO HO Trivia. We'll be cruising the school with a tape recorder for a couple days, finding some spirited staff. They'll be asked to say in their best Santa Claus voice, 'Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!!' This tape will then be played on morning announcements for the two weeks before holidays, playing maybe one or two a day. The winning TAG class gets a donut party!!

3. A Christmas Assembly. We've been granted an hour and half for a Christmas Assembly. It is a talent show pretty much. Acts are lighter in nature as opposed to a Coffee House (with poetry and whatnot.) We on SAC are coming up with a funny skit as I write!

4. Door Decorating Contest. We have an extended TAG on the 8th, which will give TAG classes lots of time to decorate their doors up for the season. This event brings so much spirit to the school, by means of simple decorations! We'll judge the doors with another group in school, with the ultimate prize of a donut party or perhaps even a dress down day for the whole TAG class! I think we'll have different categories, like religious, most creative' should be lots of fun!

5. Christmas Float. We're planning on entering a float in the Peterborough Christmas Parade at the start of December. We'll get a flatbed truck, a driver, plus an energetic 'Float Committee.' It will be fun for all! Perhaps we'll pick up on the theme of our dance, which is below. This activity is definitely beneficial to those SACs wishing to raise the profile of their school in the community. Try and get the band involved!!

6. Christmas Dance. Who can't forget the Christmas Dance? Ours is the first Video Dance of the year, which will bring in many students. We're going for a theme of Christmas in Hawaii.

7. Forum/Caf Decorating. We'll also take some time to decorate the general areas of the school. We're hoping our principal will buy a huge live tree like last year. It must have been 20 feet! The best thing to do afterwards with the tree would be to donate it to a seniors home as there is a week before Christmas of which we're not in school this year. Also great for the school reputation!!

Hope I've provided you with some ideas. Hopefully they've inspired you to add some of yours!!

Stephen Telka

Holy Cross C.S.S. SAC President

Peterborough, ON

Monster Mash

What do Monsters eat at Hallowe'en? The eat Monster hash at the Monster Mash!  Create a little monster hash for your monsters to eat. Masks are then provided to dress up your monsters and they must eat the hash through the mask! It's a ghoulish mess!

    MONSTER hash!                             Monsters mashing!                                         Ghoulish mess!

Crush Grams

The idea crush grams revolves around a can of Crush pop (soda) - it comes in orange, grape and strawberry flavors. You can have this fundraiser during the days preceding Valentine's Day in February, or Sweetest Day in October. What you do is have people buy a crush gram for someone who they have a crush on. They would send it to that person, signed "From your Crush". Cost of the Crush Grams range from 50 cents to a dollar. Student Council or NHS will deliver the crush grams on the designated day to every- one who is receiving them. The other part of the deal is that the person who sent the crush gram can insure that the student council or NHS members never tell the person whom they sent the crush gram to by purchasing "Crush Insurance". Again, you can sell this for 50 cents to a dollar. Then the person who is sent the crush gram can never find out who sent it to them. The person MAY find out who sent the crush gram to them if the sender did not buy Crush insurance by paying Student Council or NHS 50 cents to a dollar. This increases the need to buy crush insurance when you are sending out the crush grams.

Graffitti Dance

Have the group in charge line the gym walls with sheet of roll paper, so all walls in the dance area are covered. Tell students to wear old clothes (white t-shirts, old blue jeans work best), and the admission to the dance can consist of money and a marker. Their marker will be used through out the dance. Students are welcome to bring yearbooks, senior memory books, or portfolios for people to sign and write on. Allow students to write graffiti on the walls (which are covered in roll paper), as well as write messages on each other's clothing. This gives them a chance to meet new people and get their yearbooks signed all at once! The shirts with their classmate’s signatures on them are always very popular to wear to school and to football games! This is a great way to boost school spirit, and actually have fun doing it!!!

Can Clean-Up Competition

A school in New York decided that their student council needed to do something about the appearance of the bathrooms in their school. The student council decided to have a competition between various groups in the school (leadership forum, Honors Society, Captain's Club, FHA, sports groups, etc) to clean up their school bathrooms. Each club volunteered to pay for the refurbishing of a bathroom. One week a month a bathroom would be shut down for the work to be done. The groups cleaned up the bath- rooms by painting, putting up wall paper & borders, sponge painting, putting up new mirrors and soap dispensers, hanging fake plants from the ceiling, getting new toilet seats and doors, etc. In some bathrooms a magazine rack was put in to hold donated magazines. Other clubs were creative and had shop class students make shelves to set your books on while using the restroom. Art classes even volunteered to paint murals on the walls!! Since the students were the ones that cleaned up the bathrooms and put the effort into it, they wanted them to STAY CLEAN, so were less apt to destroy their hard work. When damage was done it was that clubs responsibility to do the clean up work in the bathroom each month (painting touch ups, etc), but the normal bathroom cleaning was still done by janitors. At first people had a hard time respecting the new bathrooms, but after a month of the many students yelling at them for ruining their work. Damage stopped and bathrooms became a much more pleasant place - SHOCKER HUH?!?!

Another suggestion was to have the students serving in detention or one day in-house clean the bathrooms after school each month. After a student got so many points they were put on cleaning duty (get it?!), and had to clean the bathroom! A High School in Queens, New York tried this and even noticed a decrease in the disciplinary actions taken because NO ONE wants to clean up the bathrooms!

Tonya Chmielewski

Christmas Cutouts

We make festive cutouts and put the name of every student and staff member on a cutout. The cutouts are made using a wood block and cookie cutter shape run through a hand press at our Board Office. (a lot of elemetary schools use this for their bulletin boards) The cutouts go up on the walls throughout the school on the Tuesday before Christmas Break. It is amazing to watch students walk the hallways on Wednesday morning trying to find their names (often it's the kids who are too cool to participate in our normal council activities). When you find your cutout with your name on it, you go to the Main Office and present it to the principal who gives each student a candy cane. It's a great way for the students to meet the principal and receive a warm wish for the Holidays.

Theresa Klein Horsman

Remembrance Day

This is something that I have adapted for us Canucks from a message sent by Mike Smith. I love Flanders Fields (and John McCrae was from Guelph) but I get tired of hearing only it each year.

Dave C.

------------------

WHAT IS A VET?

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.

Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.

Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept our country safe wear no badge or emblem.

You can't tell a vet just by looking.

What is a vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery.

She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another or didn't come back at all.

He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the Unknown Soldier, whose presence must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say, "Thank You." That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".

Remember November 11th.

"It is the soldier, not the reporter,

Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the poet,

Who has given us freedom of speech,

It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,

Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate,

It is the soldier,

Who salutes the flag,

Who serves beneath the flag,

And whose coffin is draped by the flag,

Who allows the protestor to burn the flag."

Father Denis Edward O'Brien

Turkey Trike Race

Pick a day before Halloween

Get a really big Turkey donated

Have each homeroom select a racer

Get 3 tricycles (one for back up)

Balloons, pylons and streams for real amusement also cool

Run a series of races in tournament style through your school hallways (make us of the wheelchair ramp) Right after the ramp you have to stop and sit on a balloon and you have to sit on another at the finish line. Gets everyone cheering.

Our last one was pretty disorganized. Just to give you a few hints, next year we're going to use walkie-talkies to communicate between start and finish and have an informative meeting with all racers before the race. :)

Kristy

Senior Auction

One way to get ninth graders to feel like part of the school community is to get the older students to talk to them. The best way to do that is to have a senior auction. Gather up boys from the Senior Football or Hockey Team and Auction them off at third and fourth lunch. The boy(s) goes to the highest bidder and the boy has to be the buyer’s slaver for a day or their date for a dance. It's up to the person who bought them. It’s a lot of fun and after the auction the younger students feel more comfortable within the school community.

Sarah Little

Pasta Eating Competition

The name pretty much says it all. You make a lot of spaghetti and then at lunchtime you have some music playing in the caf to keep the attention going. Then with about 30minutes left in lunch you grab 4 people out of the caf and you ask them if they want to have a spaghetti eating competition. You keep playing music and someone gets up on the microphone and talks to the crowd a little bit and then you start of with one bowl of pasta and who ever eats it the fastest is declared the winner. If enough time permits, what you can do is select more people to compete. Be sure to put garbage bags over the contestants, as this game can get very messy.

Jordan Deskin

Buddy Day

Every year, our school holds "buddy Day" in the gym. The grade 12's team up with a grade 8 (the youngest grade) for two days of messy fun. The first day, the grade 12 girls get grade 8 guys, and vice-versa. Then, on the second day, the girls get flowers and the boys get cookies. It is a great way for the younger grades to feel welcome, and have a grade 12 to back them up throughout the year. On the second day, messy games take place such as cake head, pudding face and so on. This event is a must for every high school.

Joanna Thorvaldson

Helping Hands and Helping Hearts

Two teachers on our staff had a medical crisis and the school ran a fundraiser for them to help out. Hearts were bought for $2 and hands were bought for $5. You got to put your name on the hand or heart to show you cared. This could be adapted to fit other charity fundraisers.

John Thompson

Preston High School

Welcome Back and Clubs BBQ

Every year at Shoreline we have a BBQ for everyone on the first Friday. This is the first whole group project for my leadership class. The BBQ is a welcome to incoming grade 8's and a treat for the 9's and 10's. It's a golden opportunity for clubs and teams to showcase what they are about.

Each small group of students is responsible for preparing the table for one club or team. Other small groups are responsible for things such as the ice-cream stop, the BBQ's, condiment table, juice stand, entertainment and promotions. Everyone cleans up.

We pre-order the tables from our local school board. The costs are divided between the school, the community organization, and the student's council. At the first staff meeting I pass out a reminder to staff especially those that have offered to help.

So that things run smoothly just before lunchtime we call down the grade 8's and then the others.

The menu is:

Cheese Burgers (including a few dozen veggie)

Juice

Ice-Cream Cones

Condiments include the usual plus lettuce, tomatoes and friend onions.

We used to have corn-on-the-cob, but it didn't go over well. Hot dogs are sometimes used for more variety.

Shirley Lucyk

Pep Rally Scavenger Hunt

In a Pep Rally or Assembly have a scavenger hunt. Make a list beforehand of certain objects or talents that some but not every kid has or can do. Then the first person to get down to the center or to reach the leaders of the rally with the object or talent gets candy or a doughnut. Also keep score from which class the person is in. At the end award the class with the most points candy. (Some examples for the hunt is a Quicksilver wallet, red shoes, the first person who can do a back flip, a person with a picture of their dog etc . . .) It's really fun. It can especially be used as little intermissions between a serious assembly to keep the students awake and paying attention.

Matt Parsons

Current Events: The News Game

Divide group into 5.

Give each group a topic:

1. Entertainment

2. Miscellaneous

3. Music

4. British Columbia

5. Sports

Each group must provide 5 current event questions in relation to their topic and rank in order of difficulty relating to the points awarded for each. Each group has a team speaker - this is the only person to speak to the scorekeeper, give the answer to the question and/or read the question out loud. Each group may converse amongst themselves to answer any of the questions.

If the group who first asked for the question does not answer it correctly, it goes to the next group and so on until all questions are answered. Scores are added up to find the group with the most "current event" knowledge.

You can play this game throughout the year and at the end of the year prizes are awarded to the group with the highest points.

Ms. D. Link

Lunchtime Activities

Student leaders are always searching for creative activities. It's sometimes difficult to find new fun things to do at lunchtime. Here are a couple stupid ones we came up this year: Alka-Seltzer Action: dare students to take Alka-Seltzer and watch them foam over at the mouth. It's just hilarious to see! Mystery Munch: take the grossest foods you can find and separate them into liquids and solids. (E.g.- sauerkraut and jam) Then blindfold students and let them pick two numbers (a solid and a liquid) and combine the two foods. They have to eat it and the last one standing wins! It's a lot of fun and you can make it pretty disgusting. It also draws a lot of spectators. Have fun!

Harmony McMillan

It's Warm Fuzzie Time!

Yes, well, we've all attended a Leadership conference, but in order to do so you obviously HAVE to be a leader. Some of the difficulties with getting people involved with leadership can be avoided when those in Junior High and even elementary school get hooked on leadership young!

For the past five years, Harry Ainlay High School's External Executive committee has done that and more! This past October marked our fifth Junior High Leadership Conference (JHLC)! This daylong activity invited over two hundred leadership and student council students from around the Edmonton area into Harry Ainlay. This day was full of leadership and bridging activities that many of those in the Leadership class had done before (like the warm fuzzies, human pyramid, NASA group work lesson...) but allowed our leadership students to be the facilitators. All always enjoys this mock- leadership conference; giving Ainlay not only great coverage for the day but everyone always has a great time.

Some variations include doing the very same thing with sixth graders or even taking your leadership students to their Junior Highs. But no matter what, have FUN!

Meaghen Reid

Senior Citizen's Christmas Dinner

Each year we host a Senior Citizen Dinner for Christmas. We invite the 6 local Senior's homes and provide a complete turkey dinner. Each senior is matched with student and there is a meal that the students must serve the senior. The choir sings and teachers bring their preschool aged children in to see Santa and gifts are exchanged

Our administration all wear tuxedos and the seniors are picked up by school bus (even those in wheelchairs). All the food, buses and extras are donated or sponsored. This is such a big tradition that the same seniors have been coming every year and the homes are waiting for our call and our school just wouldn't let it go.

It's just a great event for young and old to share about life and the act of giving.

John Thompson

Preston High School

Mock Snowballing

This spirit activity had been very popular. It's a just like a real snowball fight. It's in the gym and instead of snow you use socks that are curled up into a ball. There are tables turned on their sides and big boxes on the gym floor as protectors and to hid from getting hit. There are two teams and if a person is hit by a snowball, they are out of the game. The last team with players that haven't been hit win. This is an activity that even the teachers like to get involved with.

Carly Grimard

Battle of the Sexes

This is a contest to show which sex gets more involved and has more spirit. This event runs for 4 days. All activities in the 4 days are male vs. female.

The first day is Brainteasers: Ex: 18 = H in the GF.

The second day is a music blender: 10 clips of songs, you have to name the song name and artist. Also, on the second day it is boy's heart day: boys wear a red heart, pinned to their shirt. The boys can't talk to girls between classes, at break and at lunch. If they do talk to the opposite sex they have to give the girl their heart. At the end of the day the girl with the most hearts gets crowned "The Queen of Hearts".

The third day is TV trivia: questions about "Friends", "Ally McBeal", etc. This is written down on a piece of paper and submitted and counted and also it's girls heart day: where they can't talk to the guys. And just as with the boy's heart day, at the end of the day the boy with the most hearts is crowned "The King of Hearts".

On the last day it's activity day: twister, balloon popping contest and golfing (electronic golf set) Then at the end of this day the points are totaled and the winners are announced and girl and guy are crowned.

We've done run this activity ever since we came up with the idea. We've had great turnouts and have been very successful with it.

Carly Grimard

John Peterson School

Music in the Caf

Music in the caf is something that has worked well at my school. It's a very simple way to raise money for any events (united way, cancer, etc) Just have a stereo brought to the cafeteria during lunch time and have your org. (i.e. student council) bring in all their c.d.'s and charge the students 50 cents (or whatever) to hear their favourite song.

You can also add a twist with the VETO rule. If someone doesn't like the song that is on, they can pay 1.00 to have it turned off. Then 50 cents for the song they want to hear. It works well and the kids love to have the change in their lunch hour, which we all know can get pretty boring!

Sarah

Lunchtime Olympics

We have school-wide competitions on Fridays during the lunch break. We got a HUGE trophy with an interchangeable medallion. The medallions have the grade levels on them and it is changed to honor the grade that won the previous week. When student council members make announcements to the classes, they get the trophy from the office and encourage their classmates to participate so that their medallion can be on it the next week. Participants must sign up and the rules are posted on Monday for Friday's event. Some team events we have used are hacky sack contest, Orange Pass (the old neck to neck, drop it and you start over game), tricycle relays, etc. Some individual events we have done include "Gotcha" (a basketball freethrow game), hula-hoop contest, etc.

Tina Livingstone

Prom Fashion Show

Have a fashion show about 3 weeks prior to Prom to build up the hype before tickets go on sale. Contact your local tuxedo and dress shops to see if they will donate the necessary clothing for the fashion show. Allow all Juniors or Seniors interested in modeling to submit their names for a drawing to be a model in the show.

The only requirements are that they have a minimum 2.5 g.p.a. and no discipline problems. Use the fashion show as a way to announce your location if it is a surprise. Other things to announce: theme of the prom, theme song, and prom king and queen nominees. The fashion show can be done via a television system or in a gymnasium or auditorium. Get as many local businesses involved with the show as possible. Offer them the opportunity to advertise for the upcoming prom season and a way to show off their product.

This is a fun show and it gets all students excited about prom. !

The end result is a great turn out at prom.

Kevin Storey

Video Assembly

We went to video this year for our opening spirit assembly. This allowed all of the teams, clubs and activities to put the participation pitch to the whole school on video. It also controlled what was said on stage -- often we've had people stray from the script for the benefit of their friends. A very talented student edited the material, added some energy-filled tunes and we had an excellent start to the year. It also helped that we hired a video DJ to come in with three huge screens and a sound system that made everyone listen. A year-end assembly is now being planned to wrap up the year's activities and personalities.

Adrian Rogers

Fundraising Promotion

Fundraisers need promotion and these are two ideas that worked during our chocolate bar campaign. BINGO was held in the cafeteria at lunch for all people who had brought in money. This helped to keep the campaign profile in the eye of the students and to provide some daily prizes to students participating.

Loonie Drop

A Loonie Drop was held in front of the school (call it a Fist Full of Dollars). A student is selected in a draw and asked to stand with one hand outstretched at waist level. Loonies are dropped by a teacher from above shoulder height. The student can keep every loonie that they catch without dropping. Once they drop one, they keep what they have in their hand. As the loonies pile up, they tend to bounce off the accumulated metal and it's a great crowd pleaser and not that expensive for the campaign. Quite a few participants can have a try at catching before you use up two rolls of coins. Many students are so nervous in front of the crowd that they drop the first one!

Dave Conlon

Another BYOB

We saw the idea of the BYOB on the Share Shop, but took it one step further. We turned in to a HOUSE event. Our school is divided into 4 equal cross-graded groups. Each house could have up to 25 students participate on their team. The ice cream was served in 10-foot long troughs. They we 10 foot length of the 6 inch blue plastic pipe cut in 1/2. We had little stands made to hold the troughs upright. Inside the trough we put: 16 liters of ice cream, 25 cherries, chocolate sauce, sprinkles, and of course Bananas, cut in 1/2 lining the entire trough. The troughs were placed on tables in the middle of the gym in front of the bleachers. On GO, the teams had to try and eat the entire Banana Split before the other teams. Each team member had to stay in his or her section marked by a cherry and had to use a plastic spoon. The entire event only cost $125 ($25 for the trough!). The local supermarket gave a deal in the stuff for the split--we had over 200 students in the gym eating and cheering on the teams. We video taped the event and then played it the school TV monitors. Next year we will use the video to promote the event.

Dave MacKenzie

Ms. Oktoberfest

Our school mocks the local beauty pageant that is held during Oktoberfest in Kitchener-Waterloo by holding a Ms. Oktoberfest contest. Each home room selects a willing male who must have a casual and evening wear outfit. The contest is held in the cafeteria at lunch and contestants are judged on their poise, character and ensembles. Home rooms are also asked to bring in canned food for our food drive and each participants total is added to their score. We're not sure who has more fun: the girls getting they guys all tarted up or the guys sashaying up and down the catwalk. Our winner gets a pedicure and dozen roses. Yes there are teachers willing to touch their feminine side as well.

Chris Bankmann

Elmira District Secondary School

Lulla-Balloona

Students in our leadership class came up with this one-- Students can "buy" one or more balloons. They must tie this balloon around their ankle with a string. Once the game starts, the object is to pop everyone else's balloons and be the last person there with balloons in tact. The gym was used, and as the numbers of players reduced, the size of the running area also reduced. The lunch hour ended with lots of smiling (and very sweaty!!) students heading off to class. The winner walked away with a prize and the title of "Lulla Balloona king or queen".

Deb McColman

Turkey Bowling

Here's the idea: you get plastic wrap and vegetable oil, and a few bowling pins. Then use thawed pre-packaged turkeys as bowling balls. We have found this to be a great fundraiser, as we charged a dollar for three tosses.

Kiss a Pig

If you can, find a teacher that is willing to kiss a pig for donations. Tell the students that if you raise a certain amount of money the teacher will kiss a live pig at the next pep assembly. At the event, sell Polaroids of the teacher smoochin' the pig for a buck apiece. Students love it, great fundraiser, and make sure you have lots of film on hand!

Stephanie McTaggart

Great Gross Gunk

Some activities need the gross gucky stuff, but the problem is what to do with that kiddie pool full of Jell-O and oatmeal after you've had your fun. A good alternative is peat moss. Just add water and you have instant mud! It's cheap and enviro friendly. The stuff looks gross and formidable, but the beauty of it is that you can get dirty and then simply spread it around on the lawn after you're done. (Don't spread it around on a gym floor after you're done, as there is little need for that kind of thing) We discovered that marshmallows can survive in a peat moss soup and they don't taste that bad either!

Dave Conlon

A Fitton Solution to Caf Garbage

Our cafeteria is like all other cafs, except when our woodshop teacher, Charlie Fitton, is on patrol.

On his day, the fittin' solution to garbage control is to run a lottery right by the tray return window. Each student who returns a tray full of dishes and garbage receives a ticket in the Fitton lottery. Prizes range from the monetary (discounts in the caf) to the salutary (you get to shake the principal's hand and get a Polaroid snap of the momentous occasion) and just short of incendiary (one free pull of the next test of the fire alarm system). Students are willing to dig into garbage pails from other rooms or sneak trays from the caf line just to participate.

Charlie holds a wood block drilled with holes into which he inserts lucky and not so lucky tickets. Students draw the rolled up tickets from the block after they clean up.

As mentioned, prizes range from the worthy to the inane, but all have fun and our caf is tidy for at least one day of the week.

Other prizes in the Fitton lottery: a free block of wood; a school spirit t-shirt; a detention pass; a hug; a free late; free coffee; a chocolate bar; a bag of sawdust. Most prizes are of no or little cost but it's the competition that makes it fun.

Dave Conlon

Great Turkey Legs Contest

Take pictures of all your male (or female) faculty. (They can decorate their legs in any fashion-heels, hose, markers, bows, or au natural.) Enlarge each to an 8X10 and glue them onto posters with only numbers for identification. Students can be awarded special prizes if they correctly identify each faculty member. Draw a comical giant turkey (like the one on Print Shop Ensemble) and place it on the wall behind posters. Have students vote for the best turkey legs during an appropriate time by putting nickels into plastic containers each day at lunch for one week. Proceeds can go to a homeless shelter or community food bank. Male faculty can really talk or "ham" it up by begging at lunch with their containers, which may be empty at the beginning of each lunch.

Gaye Pappas

Dance Promotion

This is a great way to get people to come to dances. Last month, Riverdale's Student Union bet the rest of the school that if 350 tickets were sold the guys on Student Union would dress up as women. Everyone (except the guys) seemed to enjoy it.

Mike Schacter, Chirag Patel, Danny Leo

Right Mural but Wrong Wall Solution

Many schools will not let you paint murals on the walls because the wall is not suitable for paint, or the administration is afraid of damage or graffiti. One solution is to paint the mural on masonite and then affix it to the wall with screws. The mural can be removed for touch-ups and the integrity of the blank wall behind the mural is not affected.

Penny Power

Set up two large glass jars. (Jrs. vs. Srs.) Pennies are positive points for your jar. Silver is negative points, so you put that in the other jar. Example: if I put 10 pennies in my jar and a Sr. puts a quarter in my jar, I have minus 15 points. It's a great way to raise money and have a challenge. Run the event over one week and keep all aware of what the tally is. WARNING: pennies smell and be prepared to roll because the copper just rolls in.

Dave Conlon

Stars of the School

Car Elimination Dance

Our auto shop purchases (or gets a donation of) an older car that needs some work, and through the school year it is repaired and brought up to safety standards. Our body shop also makes any necessary repairs. At a spring dance, all students attending the dance have their names placed on a huge board at the front of the dance. Through the evening, names are drawn and these names are removed from the board at the front. At the end of the evening, one student drives a way with the car. It’s a good fundraiser and an excellent spirit builder for us.

Barry Sharpe

Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada

Improving Home Game Attendance

At each home game a number is drawn and the winner receives a school spirit shirt. At the end of the season, one of the winners will walk away with a grand prize -- a school jacket.

Neat Eye-Catching Ads

Think sidewalk chalk. Think entrances, walkways, tennis courts, parking lots, driveways and bricks. Get creative and design a welcome back sign, a dance ad, and a spirit logo. We're the Panthers and if the weather cooperates, we'll have paw prints leading up the walkways to the school for the first day. A hose or Mother Nature can erase your artwork and you're ready to start again.

Dave Conlon

Announcement Brighteners

Here are some ideas to perk up your morning P.A. announcements:

If you play the national anthem, have a contest for individuals or classes or clubs to sing the anthem. They submit their recording and it becomes one of the versions that you play for announcements.

Have a Call of the Day contest: At the end of the announcements call upon a home room or individual picked at random to answer a trivia question based on that morning's announcements (what was the score of the Jr. Basketball game?) Award prizes for correct answers.

Invite mystery guest announcers: perhaps one of the custodians wants to play DJ for the day or have the History teacher read a blast from the past.

Get a CD that is called TV Toons. Have a Couch Potato Contest with the winning homeroom identifying the TV Toon snippets for the week.

Dave Conlon

BYOB

A neat end-of-year event is the BYOB. Student Council provides tubs of vanilla ice cream, toppings, and the bowls. All the students and staff have to do is provide the banana. Put them all together in the proper order and you have a sidesplitting event!

This can be of no charge (as long as they BYOB) or you can sell bananas for $1 for those who forget to BTOB's.

Dave Conlon

Pep Rally with a Wall of Video

We have tried to pump up the spirit on our pep rallies by hiring a dance company to come in with their video screens and sound system. We run the pep rally on the same day as we are using the dance company in the evening, so it costs us less and we get the added punch of advertising for the video dance in the evening. We use all of our own spirit videos, but there's nothing like having your face or team on three huge 20 foot screens. This is a great spirit builder and a way to let the students see the fun they will have at the dance.

Dave Conlon

Fundraising Advertising

We hyped our fundraiser with a very simple marketing tool. We photocopied about 100 sheets advertising our fundraising slogan.

Then we went around at lunch and told people that if they wore the slogans and got 10 people to sign it, they would receive candy at the end of the day.

The cafeteria went wild! Everyone wanted a sign and we had instantly 100 billboards walking around the school promoting our fundraiser.

The cost to us was a pail of suckers that went very quickly at the end of the day.

Dharm Makwana

Glenview Park Student Council

Elvis Theme Dance

We had a great theme dance which was entitled "Honeymoon in Vegas" Along with the dance we ran a casino in the cafeteria next door with a prize for the top winners.

The highlight of the evening was the arrival of Elvis. Yes, we had the King himself (actually he was impersonating an Elvis impersonator) and the dance went wild!

Elvis then officiated at the Chapel of Love and certificates of union and cheesy Polaroid’s with the Rev. Elvis A. Presley were presented.

Great event. Great time had by all

Dave Conlon

Mr. Bean Day!

A good way to get the spirit going is to have a Mr. Bean Day. He is the character, silent but hilarious, played by Rowan Atkinson. Have a Mr. Bean look-a-like contest! You could show Mr. Bean videos at lunch and charge admission of one can of beans to get in. Donate the canned food to your local food bank.

Have a beanarama, a beanaroonie, a beantastic time!