Principals strive to boost school spirit

Every school experiences its share of challenges, but an invisible “we’reall-in-this-together” spirit can go a long way toward carrying a school community through the highs and lows of a year. Included: Principals share their favorite spirit-building activities.

Have you challenged your staff to a bubble-gum-blowing contest lately? Or a Worst Prom Picture Contest? Has your PTO sponsored a schoolwide door decorating contest?

Have your teachers entertained kids with a game of Condiment Twister?

In Condiment Twister, the yellow spots on the Twister game sheet are covered in mustard, the red spots in ketchup, the blue spots in mayo and much to the students’ delightteachers are the players. (This activity makes a great reward when students reach a hard-toachieve goal!)

Each year, school leaders (and their co-conspirators) plan all sorts of activities with the sole aim of building school spirit. Activities that bring together parents, teachers, and kids as individual, groups, or all together can go a long way toward building a climate of fun.

So what funor messy activities have you done lately to build spirit in your school? That’s the question we posed this month to our Principal Files team.

SCAVENGER HUNTS BUILD MORALE, TEAM SPIRIT

When it comes to school spirit, every school has its highs and lows. Sometimes the events that influence morale are internal, and other times they come from outside. Wherever those stressors are coming from, when there is a dip in morale at your school, it could be time for a scavenger hunt.

Principal Joan Pinkerton felt that her staff at Kent (New York) Primary School could use a boost, so she planned a scavenger hunt that would get folks working together and laugh- in ing.

When te teachers showed up for a recent staff meeting, meetin she handed each one a card that had printed on it the name of a familiar song. At her cue, she asked everyone to take a look at the name of the tune on their card and begin humming it. Their task was to find the four others who were humming the same ditty. Within a few minutes the staff members humming “Mary Had a Little Lamb” had gathered, and so had those humming “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” Soon, those humming “The ABC Song,” “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” and other old favorites were teamed up too.

Now that Pinkerton had her groups purposely pre-arranged to bring together staff members who might not otherwise team up she was set to share her planned scavenger hunt. She had already had a bit of fun preparing a list of ten riddles for the teams to solve. Now she was set to share the riddles, which poked fun at things familiar to all staff members in the room. Each riddle gave clues to an object that teams had to gather.

Math Connects is full of joy, It even comes with a little toy. Matthew Cando is his true name: This robot helps with their math game.