It’s back-to-school season, which means Kansas City and St. Louis elementary schools are gearing up for open houses and welcome events! These are great opportunities for students and parents to meet the teachers and visit the school if it’s their first year attending, but it’s also a chance to set the tone for a positive and fun-filled school year!
Kids will be much more excited about an open house when there’s something fun waiting for them. Get the students pumped by trying these six tips for making your school’s open house about more than just paperwork:
1. Give it a Theme Like “Building a Brighter Future”
Having some sort of theme for your event is great for advertising in a way that will capture students’ interest! Our personal favorite? “Building a Brighter Future.” Include fun activities related to this theme, like an inflatable Lego Crawlthrough, a Lego or megablocks building zone, and other construction or building-related activities at various stations throughout the gymnasium or in different classrooms.
Here are a few other themes to inspire your students:
- Learning Around the World (multicultural theme)
- Blasting Off to a Great Year (space exploration theme)
- Learning in Progress (science and technology theme)
- Bookworm Bash (reading theme)
Whatever theme you choose, finding a way to connect it with the goals of your open house is important. That’s why all the themes we came up with connect to learning and academics in some way! There are usually practical sides to every open house, but having a theme makes those feel like less of a burden and more of a quick checklist to take care of before getting to the good stuff.
2. Encourage the Faculty and Staff to Participate
The faculty and staff can set a really fun tone by getting involved with the Open House beyond simply showing up. Encourage your teachers and other staff to participate by hosting booths or having fun activities in their classrooms.
One way to make it fun for everyone is with a scavenger hunt throughout the school, which would encourage students to meet the librarian, the art teacher, the cafeteria workers, and the principal as they collect clues or tickets from each. Students who complete the scavenger hunt can win a prize at the end of the open house!
3. Set Up a Photo Op to Capture Memories
Kids love taking silly photos to commemorate special events, so having a photo booth or magic foto mirror is a great way to both make things fun for this year’s attendees AND contribute to marketing materials for next year or future school events! Borrow some props from the drama club to make it even more unique.
4. Don’t Forget the Snacks!
No event is complete without concessions. While an open house may be a weird occasion for a sit-down dinner or complete buffet, grilling out hot dogs or having a few fun snacks like popcorn and cotton candy will really hit the spot when students build an appetite on the bounce house!
5. A Dunk Tank is a School Event MUST
Show your students just how brave the faculty are by putting them on display in a dunk tank! Dunk tanks are loads of fun and laughs, making them a fan favorite for every back to school bash. Don’t believe us? Here are five more reasons to rent a dunk tank for your open house!
At Fun Services Midwest, we have three different dunk tanks to make sure every school is properly equipped:
- A classic folding dunk tank
- The See-Through Dunk Tank so students can enjoy the show from start to finish
- And this baseball-themed dunk tank for the competitive at heart
6. Add a Little More Fun…Just for the Fun of It!
Whatever you can do to make your school event fun and engaging will increase the odds of students and parents attending and sticking around to enjoy it! Fun Services Midwest has all kinds of rentals designed with fun as the focus, but that’s not all we offer! We also have an incredible team of talented performers and artists who you can book through us to come add a unique flair to your open house or welcome event.
Two of our most popular entertainers for school events are our Air Brush Tattoo artists and Face Painting pros. Both of these creative options will give your students something fun to wear home. They might even have to run back to the photo booth for one more pose!
Set the Tone for the New School Year with Fun Services Midwest
Every open house comes with practical to-do’s, but having a theme makes them feel less like chores and more like a quick checklist before the fun begins. It’s a chance to reassure parents that their children will be cared for and educated well, and to show students that you don’t take yourself too seriously! The more we can inject learning with a healthy dose of joy, the more interested students will be in learning.
If you’re ready to embrace fun this school year, contact us at Fun Services Midwest to book your rentals before another school snatches them up!