Yearbook Jam
The year book jam is a party for those students who buy a yearbook. It allows them to come and sit around, dance for a few hours, and/or sign their friends books with background music.
The Benefits
More students will buy yearbookds because they would like to attend the yearbook jam.
Students have the opportunity to be with their friends and meet new people!
Christmas Candy Cane Sales
Set up a table and sell candy cane tags. People will fill out and bring them back. Separate tags into bags for every classroom. Organize a Christmas Party to the tie candy canes to ribbons. Dress up as Santa and his helpers to deliver candy canes to every room singing carols.
Materials Needed:
Tags of different color ribbon/ yarn
Candy Canes
Big Garage Bags
Advertising signs
TIP: Every student should receive 1 candy cane from StuCo
Mock Rock (Airband Contest)
Student groups prepare acts to lip synch to recorded music. They are judges on costumes, movements, and lip-synch ability. Profits can excceed 1,000 from each program. Winners are rewarded.
Can Drive
This recycling project asks each homeroom to collect smashed recyclable cans. Student council keeps a tally of the amount of green garbage bags filled with cans. The homeroom with the most bags of cans wins a pizza party. Cans are collected once a month by stuco reps. Cans are recycled for money.
Graduation Videos
Use a camcorder to videotape graduation ceremonies. We make copies on 1/2" videotapes (using two VCRs), then sell them for about $10 each. We buy tapes in bulk for $3. All tapes are preordered and prepaid. Parents are contacted in June to pick up the tapes in the school office.
Jock-A-Thon
Raise money for prom and/or chemical-free parties after prom with this one-day event. Twenty community teams play both volleyball and Anything Goes games. An auction is held during intermission. All spectators pay an admission fee. Funds are also raised by selling peanuts, popcorn, sandwiches, hot dogs, and soda.
Holiday Bazaar
Held in December, sell spaces in the cafeteria and hallways for $30, $40, or $60 to local craftspeople. Also, raise money by selling concessions, checking coats, and babysitting. Clubs and parent organizations also sell items. Their spaces are free. The bazaar runs from 9am to 4pm. An admission fee is charged.
Game Show Night
Stage a three-part show, eahc featuring a popular TV game show ("Win, Lose, or Draw," "The Dating Game," and "Faculty Feud.") Students host the shows, and students and faculty serve as contestants. A studetn back plays between segments. There are no production costs, and all ticket sales are pure profit.
Love Bud Sale
Just prior to Valentine's Day, each "love bud" (carnation) is purchased by any member of the student body from the sponsoting organization. An announcemtnet card is purchased on which you write a message to the recipient of the bud. On the back, you write the recipient's name and homeroom, then place it in a box in the student activities office (or other designated area). The organization then puchases the number of carnations needed. The school hallways are awash with pink, white, red, and yellow flowers! This is a great money-maker that is easy and fun.
Mile-O-Change
Stick a mile of two-sided tape on a mall floor. Invite passersby to contribute loose change to cover the mile by sticking coins to the tape.
Turkey Teacher
Teachers are given cups marked "Turkey Teacher." Students buy turkey feathers for 25 cents and write messages to their teachers, which are placed in the cups. The teacher with the most feathers is crowned "Turkey Teacher." Money colected is used to buy turkeys for needy families. Parking Lot Raffle
The key is to sell something that doesn't cost anything. Raffle away preferred parking spaces for a week. Select spaces close to the most convenient entrances were marked off, and the chance to park there for an entire week was raffled away at the cost of one dollar per ticket.
Homecoming Bonfire
To get everyone in the homecoming spirit, have a bonfire and a silly olympics the night before the game. The olympics is a class competition where everyone can join in things like sack races, watermelon eating contests, and other silly competitions. Afterwards, everyone socializes and relaxes by a bonfire while roasting hotdogs and marshmallows.
Kiss a Senior Goodbye
StuCo two weeks prior to graduation sets up a booth in the lobby so that all students, seventh through twelth grades can kiss a senior goodbye. At our booth we sell two Hershey kisses for a quarter. These kisses are distributed to all seniors on the day of graduation. Any senior who did not receive a kiss from someone will receive on from the student council.
Turkey Raffle
Each studetn is given a raffle ticket one morning before class. The student writes their name as well as a favorite techer's name on the ticket and may turn it in at lunch throughout the week. Extra tickets are also availalbe at lunchtime- $.25 each or 5 for $1. Three tickets are drawn at the end of the week- each winning student receives $10 and the winning teachers receive a gift certificate for a turkey.
Easter Egg Hunt
Have local businesses donate plasitc eggs, prizes, and candy. Then, we're going to have an east egg junt at the elementary school. Each child will have to pay $1 to participate. We'll separate the school into two different sections- dividing the kids into two different age groups. Then have them hunt for the eggs. *This can also be done with no charge as a community service project.*
A-Thon
Be creative with this way to earn funds for students. An original A-thon was a Study-A-Thon the Friday night before finals week. Council members earned pledge amounts for each hour they would study for exams. We booked the gum and the school library for the entire night. The money each student earned was placed in their "account' for the student to use to attend state and national conferences. Every two hours of study (10:00pm to 6:00am) Included 15 minutes of fun and movement. We also did bring in lots of food. Make sure you have at least one other adult to help in "situations". There are also, clean-a-thons, bake cookie-a-thon for nursing home, etc.
Crush on You
A great idea for middle and high school. Students order a can of "Orange Crush" to be delivered at lunch to someone they want to think they have a crush on. The cost to send is 50 cents. The receiver of the can of Crush can pay the StuCo Adviser 50 cents to find out who sent the can of Crush... or the sender can block that information for 50 cents. Pick a talented student to be in charge of the delivery for each lunch.
Hat Day
If you are like most schools, students cannot wear hats to school. Create a special hat day where students can purchase a "hat pass" for $1 that will allow them to wear their hat to school that day. This can also be used for "jeans" at schools where the studetns wear uniforms. Set guidelines for the types of hats that can be worn.
Cow Patty Bingo
Creat a large grid in a pasture near the school that is fenced in and usually has cows. Sell chances for selection of the "square" where the cow first marks. The prize can be 50% of the sale of the grid locators.
Senior Flowers
Every year, seniors get all mushy and sentimental at the end of the year when they leave their friends and classmates to head into the real workd. Senior flowers enhance that mushiness by letting each senior give a red rose to the one person in the school that influenced them the most throughout their high school experience. Underclassmen were also allowed to join in. Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors could buy a rose for a senior that meant a lot to them. The flowers were delivered to the recipient with a short message attached from the giver. This idea seemed to work out well because the seniors were showing appreciation and being appreciated at the same.
Twister Tourney
Students will need to judge, announce, and run the game. Have atleast 8 twister mats. The more mats you have, the faster the tourney will go. Have team sign-up's during lunch hours. Allow 2 people per team. Once you have all of the teams, make a big tournament bracket. Play out the tourney, single or double elimination. After the tourney, have a sock hop. It will give the losing teams something to do while the rest of the tourney is still going on.
Couch Raffle
The basic idea is selling tickets to students, and thie winner is allowed to choose 2 friends to sit with him or her on the couch during a football or basketball game. During the game, the winners will be served free pizza, soda, and popcorn. The couch should be positioned in an optimum seating area, but be concious of fire-code.
Fourth Quarter Shoot Out
Before each Varisty Basketball game, stuco members were posted in the front of the gym. They sold tickets on which people would write who they thought would make the first basket of the 4th quarter. The tickets were $.50 each. When the first basket was made, we then would draw a ticket. If that person picked the correct player they would win half of what we made that night. If no one won, the pot would roll over until the next game. If would keep doing that until someone won and then we would start over again. Al of this was approved by the Indiana High School Athletics Association, as long as none of the basketball players participated, and that we drew the names after the shot was made.
Cheap Date Nite
"The costs of dates are too expensive." Student council can come up with a cheap solution, have a cheap date night at your high school on a Saturday night. Any age student in high school could attend, even if they did not have a date. All activities took place from 6-11pm. A small will be charged for the cost of food, otherwise events were free. The first hour was sectioned off for eating, and after that all other activities began. We set up a 3 on 3 basketball tournament, volleyball games, and goofy relays in our gym. The swimming pool was open to any daring bodies (sure to have a certified life guard). Popular movies were shown on the big screen in our auditorium. Plus, we popped movie-style popcorn for all of our movie viewers. There were no restrictions on what each person participated in, they could go from one activity to another, the night was all up to them.
Trick-or-Treating for Cans
To get the community more involved and to collect more cans we go trick-or-treating for them. We advertise in grocery stores, in the newspaper, and on the local radio station that the student council will be going door to door collecting canned food. One night on the week of Halloween we all dress up in costumes and go aroudn town trick-or-treating for cans. Be sure to advertise because some people can be leery of high school kids dressed up in costumes knocking on doors asking for canned foods.
Five Fabulous Days
Choose a week close to Christmas and get it approved with the school administration ad the pantry or homeless shelter you will be donating to. Next, you need to assign each day a specific type of food item or product to bring in for that day. For example, Monday: Baby products, Tuesday: Canned Foods, Wednesday: Toys, Thursday: Personal Hygiene, Friday: Paper Products. Have several drop off spots around school. Line someone up to transport all the items to the panty or homeless shelter.
Safe Trick-or-Treat
Get as many school groups involved as possible. Each group sets up their own event. For example Honors Society had a haunted house throughout parts of the school including the auditorium, Spanish club handed out candy and played a Disney movie in Spanish, stuco handed out balloons and organized many things, etc. Cookies and drink are free for parents and kids. This is a great activity for small children and families in a maybe less than safe environment. It is also great in close knit communities to support community spirit.
Christmas Shopping Spree
To provide for those in a community who may not receive anything. Begin by going to local businesses asking for donations. After receiving all the donations, choose an elementary school and ask the principal to choose a few needy students, that number depends on how many donations are received. Begin the day by having all of the students dropped off at the high school. There, provide the kids with donuts and juice for breakfast! (Donated by a local bakery) After breakfast, go to a department store where each child is paired up with a high school stuco member to keep track of how much they spend. (Also remind them they are to buy a gift for everyone in their house, including themself.) After they purchase their gifts, the department stores donate free popcorn and drink to every child. Then our trip proceeds to a nearby fast-food restaurant, where they donate a happy meal to each child. Our last stop is back to the high school where we wrap the gifts, and wait for the parents to pick the kids up.
The Giving Tree
Contact Child Protective Services and they give us the names of 120-200 needy children between the age of newborns to age 16. Then make up little ornaments for the tree that are in the shape of snowman or snowflakes and put the sex and age of a child on them. After this is all set up, set up a table in our cafeteria and place the tree on the table and stuco members take turns running it. We write down the names of the people in our school who took ornaments, and which sex and age group they took from. It is asked they bring the gifts back by the next Friday and that they do not wrap the gifts so it can be monitored what is brought. It is done to be sure that they are not already used or broken toys and so that they are for the right age group or sex.
County Clothing Drive
Each school in the county collected new or gently used clothing. Individual stuco's collect clothes in their schools, and also place drop boxes in local businesses. The members count the number of clothing, and the end date compare the tallies. A travelling prize is given to the school that collects the most clothing. Each school is then responsible for getting the clothing to a Salvation Army or such.
Decorative Doors
Each stuco member was paired up with another member, and was in charge of decorating 2 classroom doors. Each used thier own ideas and creativity to personalize the doors. We tried to keep them all simple with just wrapping the doors with wrapping paper and then putting a bow on them. We then added a tag that said "Merry Christmas, From the Student Council."
Book Drive
Have students go home and collect all the books they do not read anymore or are too juvenile for. These books can come from anywhere in their house, whether it is baby books or adult novels, all books are welcome. Separate the books. After having collected all the books you can separate the books into age groups. Deliver the books to the place you choose to donate them to.
Monthly Service Project Idea
September
-help teachers move and set up their rooms
-decorate faculty bulletin board with a huge tree and put all the teacher's names on the leaves
-sponsor a welcome back to school luncheon for the faculty on a teacher prep day
-make survival kits for the new faculty
October
-paint mini-pumpkins with faces for the staff
-make ghosts by covering lollipops with kleenex with a note "have a bootiful weekend"
November
-buy special pies and have them seved to staff for dessert at lunch
-decorate homemade cookies with school colors and pass out to staff
-include your faculty at the pep rally - have a staff team or pie eating contest for teachers
-have a special t-shirt designed for factuly so they can wear it on spirit days
December
-have students pick teacher's names and be their secret santa
-provide a continental breakfast for staff in the main lobby on the day you get out for break
-give a payday candy bar- "thought you could use an extra payday"
-have a Christmas party for the children of the teachers complete with presents and a visit from Santa
January
-Snow removal off cars
-put a red pencil in every mailbox- have fun correcting exams
-room service- student take a cart of fresh coffee, donuts, juice, fruit to staff members
February
-secret cupids do nice things
-sponsor a fifties dance for the staff and offer free babysitting
-send homemade valentines to the entire staff
-make homemade valentines cookies
-decorate the faculty lounge like a beach
March
-give each staff member a small package of seeds with a note "thanks for helping us grow"
-get teachers to bring in baby pictures of themselves and have students vote with pennies for cutest baby
-have a free carwash for the staff
April
-sponsor a breakfast wiht the Bunny for the staff and their families - don't forget egg hunt
-Teacher appreciation week
-give every teacher a shiny apple with a motivational poem
-clean all the teachers car windshields in the parking lot.
May
-sponsor a "make your own sundae" for the staff immediately after school
June
-serve a luncheon to all club advisers at the end of the year during exams to express gratitude for all their extra hours
-put together a slide show with faculty pictures have a faculty reception and show slides to music "Wind Beneath My Wings"
Fall Clean-up
During this project you rake leaves for the elderly who do not have anyone else to do it for them. When we you this, bag the leaves and take them to an area to dispose of them.
Adopt a Grandparent
Go to a nursing home and find out if they would like to have an adont a grandparent program there. If so, get the names o the people tha touwl be albe to receive a stuco member. Then at least once every month visit twith them. It would probably better once every two weeks. When you go and visit, have planned activities to do or during holidays have crafts made for them or even do the craft with them.
Holidays Cards to Veteran's Hospital
This can be for Christmas, Easter, or Valentines Day. Sign cards from your organization and send them to a Veteran's Hospital. This helps the vets to have a good holiday because many of them don't have families any more.