Art Goes to School
Art Goes to School (AGTS) is a district wide program that brings fine art into the K-8 classrooms. No prior art knowledge is required, only an interest in learning about art and sharing it with our students. We provide information on classroom presentations and activities. We meet monthly from September through January to discuss and learn about the art and artists in our current portfolio. We then spend about a week at each school in the district. Each member is only expected to present the art to 4 or 5 classes, but there are plenty of opportunities to do more than that. Please contact Susan Sullivan (ssulli3071@aol.com or 610-272-3299) and she will eagerly provide you with more information and answer any questions you may have.
As Needed Volunteers
The chairperson will maintain a list of parents interested in volunteering as needs arise. Various committee chair people, PTO officers, teachers, and school groups can contact the chairperson when volunteers are needed for additional help.
Assemblies
This committee works with the Principal to bring educational and entertaining assemblies to Blue Bell.
Book Fair
Our Fall Book Fair runs just prior to Thanksgiving in conjunction with our Holiday Shop and promotes the joy of reading. Many volunteers are needed to help set-up, assist children with book selections, work as cashiers, and help take everything down. This committee also assists the librarian with a smaller Book Fair in the Spring.
Communications Committee
The communications committee is responsible for all parts of the communications network of the PTO including the BBE directory, the weekly e-newsletter, the monthly update, keeping the PTO website up-to-date, decorating and maintaining the PTO bulletin board, among other communications needs as arise.
· Blue Bell Directory –This directory provides student names, class, address, phone number, parent names and e-mail (if provided). No children¹s e-mails will be listed. It is distributed to all students.
· Blue Bell News - This newsletter comes out once a semester and keeps you up-to-date on all current & upcoming school events. Teachers submit information on happenings in the classroom and upcoming events. Please check the PTO website for submission deadlines.
· Bell Monday Messenger This is a one page newsletter for events and announcements that is published every Monday Announcements should be emailed to chairperson by the prior Thursday to appear in the upcoming Monday’s update.
· Publicity The responsibilities of this include notifying the press when there is a newsworthy activity at the school. Pictures (preferably digital) can be submitted to the newspapers.
· PTO Bulletin Board keeps bulletin board up to date and current with information from the PTO
Family Fun
This committee would oversee activities such as BINGO, Science and Reading Nights, Movie Night, Family Fitness Night, etc. It would also oversee off site events such as restaurant nights, Barnes and Noble night, etc. Some of these events will still have their own chairperson, but Family Fun would assist in the coordination of these efforts.
This person will also work with the yearbook committee to coordinate pictures of these events for the yearbook.
· BINGO Night
A fun-filled evening for the whole family scheduled for an evening in March. Volunteers are needed to provide refreshments, set-up, call Bingo numbers and clean up.
Committee members:
· Reading Night
This committee is responsible for working with the teachers in planning a fun, interactive, family-oriented evening of educational reading-related activities for all grade levels. This event will take place in alternate years from the Science Night.
· Science Night
Science Night is a fun, hands-on event with the goal of helping kids get excited about science and showing them that science is fun! Held once every two years (alternating years with Reading Night), kids of all ages can participate in up to 15 experiments and activities in all areas of science--including chemistry, physics, biology and more.
· Family Fitness Night (new this year)
· Movie Night (new this year)
Fifth-Grade Committee:
All 5th grade parents are invited & strongly encouraged to participate in this committee. The committee will plan a special end-of-year activity for the entire 5th grade, plan a 5th grade party at the Middle School, select a class gift to Blue Bell School and coordinate fund-raising activities for these activities. Fundraising includes Kid Stuff Books, Joe Corbi’s, Holiday Café, Back to School Picnic, etc.
Fundraising Committee
Coordinate restaurant and store fundraising opportunities, oversee product fundraisers
· Wrapping Paper Sale
This is our major fundraiser, generating most of the funds that support PTO activities. It occurs within two weeks of the start of school. Children will bring home sales brochures and order forms (There is no door-to-door selling.).Volunteers are needed to count orders, unload and sort orders when they come in and distribute them to the classrooms in early November.
· Redemption
Volunteers are needed grow the redemptions and recycling programs at the school. Currently we collect Box Tops for Education, Campbell’s Labels for Education and printer cartridge recycling to earn money for the school. We are looking for other redemption opportunities. We all collect some items which don’t earn us money but do promote recycling of items that are otherwise thrown in the trash. The committee also encourages participation in Target, Schoolpop, Genuardi¹s and other redemption programs we participate in. The funds from these programs help support PTO activities.
· Pretzel Sales
This committee runs the monthly pretzel sales. The sales will be announced in advance to the students. Two-to-three parents are needed to sell pretzels on the designated Pretzel Sale Fridays.
Garden Committee
Green Garden Committee - Calling all gardeners to help grow Blue Bell Elementary's Green Garden which kicked off in Spring 2010. Come share ideas about planning and planting herbs, flowers and vegetables, and work with the teachers and staff to help students learn from nature. Volunteers will meet approximately once a month to plan next year’s garden and discuss ideas for fundraising, grants etc. During spring time, committee members will help students plant flowers, vegetables, herbs etc to get the garden growing. When school is out, we will have a schedule for volunteers and community members and their families to weed, feed and harvest the produce from the garden. Contact local nurseries to donate plants (Rhoads Garden, Blue Tree, etc). This committee also helps keep the front gardens presentable and provides seasonal decorations at the school entrance.
GeoBee Committee:
The National Geographic Bee is designed to encourage teachers to include geography in their classrooms, spark student interest in the subject, and increase public awareness about geography.Schools with students in grades four through eight are eligible for this entertaining and challenging test of geographic knowledge. BBE is organizing a Geography Bee Club. Parent-run classes will take place during lunch for 4-5th graders who are interested. These classes will occur September through January. Students in this BBE Geography Bee Club will take part in a competitive test in January with one winner qualifying to move on to take the state test. Parents who have knowledge and interest in geography are encouraged to volunteer to participate as a teacher during the lunchtime classes. Grant Writing Committee: This new committee will research and apply for grants to enrich Blue Bell Elementary.
Holiday Shop
Children shop by themselves for holiday gifts for their family and friends. Many volunteers are needed for this event scheduled November 21. Volunteers set up display tables and run the shop as cashiers, wrappers and sales help for the children, as well as clean up.
Hospitality
This committee provides or coordinates refreshments for various PTO activities including a back-to-school teachers’ lunch, Kindergarten refreshments for orientation, refreshments at PTO meetings, Breakfast with Buddies, Welcome Tea for new families once a semester, Veteran’s Day Celebration and other events that may occur throughout the year. This committee would also be responsible for pairing new families with a buddy family to help acclimate them to the school. Buddy families would need to contact new families once a month to invite them to school events, answer questions, etc.
Junior Great Books
Second through Fifth graders participate in Junior Great Books. They read stories from selected texts and gather at weekly to discuss the stories with their peers. Volunteers are needed to run the book discussions. Instructor handbooks are available. The program usually runs from mid-Fall through early winter. Training is provided.
Lunch/Recess Aides
Lunch/Recess Aides help supervise children during their lunch and recess. Help is needed from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. You choose the day or days that you are available to assist - once a week, once a month, or whatever works with your schedule.
Manners Luncheon
This committee works with Mrs. Raivetz to plan and host three luncheons for each grade level during the year. Volunteers are needed to help plan, set up, serve, and clean-up for the luncheons.
Playground Committee
This committee is responsible for assessment of current equipment, as well as the design and the raising of funds for new playground equipment. The committee would contact several vendors to help with the footprint, design, and installation of new equipment. The committee would also be responsible for incorporating goal achievement charts in the school to engage student awareness of the project.
Room Parents
Room Parents at Blue Bell Elementary play an invaluable role in the overall volunteer process at our school. Room parents are communicators, transmitting information about school-wide events from the PTO and the administration to the parents in each class. Room parents are helpers, assisting the teachers as called-upon, to coordinate events within each class. As would be expected, your role is dynamic and always evolving. Room parents are also responsible for providing pictures (taken by any parents or teachers) to the publicity committee and yearbook committee and to coordinate the yearbook class collage page.
School Board Liaisons
School Board Liaisons attend the School Board meetings on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the Month at 7:30 p.m. at Lower Gwynedd Elementary School. The liaisons job is to report at the Blue Bell PTO meeting on issues relevant to our population. We would like several people to share this responsibility and take turns attending the meetings. It is a great way to develop an understanding of the direction of our school district.
School Store
The school store is open every Thursday and Friday morning from 8:20 - 8:35 a.m. and special times as announced. Volunteers are needed to open, run and close the store. You can choose your schedule and work as little or as much as you’d like.
Staff Appreciation Luncheon
Each year we take time to thank our teachers and staff for the wonderful job they have done during the year with our children. We ask volunteers to make and serve lunch. It will occur towards the end of April.
Year Book
Work with the yearbook publishing company with assistance from the teachers to create the 2010-2011 Blue Bell Year Book. Volunteers are needed throughout the year, mostly in the fall and winter, to take photos and help with layout, editing, sales and distribution.
Volunteer Coordinator for Teacher Run Programs
This committee will organize and coordinate volunteers for teacher run programs that are held throughout the year. These programs include but are not limited to: District Art Show, Gym Night, Field Day, Class Pictures, Publishing Center, Apple Crunch Day, Go Greens Week, Music (before school rehearsals, concert supervision), Reading Olympics, etc., Student council. This person will also work with the yearbook committee to coordinate pictures of these events for the yearbook.
· District Art Show
This committee works with our art teacher to prepare artwork for display at the Wissahickon School District-wide Art Show in May. Many volunteers are needed to label our children¹s artwork and to help hang it up for display at the high school. Parents are also needed to work as monitors at the show & to help take down art work after the show ends. It is a wonderful way to see the great art projects our children do.
· Field Day
· Publishing Center
The center transforms many of the children¹s creative writing papers into books, laminates classroom projects and helps with the school directory and yearbook. Training will be provided. It is a great way to learn what the children are doing.
· Music
This committee works with the music teacher to help coordinate special musical events. Volunteers are needed for assistance with drum line, school concerts and other musical activities
· Reading Olympics
Teams of 4th and 5th grade students read 40 books from a list provided by the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit. The goal is for each team to cover all of the books in preparation for the April 2008 Reading Olympics to be held at Norristown High School. Teams meet once a week with a parent/teacher coach during the winter. Volunteers are needed to coach teams, ask questions, read select books from the list and prepare questions, keep score on the day of the competition and provide refreshments prior to the competition.
· Gym Night
Gym night is a fun-filled night where the children and their families rotate through stations of favorite gym games. The contact person is responsible for helping the gym teacher coordinate volunteers for this night.